Influence of Soil Oxygen on Growth and Mineral Concentration of Barley¹

Abstract

Synopsis Techniques for varying soil oxygen in studies involving grasses are described. Vegetative growth of barley was found to be rather insensitive to low soil oxygen. Oxygen diffusion rates of approximately 15 × 10 −8 gm. cm. −2 min. −1 is limiting for barley root growth whereas the optimum diffusion rate for shoot growth is less than 40 × 10 −8 . Low oxygen decreased the concentration of K and P in the shoot, but Na and Ca+Mg were not greatly influenced by the oxygen treatment.