PHYSIOL. PLANT. 58: 124-130. Copenhagen 1983 Nutrition of winter wheat during the life cycle. I. accumulation of dry matter and minerals Alajos Berczi, Zoltan Olah and Laszio Erdei Berczi, A., Olah, Z. and Erdei, L. 1983. Nutrition of winter whea cycle. 1. Yield and accumulation of dry matter and minerals. - Physiol. Plant. 58 124-130. Mineral uptake by winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Martonv 8) was studied throughout the life cycle. Accumulation ol macionutrients (i.e phosphorus, potassium, sodium, magnesium and calcium) and the roots and shoots of plants grown in complete nutrient solution were h of plants grown in two types of soils. The supply of macronutrients was in som limiting for .soil-grown plants as revealed by a comparison of availa lated amounts of these nutrients. Their supply was abundant, howeve grown plants. This led to a doubling of grain yield for the latter plan fold increase in accumulation of dry matter and a five-fold increas The efficiency ratios of solution-grown plants to soil-grown plants w mately 1 for N and Na, 0.5 for Mg and Ca, and 0.3 for P and K. Additional key words — Calcium, magnesium, nitrogen, phosphorus, potas shoot, sodium, soil-grown plants, solution-grown plants, water conte A. Berczi, Z. Oh'th, and L. Erdei (reprint request.s), Institttte of Biophysics, Biologic Research Center, Hungarian Acadetny of Sciences, H-6701 Szeged, P.O. Box 52 Httngary. Introduction . .. To ensure high yields of different field crops it is essen- tial to know the optimal conditions. In field experi- ments, it is difficult, however, to control the supply of nutrients and other environmental factors. Experiments in complete nutrient solutions and under controlled conditions appear the best approach to these problems. Yet there are no published data on water culture ex- periments with winter crops during their life cycle. Changes in the transport of potassium and sulphate in spring wheat were followed by Jensen (1978) for more than 100 days. He found that ion uptake decreased during development, and that transpiration became more important for water uptake with age. The daily consumption of macronutrients was measured by Andre et al. (1978b) in a growth chamber during the life cycle of maize. They found that uptake of NOj, K+ and Ca^+ was maximal during vegetative growth. During tion, however, uptake of these ions decreas that of H2PO4 reached a maximum. These other experiments (Clement et al. 1974, Ma 1976, Andre et al. 1978a, b, Jensen 1978, Wood et al. 1978, Wild et al. 1979) have shown t crops can be grown to maturity in complete solutions. In the present experiments, the accumulati matter and macronutrionts by solution-grown grown winter wheat were followed during the l The water content of the roots and shoots, th the green leaves and the grain yield were also m The amounts of macronutrients available are co with those taken up. Factors which may lim and the utilization of macroelements are disc Received 21 September, 1982; revised 27 December, 1982 124 Physiol. Plant. .58, t983