Zinc Nutrition of Rice Plants as Influenced by Seed Germinated in Zinc Solutions

In recent years a physiological disorder of rice (Oryza sativa L.) seedlings growing in soils high in exchangeable calcium has been diagnosed as zinc deficiency. Calculations show that less than 30 g of zinc is needed to satisfy the nutrition of a hectare of 6-8-wk-old rice plants. Rice seed was soaked and germinated in dilute solutions of zinc ethylenediamine tetraacetate, zinc sulfate and zinc lignosulfonate prior to planting in greenhouse pots containing a zinc-deficient soil. The rice plants grown from the zinc-treated seed produced more growth and sorbed more zinc than rice plants grown from untreated seed