Screening of tropically adapted soybeans for aluminium stress tolerance in sand culture

Objective: To identify tropically adapted soybean genotypes tolerant to aluminium toxicity in sand culture. Methodology and results: The experiment was conducted at the Teaching and Research Farm of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria, in 2003 and 2004. The treatment was a factorial combination of 49 soybean genotypes and two levels of aluminium activity (zero and 4504MAl 3+ ) laid out in a randomized complete block design and replicated three times. The soybean seeds were planted in the sand and watered with deionized water for seven days. Thereafter, two levels of nutrient solutions containing 04MAl 3+ or 4504MAl 3+ aluminium activity were used to water the seedlings for the next 18 days. Plants were harvested at 25DAP and data were recorded on the root dry weight, shoot dry weight and relative root surface area. Highly significant differences were observed for Al, genotype, Al x genotype and Al x