Manganese Status of Some Important Ohio Soil Types and Uptake of Manganese by Kentucky Bluegrass 1

R years have seen an increase in the number of elements listed as essential to plant growth’. Manganese has been added to the list and many cases of manganese deficiency symptoms have been reported. Although deficiency symptoms have been observed under Ohio conditions in only a few cases, it has not yet been demonstrated that an adequate supply of this element for maximum plant growth exists in the more important soil types of the state, or whether the amount of this element contained in crops grown on these soils is sufficient to supply the needs Of farm animals or ’of man. It was felt that a study of the manganese status of the A horizon of several of the more important soils of the state and the manganese uptake by bluegrass grown on these soils would give an insight into the question. Itwas thought that the results might serve to indicate probable situations warranting further investigations with this or other trace elements. Because an exhaustive review of the literature concerned with the importance of manganese in agriculture Would. be voluminous ~nd superfluous, only those references dealing specifically with the amount of manganese in soils and plants (especially grasses) w, ill be cited. The manganese content of the numerous soil types listed in the Atlas of American Agriculture (5)3 show a wide variation. Carlyle (i) found that Texas clays were higher in manganese content than were sands and sandy loams. McHargue, Roy, and Pelphrey (6) reported that bluegrass carried eight times more manganese than red clover. Piper (7), Jacobson and Swanback (3), Leeper (4), and Gilbert found the manganese uptake by plants to be greater on the more acid soils.