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Annals of Botany 37: 597-604, 1973
© 1973 Annals of Botany Company

RESEARCH-ARTICLE

The Effect of Sodium on Growth of Water-stressed Sugar beet

D. W. LAWLOR and G. F. J. MILFORD

Rothamsted Experimental Station Harpenden, Herts

Received: 2 August 1972   

Sugar beet grown in solution culture, with or without a supplement of 16 millequivalents per litre of sodium, were subjected to water stress with polyethylene glycol solutions of –0.4, –3, and –8 bar osmotic potential. With the –0.4 bar solution leaf water potential was between –6 and –8 bar and leaf relative water content about 90 per cent. Decreasing the solution osmotic potential to –8 bar decreased leaf water potential to about –15 bar and relative water content to 75 per cent; leaves stopped expanding and transpiration and carbon dioxide uptake were decreased by 80 and 50 per cent respectively. Net assimilation rates were only slightly decreased because leaf growth was decreased more than carbon dioxide assimilation. Relative growth rates of the plants were decreased by 8 per cent at –3 bar and by 15 per cent at –8 bar.

Sodium absorbed by the plant accumulated mainly in the leaves and petioles; it increased the water content of the leaves and storage root and the plant fresh weight. Sodium decreased the leaf osmotic potential, slightly increased leaf water potential, and significantly increased turgor. It had no effect on carbon dioxide uptake, transpiration, net assimilation rate, or relative growth rate. Sodium increased the rate at which the leaf area grew and it is concluded that it did so by altering the leaf water balance.


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