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Tests On Radioactive
Fertilizers Begin at V.P.I.
First shipments of radioactive fertilizers to be used in research* at Virginia Experiment Station were received last week, and work will begin immediately, Dr. S. S. Obenshain, agronomist, announces.
This fertilizer will be^ applied to alfalfa plots in a study aimed at charting the course of phosphorus, and finding out when and how much of the phosphorus is actually used by the crop.
Dr. Obenshain explains that only 5 to 20 per cent of phosphorus available in the soil, or applied as commercial fertilizer, is used by any crop. Phosphorus thus is known as a fertilizer with "low availability.”
If the researchers, by the use of radioactive fertilizers, can find a way of upping the availability of phosphorus, it will mean an annual sa ing of several million dollars. Virginia farmers spend about 110,000,000 each year for phosphorus.
The radioactive fertilizer which gives off identifiable radioactive rays, can be “traced” in the plant, much as marked money can be traced.
Two more larger shipments of radioactive materials are expected in April. They come from the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies through the Bureau of Plant Industry in Washington, D. C.
Other studies with radioactive fertilizers planned at V. P. I. aim to:
find out if the ammoniation process commonly used in manufacturing mixed fertilizers decreases the availability of phosphate. The test crop here will be ■corn.
Find out how liming, and the depth of phosphate placement in the soil, affects the rsfte and speed of the downward growth of alfalfa roots.
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