Influence of Potassium and Sodium on Metabolism of Peanut Cotyledons During Germination

1. Virginia peanuts were grown in the dark in pots of quartz sand and were watered daily or every second day with either a complete nutrient solution (+K -Na), a solution in which sodium had been substituted for potassium (-K +Na), or one in which neither sodium nor potassium was present(-K -Na). 2. Cotyledons were harvested at the 6th or 7th and again at the 15th day after planting, were counted, weighed, and analyzed for reducing and total sugars, starch and dextrins, acid-hydrolyzable substances, soluble and insoluble nitrogen, and total lipids. 3. At 7 days carbohydrates were more abundant and lipids and crude protein less abundant in the -K +-Na than in the +K -Na cotyledons. At ~15 days the lipid relationship had reversed itself. Plants grown with -K -Na solution had somewhat more lipid material in their cotyledons at each stage than either of the other groups. 4. Determinations of lipolytic activity and histological study of the vascular structure of the cotyledonary petiole revealed no differences...