• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.103-134
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• 1977

The physiological and biochemical role of potassium for upland crops according to recent research reports and the nutritional status of potassium in Korea were reviewed. Since physical and chemical characteristics of potassium ion are different from those of sodium, potassium can not completely be replaced by sodium and replacement must be limited to minimum possible functional area. Specific roles of potassium seem to keep fine structure of biological membranes such as thylacoid membrane of chloroplast in the most efficient form and to be allosteric effector and conformation controller of various enzymes principally in carbohydrate and protein metabolism. Potassium is essential to improve the efficiency of phoro- and oxidative- phosphorylation and involve deeply in all energy required metabolisms especially synthesis of organic matter and their translocation. Potassium has many important, physiological functions such as maintenance of osmotic pressure and optimum hydration of cell colloids, consequently uptake and translocation of water resulting in higher water use efficiency and of better subcellular environment for various physiological and biochemical activities. Potassium affects uptake and translocation of mineral nutrients and quality of products. potassium itself in products may become a quality criteria due to potassium essentiality for human beings. Potassium uptake is greatly decreased by low temperature and controlled by unknown feed back mechanism of potassium in plants. Thus the luxury absorption should be reconsidered. Total potassium content of upland soil in Korea is about 3% but the exchangeable one is about 0.3 me/100g soil. All upland crops require much potassium probably due to freezing and cold weather and also due to wet damage and drought caused by uneven rainfall pattern. In barley, potassium should be high at just before freezing and just after thawing and move into grain from heading for higher yield. Use efficiency of potassium was 27% for barley and 58% in old uplands, 46% in newly opened hilly lands for soybean. Soybean plant showed potassium deficiency symptom in various fields especially in newly opened hilly lands. Potassium criteria for normal growth appear 2% $K_2O$ and 1.0 K/(Ca+Mg) (content ratio) at flower bud initiation stage for soybean. Potassium requirement in plant was high in carrot, egg plant, chinese cabbage, red pepper, raddish and tomato. Potassium content in leaves was significantly correlated with yield in chinese cabbage. Sweet potato. greatly absorbed potassium subsequently affected potassium nutrition of the following crop. In the case of potassium deficiency, root showed the greatest difference in potassium content from that of normal indicating that deficiency damages root first. Potatoes and corn showed much higher potassium content in comparison with calcium and magnesium. Forage crops from ranges showed relatively high potassium content which was significantly and positively correlated with nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium content. Percentage of orchards (apple, pear, peach, grape, and orange) insufficient in potassium ranged from 16 to 25. The leaves and soils from the good apple and pear orchards showed higher potassium content than those from the poor ones. Critical ratio of $K_2O/(CaO+MgO)$ in mulberry leaves to escape from winter death of branch tip was 0.95. In the multiple croping system, exchangeable potassium in soils after one crop was affected by the previous crops and potassium uptake seemed to be related with soil organic matter providing soil moisture and aeration. Thus, the long term and quantitative investigation of various forms of potassium including total one are needed in relation to soil, weather and croping system. Potassium uptake and efficiency may be increased by topdressing, deep placement, slow-releasing or granular fertilizer application with the consideration of rainfall pattern. In all researches for nutritional explanation including potassium of crop yield reasonable and practicable nutritional indices will most easily be obtained through multifactor analysis.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.385-392
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• 2012

This study was conducted to find out the optimum cropping system for the stable production of forage crops in the newly reclaimed land located at Gwanghwal and Gyehwa region of Saemangum reclaimed tide land from October, 2009 to October, 2011. Whole crop barley (WCB), Rye, Italyan-ryegrass (IRG) as winter crops and Corn, Sorghum${\times}$sudangrass hybrid (SSH) as summer crops were cultivated. Soil chemical properties, nutrient uptake, feed value, growth and yield were examinated. The testing soil was showed saline alkali soil where the contents of organic matter, available phosphate and exchangeable calcium were very low, while exchangeable sodium and magnesium were higher. Changes of soil salinity during the growing season of forage crops were less than 0.2%, and the growth of forage crops was not affected by salt injury. Standing rates of winter crops were higher in the order of Rye, WCB, and IRG, while the dry matter yield of winter crops was higher in the order of IRG, Rye and WCB. The highest crude protein (CP) content was recorded in IRG, and total digestive nutrients (TDN) contents were increased in the order of WCB, IRG, and Rye. The TDN content was higher in corn, whereas other feed value was higher in SSH. The content of mineral nutrients on stem, leaf and grain in IRG, Corn were high. After experiment pH was lowed, contents of exchangeable magnesium, sodium and organic matter were decreased while contents of total nitrogen, available phosphate and exchangeable potassium, calcium were increased. Winer crops and summer crops after continually cultivating in cropping system, fresh matter yield increased, compared to WCB-Corn (74,740 kg $ha^{-1}$), IRG-SSH 10%, IRG-Corn 7%, Rye-SSH 6%, Rye-Corn and WCB-SSH 3%. Dry matter yield increased, compared to WCB-Corn (20,280 kg $ha^{-1}$), IRG-SSH 7%, Rye-SSH 6%, IRG-Corn/Rye-Corn/WCB-SSH 3%. The TDN yield increased, compared to WCB-Corn (13,830 kg $ha^{-1}$), IRG-SSH 2%, WCB-SSH and IRG-Corn 1%. Therefore, we suggest that the crop combination of IRG-SSH and WCB-SSH would be preferred for silage stable production.