INCREASED MANGANESE CONTENT OF BARLEY-SEEDS CAN INCREASE GRAIN-YIELD IN MANGANESE-DEFICIENT CONDITIONS

Manganese (Mn) deficiency which decreases barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) yields can be difficult to eliminate by fertilizer applications. We hypothesized that higher Mn content of barley seed could decrease the severity of Mn deficiency and thus decrease yield loss due to that deficiency. Galleon barley with different amounts of Mn in the seed (low Mn seed: 0.08-0.26-mu-g per seed; medium Mn seed: 0.34-0.62-mu-g per seed: high Mn seed: 0.74-1.20-mu-g per seed) was grown in field, glasshouse and growth cabinet experiments. In two experiments, seeds were soaked in MnSO4 and had Mn contents of approximately 50-mu-g per seed. High Mn seed, either obtained artificially by soaking seed in MnSO4 before sowing, or naturally from the parent plant, increased grain yield of barley grown in Mn-deficient conditions. In both -Mn and +Mn treatments, barley grown from high Mn seed had a greater grain yield than that from low Mn seed. High seed Mn increased root dry weight, Mn content of both roots and shoots, shoot dry weight, number of early tillers, plant survival and number of grains per plant, but had no effect on weight per seed. Maximum grain yield was achieved by sowing seed with a high Mn content and applying Mn fertilizer; neither treatment completely corrected Mn deficiency on its own.