Boron-Iron Relationships in the Growth of Tomato

7. Boron-iron relationships The work of Sommer and Lipman and of Johnston and Dore indicates that boron is required for the growth of plants representing eight families. Their results suggest that boron in small quantities may be an essential element for all plants. Before such a conclusion can be fully established it will, of course, be necessary to grow all plant species under the exacting conditions required for the elimination of boron from the culture medium. In the meantime any data which indicate that boron has a specific and indispensable function in the growth of any plant should be of value in the solution of this problem. Dr. Lewis Knudson, in a personal communication, suggested to the authors the possibility that boron served to balance other elements present in water cultures and particularly to reduce the toxic action of iron, rather than to function as a specifically essential element. The experiments reported here were performed to check the work of Johnston on the necessity of boron for the tomato and to determine whether any beneficial effects were correlated with the prevention of iron toxicity