Abstract
Bean plants were grown in pots contaning 6 kg of loamy sandy soil. A basal dose of NPK (150-120-100 kg/ha) fertilizers was mixed with the soil before potting and was repeated when the bean plants were 30 days old. Five different fertilizers and three rates of each fertilizer were investigated in this study. Fertilizers were applied seven days after germination and all treatments were triplicated. Bean plants were harvested 20, 30, and 45 days after sowing, dried, weighed, and digested in nitric-perchloric acids. Concentrations of 18 elements were determined in the digests using an inductively coupled argon plasma spectrometer. At the end of the experiment, soil samples were also collected and extracted with DTPA. Bean dry matter yield was not significantly (p<0.05) affected by fertilizer application. Concentrations of aluminum (Al), barium (Ba), calcium (Ca), cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), strontium (Sr), nickel (Ni), titanium (Ti), vanadium (V), and zinc (Zn) were significantly (p<0.05) lower in plant samples collected from the control treatments. Fertilizer application had no significant effect on concentrations of copper (Cu), potassium (K), sodium (Na), magnesium (Mg), phosphorus (P), and lead (Pb) in bean plants. Metal concentrations decreased with an increase in plant age, probably due to dilution effect. DTPA-extractable concentrations of Co, Fe, Mn, Zn, Pb, Mo, and V were not significantly (p<0.05) correlated to their respective concentrations in bean plants.