Plant Analysis Methods for Evaluating Mineral Nutrient

Abstract

Analysis of mineral nutrients in plant is required for evaluating diagnosis of plant nutritional status. Pretreatment procedure for the analysis of plant can be varied depending on elements to be analyzed. Wet-digestion is suitable for total nitrogen, phosphate and cations, however, digestion solution including nitric acid is not suitable for nitrogen analysis. Incineration procedure is required to analyze chloride, silicate and total sulfur. After digestion, total nitrogen is analyzed by Kjeldahl method, and phosphate is detected at 470nm by colorimetric analysis with ammonium meta vanadate. Cations and micro elements are determined by titration or colorimetry, also, these elements can be measured by Atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) or Inductively coupled plasma spectrometer (ICP).Plant sample preparation methods depending on elements to be analyzed.