Ash and Mineral Cation Content of Vegetables

Data on the ash and mineral cation content of 46 samples of snapbeans and 67 samples of tomatoes are shown, state by state, in Table 2. Summary values for all five vegetables are given in Table 3. After consideration of the state-average and summary values, in conjunction with the individual values for the 204 samples of all five vegetables, of which only the extremes are shown at the bottom of the table, the following conclusions were drawn:

  1. Ash, Ca, and cation-equivalent values tend to increase from south to north and from east to west.
  2. K values tend to increase from east to west.
  3. Mg values tend to increase from north to south and from east to west.
  4. Na values tend to decrease from east to west.7

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  1. Rutgers
  2. Executive Dean of Agriculture and Natural Resources
  3. School of Environmental and Biological Sciences