Field Responses of Cereals to Molybdenum

Abstract

REPORTS of field occurrences of molybdenum deficiency in small-grained cereals are rare. Fricke¹ in Tasmania showed that the ‘blue chaff’ disease of oats could be cured by applying molybdenum. Lobb² and Fitzgerald³ in New Zealand, and Mulder⁴ in The Netherlands, have reported responses with field grown oats to molybdenum. Lobb² and Mulder⁴ have also obtained field responses with wheat to molybdenum. It has been found that large areas of Australian soils are deficient in molybdenum that can be used for nitrogen fixation by Leguminosae, and for growth by Cruciferae, Compositae, Cucurbitaceae, Solanaceae and Linaceae⁵. The only field responses in the Gramineae in Australia are those reported by Fricke¹ with oats, and Noonan⁶ with maize. It has frequently been demonstrated, for example by Johnson et al.⁷, that members of Gramineae are relatively tolerant of low supplies of molybdenum and that molybdenum deficiency in cereals only occurs in extreme conditions of molybdenum deficiency.