Mobility of foliar‐applied boron in one‐year‐old peaches as affected by environmental factors

Abstract

One‐year‐old potted ‘Red Haven’ peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch) trees grown in the greenhouse were used to study the mobility of boron (B). Enriched‐¹⁰B‐boric acid solution was evenly spread onto the abaxial side of a leaf. After harvesting at different time intervals, selected plant parts were analyzed by ICP‐AES and ICP‐MS spectrometry. The ¹⁰B content was used as the parameter of B mobility. The results showed that among the six B concentrations (0, 150, 300, 600, 900, and 1,200 ppm) studied, the 1,200 ppm treatment had the highest ¹⁰B content in every plant tissue. There was little difference between the middle and bottom treatments in the leaf position‐treated experiment. However, if leaf area was not considered, the terminal leaf was less efficient in taking up ¹⁰B than the other two positions in the same experiment. Plastic coverage on the treated leaf helped the uptake of the treated ¹⁰B‐boric acid. High relative humidity (100% RH) treated plants had higher ¹⁰B content than the low RH‐treated (50%) plants. About 0.2 to 0.3% of the total ¹⁰B applied was absorbed by the peach trees.