Toxicity of aluminium to pinapple (<i>Ananas comosus</i>) grown on acid sands of Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

A solution culture experiment was carried out in April, 2003 at Calabar using two cultivars of pineapple suckers (Ananas Comosus) smooth Cayenne, and Queen to assess the Al toxicity to pineapple solution culture, consider the Al up-take, and attendant Al symptoms, together with shoot and roots growth. The treatment consisted of three levels of Al concentrations 0, 0, 0.35 and 0.070mmol dm-3, combined with four levels of ionic strength produced by diluting a complete nutrient solution to relative concentration of 1.0, 0.5, 0.25 and 0.12. The phosphorus (P) ion concentration of each solution was adjusted to 0.1mmol dm-1. The pH of the solution was maintained at 4.5  0.3. The results showed that shoot and root growth decreased significantly under the Al treatments. The observed lateral roots of AI stressed plant of the two varieties was significant (P