Saturday, July 26, 2014

Tissue Sampling

Prime time for tissue sampling crops is here and will soon pass us.  Pull your samples the next two weeks using this guide.

When and How to Sample Plants
  
Table 1 and Figure 1 outline the proper stage of growth, plant part, and number of plants to

sample for major agronomic and horticultural crops. Similar information is depicted in figures

on the last page of this publication. If a crop is sampled at other times in the growing season, the

analysis will be provided but may not be interpreted on the University of Wisconsin plant

analysis report. However, when plant analysis is being used to confirm a suspected nutrient

deficiency, the samples should be taken as early int he season as possible so that the deficiency

can be corrected and minimize the potential yield loss. Plants showing abnormalities usually

continue to accumulate nutrients even if growth is impaired by some limiting factor.

Samples should not be taken from plants that obviously have been stressed from causes

other than nutrients. Do not take samples from plants that —

· Are dead or insect damaged;

· Are mechanically or chemically injured;

· Have been stressed by too much or too little moisture (i.e., flooding or drought);

· Have been stressed by abnormally high or abnormally low temperature.




Sample Normal and Abnormal Areas
  
When a nutrient deficiency is suspected (even without visual symptoms), or there is a need

to compare different areas in a field, it is recommended that similar plant parts be collected

separately from both the affected plants and adjacent normal plants that are at the same stage of

growth. In this way, a better evaluation can be made between the nutritional status of healthy

and abnormal plants of the same variety grown under the same conditions.

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