BORON DEFICIENCIES IN ALLUVIAL SOILS OF JORDAN VALLEY

Jordan Valley is the most important irrigated area for crop production in Jordan. Deficiency symptoms of micronutrient elements have been ob served. To appraise the status of hot water extractable B in the soils of the Jordan Valley, 15 profiles were sampled to represent the vario us types of soils in the valley. The majority of the profiles studied contained less than 0.5 mg kg(-1) water-soluble B, which is considered too low to supply sufficient B for normal plant growth. All the profi les studied are high in clay content and highly calcareous. These two factors may have contributed to the low water-soluble B in these soils . The heavy texture of the soils also led to the fairly uniform distri bution of B with depth in the great majority of the profiles.