An analytical test was done for the teak leaves of a younger plantation in Sri Lanka. The trees show some symptoms similar to Canker. I want to know if there is any relationship between these symptoms (or Canker) of trees with nutrient deficiencies in the soil. I attached the relevant data for your reference.
Can you provide some pictures of the affected plants? What sort of symptoms are you seeing that suggest deficiency? NB, the soil is not "deficient" in itself, but has insufficient nutrient X to enable adequate growth of plants. On the other hand, your trees are deficient in nutrient X, if supplementing the soil with X permits their return to healthy growth. Another species may grow perfectly well on the same soil and not suffer the deficiency your trees do as it has other requirements that are not being met.
I can't tell if the "Local" & "Tissue cultured" rows in the table indicates the affected vs unaffected, or similar features on different source plants.
Either way, I couldn't find any direct comparisons with Teak in my copy of Plant Analysis Handbook 3rd edn (Bryson et al 2014), but the N,P,K,Ca and Mg all looked to have similar adequate concentrations in other hardwood species (Quercus, Magnolia etc).
Your trace elements are another matter: Cu seems way out. Most species have up to 20 ppm Cu when adequately supplied. 60-100ppm is either toxicity or contamination in the analytical process. Similarly with Fe, while it can get as high as you have (~200 ppm), most species are listed as adequate at up to 100ppm. Much more than that and I would start to suspect soil and dust contamination. (I am happy to be wrong on that, but experience suggests dust on leaves is extremely contaminating).
Dear Dr Wheal, Thank you for your response. You provided vital information. I attached some pictures of the symptoms for further clarification.
What are the elements, which affect tree bark development?
What is the involvement of Boron on plant growth? Is there any relationship between insufficient supply of Boron and Symptoms of Canker?
I'm not well versed in tree diseases, so you may need to do some literature research on this topic.
Perhaps you could investigate if any relationship between elements and "canker-like" symptoms exist in your trees by analysing the bark of healthy and affected bark on symptomatic trees, and comparing those data to results from non-symptomatic trees from the same plantation.
You may need to take some precautions to avoid soil/dust contamination by peeling off the outer layers of bark etc, but that should be easy with a sharp chisel or knife. Just be sure to have similar tissues for each comparison, as phloem-rich bark will probably appear quite different to xylem-rich bark.
From the photos you provided, the scale of your plantation probably covers a range of soil conditions that would be variable even in healthy plants. I would recommend analysing as many replicates as you can, so you can get an idea of the statistical variance. Then any future studies can use your data to estimate how many replicates are needed.
Best of luck.
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