Forecasting crop nutrition needs using the Plant Root Simulator (PRS®) technology
Greer, K. J.. 2011. Western Nutrient Management Conference 09:43- 46
Abstract
Conventional soil testing is based on the premise that a chemical extraction
will reflect the soil nutrient supply to plants. The shortfalls of this approach have
been evidenced by the numerous studies conducted over the past 50 years aimed
at improving soil test methods. Radiotracer studies in the 1960's where pivotal in
shifting thinking away from nutrient concentration and toward mechanisms of
nutrient supply. Barber (1995) first coined the term soil nutrient bioavailability to
describe the flux of ions to plant roots. Forecasting crop nutrition using an ion
exchange membrane as a plant root simulator (PRS®) is squarely built on this
concept. This simple absorbing surface affords a new tool to integrate the factors
controlling ion supply allowing us to 'see what the plant sees'. Ion supply over
time from biologically active soils allow for a much more realistic picture of the
soil nutrient supply. These plant root simulators also account for ion movement
dynamics that impact the supply to the plant root. Combing this powerful
functional test of soil nutrient supply with simulation models of root growth and
plant demand has given ecosystem managers of the 21st Century a new way of
"getting to the root of crop nutrition".
