Relation of Nitrogen Suppfy to the Molybdenum Requirement of Tomato Plants grown in Sand Culture

Abstract

AGARWALA¹ has shown that molybdenum deficiency decreased the growth and ascorbic acid content of cauliflowers grown in sand culture, irrespective of whether nitrogen was given as nitrate, or as nitrite, ammonium compounds or urea. Except with nitrite, molybdenum deficiency also induced symptoms of whiptail² which serve as criteria for the diagnosis of molybdenum deficiency. In later work³, molybdenum deficiency induced whiptail also in plants given nitrite or glutamic acid. As the whiptail condition is apparently confined to brassica crops^2,4 and might indicate a special role for molybdenum for this genus, it was desirable to investigate the relation of molybdenum requirement to nitrogen source in some other plant where symptoms of molybdenum deficiency are of a different type. Tomato was chosen as it is a sensitive and well-known indicator for molybdenum deficiency⁴.