Mineral composition of peanut tissue as influenced by irrigation water quality and irrigation method

Abstract

Abstract Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.), is produced in the Virginia and North Carolina coastal plain where sodic deep well water sources are more readily available than high quality shallow well sources. The objective of this work was to determine the effect of irrigation water quality and irrigation method on the mineral composition of peanut tissue. Virginia‐type peanuts were grown on a Kenansville loamy sand (loamy, siliceous, thermic Arenic Hapludult) in Suffolk, VA from 1985 to 1987. Peanuts were irrigated with either overhead sprinklers or deep buried trickle lines using sodic deep‐well (142 m) and nonsodic shallow‐well (10 m) water. Trickle lines were buried 350 to 410 mm below each row. Sodic water had 220 mg Na/L, a pH of 8.5, and a sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) of 103. Non‐sodic water had 4.8 mg Na/L, a pH of 4.8, and an SAR of 3.1. Sodic water did not affect soil levels of Ca and Mg. Soil Na and pH were both higher to a depth of 900 mm in soil irrigated with sodic water. Sodic water appeared to reduce the concentration of Mg and increase the concentration of K in plant tissue. Plants from plots irrigated with sodic water concentrated Na in the stems and roots. Only in 1987, which was the driest year of the study, did seed concentration of plants irrigated with sodic water differ significantly from non‐sodic irrigated and non‐irrigated concentrations. Trickle irrigation reduced the amount of Na in the plants and may be the best way to use sodic irrigation water for peanut production.