Say you have 50 randomly selected flag leaf samples from each of your trial plots in a field experiment. You have their dry weights and you determined micro-nutrient and macro-nutrient content by ICP-AES. Is it possible to determine nutrient uptake efficiency, specifically that of phosphorus, from this data? If not, what type of information can we infer from this data?
If you have the dry matter yield data along with P reading your can calculate a P total at each date and then a P differential by taking the later P total to the earlier and even calculate an uptake mean per day by dividing by the day interval involved. How these ideas might be helpful.
Paul Reed Hepperly Thank you for your reply, however, what if I ONLY have the dry matter weight of 50 flag leaves (not the whole plant) for each plot and their corresponding P content, and these samples were only taken once. There are no samples available from an earlier or later date. We only know how much fertilizer was applied to each plot, the dry weight of the flag leaf samples, and the P content in the flag leaves. Can we deduce phosphorus uptake efficiency from this data? Why or why not?
I know the height of the plant at different stages can be used to infer the mass. Regardless making this calculations would be interesting. For the best results a pre planned experiment with the pre set methods and purpose would be preferred. I still would make the calculations to see if something stands out related to the values.
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