Commercial lupins grow poorly on alkaline and neutral fine-textured so
ils. Genotypic variation exists among lupins. The present study compar
ed the growth of 13 lupin genotypes, including introduced cultivars an
d wild types, in an alkaline loamy soil and an acid loamy soil. Plants
grown in the alkaline and acid soils did not show obvious symptoms of
iron deficiency at any stage. There was however a large variation of
shoot fresh weight among genotypes in response to the alkaline soil wi
th L. atlanticus and L. pilosus being more tolerant than L. luteus, L.
cosentinii, L. albus and L. angustifolius. Some variation also existe
d among genotypes of L. angustifolius. In addition, root growth was re
tarded on the alkaline soil except for L, atlanticus, L. pilosus P2095
5 and L. albus Kiev mutant. In the alkaline soil, root growth at week
2 correlated well with the shoot fresh weight at week 12. The results
suggest that early root elongation may be useful for screening toleran
t genotypes alkaline soils.