Yield formation of five crop species under water shortage and differential potassium supply

A long-term field experiment on a Haplic Phaeozem, established 1949 with four levels of potassium (K) supply (5, 69, 133, and 261 kg K ha(-1)), was analyzed for the interaction between K supply and yield loss of five crop species by water shortage. The crop species were cultivated simultaneously side-by-side in the following rotation: potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), silage maize (Zea mays L.), spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), beet (Beta vulgaris L.), and spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). The treatment with 133 kg K ha(-1) supply had a nearly balanced K budget. In the treatments with lower supply, the soil delivered K from its mineral constituents. On the low-K plots (especially on those with only 5 kg K ha(-1)), crops suffered yield depressions of nearly all main harvest products (cereal grains, potato tubers, beet storage roots, silage maize) and byproducts (straw, beet leaves) by up to 40.7% of dry matter. Only wheat grains were an exception. Potassium concentrations in the harvested plant parts decreased nearly in parallel to the reduction of their dry matter yields, with the exception of cereal grains, which kept stable concentrations even in the treatment with only 5 kg K ha(-1). A comparison of four year-pairs with differing levels of precipitation in yield-relevant periods showed an average water shortage-induced depression of dry matter yields by 19.7% in the main harvest products. The severity of this yield depression was not mitigated by elevated K supply, with the exception of beet leaves, where the dry matter production was stabilized by high K supply. In this crop, the reduction of storage-root yield was associated with a decrease in harvest index and was therefore obviously caused by an inhibition of assimilate translocation from the leaves into these organs, in contrast to cereals, where water shortage primarily affected dry matter production in vegetative organs. It is concluded that the physiological causes of yield reduction by drought stress and the possibility of its amelioration by K supply differ between plant species and organs.