Call for Community Contributions to Update Target Ranges for Plant Tissue Analysis

Abstract

Background

Plant tissue analysis has been used for the diagnosis of both deficiencies and excess in plant nutrition. The nutrient concentrations in crops are compared with critical values (CVs in the sense of target values or ranges) reported in the literature, which were determined on the basis of extensive nutrient enrichment and survey studies. Due to changing framework conditions—such as climate change, emission reductions, and new crop varieties—regular monitoring of these values appears advisable.

Aim

This work aimed to set up an open-source datasheet as well as open-source evaluation tools to facilitate the calculation of target ranges in the future. The datasheet is meant to be expanded and kept up to date regularly by additional data from experts.

Methods

A total of 1.212 datasets were compiled on samples from field and trial sites in three growing seasons from eight arable crops. Using the programmed formula, we exemplarily compared target ranges currently used with target ranges calculated from mean nutrient concentrations of high-yielding subsets or derived from a boundary line fitted to scatter plots of nutrient concentration versus yield, using the CV as maximum.

Results

The boundary-line approach proved applicable to deduce target (critical) values from the datasets where sample numbers were sufficient.

Conclusion

On the basis of the datasets of this work, the majority of values currently used in Central Europe could be confirmed. For sulfur, we suggest lower target ranges, especially in cereals and corn. Further, we recommend reducing the target range width for magnesium, manganese, and zinc in corn and for boron in sugar beets and potatoes. Data and formulas are published open access under https://github.com/ANAPLANT-Project/ANAPLANT. Interested experts in plant tissue analysis are invited to make use of it.