Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T02:24:17.920Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The effect of rate, form and timing of fertilizer N on nitrogen uptake and grain N content in spring malting barley

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

I. P. McTaggart  and
K. A. Smith
I. P. McTaggart
Affiliation:
Soils Department, SAC, School of Agriculture, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, Scotland, UK
K. A. Smith
Affiliation:
Soils Department, SAC, School of Agriculture, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, Scotland, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Field experiments were carried out on six sites in eastern Scotland between 1987 and 1989 to determine the effect of nitrogen on the yield, N uptake and grain N concentration of spring barley grown for malting. The effects of fertilizer applications at rates from 0 to 150 kg N ha-1 and the timing of application were studied, using three fertilizer forms: calcium nitrate, ammonium sulphate and ammonium nitrate. Calcium nitrate applications significantly increased grain N concentrations (P < 0·05), and grain yields (P < 0·01 and 0·05) at two sites, above the values obtained with the other fertilizers, but there was no effect at the other sites. Split applications of calcium nitrate increased yields above those from single applications in some treatments at two sites. At low rates, recovery of 15N-labelled fertilizer was greatest when applied as calcium nitrate. Recovery fell at higher rates in calcium nitrate treatments, but rose in ammonium sulphate treatments. Uptake of fertilizer N, during the period of stem elongation in June, was significantly greater (P < 0·05) in the calcium nitrate and ammonium nitrate treatments. Maximum uptake was usually reached by the time of anthesis. Uptake of soil N was not as great during the early sampling periods, but continued up to harvest in most treatments. There was evidence of losses, between anthesis and harvest, of fertilizer N previously taken up by the crop. The uptake of soil N remained constant over the range of fertilizer treatments except with ammonium sulphate, where there was evidence of increased uptake at higher fertilizer rates, possibly due to ‘pool substitution’ of 15N-labelled fertilizer. The variation in soil N uptake between sites was greater than the variation in fertilizer N uptake caused by different forms of fertilizer and different application times.

Type
Crops and Soils
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 125 , Issue 3 , December 1995 , pp. 341 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allison, L. E. (1965). Organic carbon. In Methods of Soil Analysis, Part 2 (Eds Black, C. A., Evans, D. D., White, J. L., Ensminger, L. E. & Clark, F. E.), pp. 1372–1376. Madison, Wisconsin: American Society of Agronomy.Google Scholar
Aulakh, M. S..& Rennie, D. A. (1984). Transformations of fall-applied nitrogen-15-labelled fertilizers. Soil Science Society of America Journal 48, 1184–1189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batey, T. & Reynish, D. J. (1976). The influence of nitrogen fertiliser on grain quality in winter wheat. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 27, 983–990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergström, L. (1986). Distribution and temporal changes of mineral nitrogen in soils supporting annual and perennial crops. Swedish Journal of Agricultural Research 16, 105–112.Google Scholar
Broadbent, F. E. & Nakashima, T. (1971). Effect of added salts on nitrogen mineralization in three California soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal 35, 457–460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conry, M. J. (1986). The effect of seed rate and the amount and timing of nitrogen in spring on the yield, size and nitrogen content of winter barley grain. Irish Journal of Agricultural Research 25, 71–79.Google Scholar
Cooper, H. D., Clarkson, D. T., Johnston, M. G., Whiteway, J. N. & Loughman, B. C. (1986). Cycling of amino-nitrogen between shoots and roots in wheat seedlings. Plant and Soil 91, 319–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crooke, W. M. & Simpson, W. E. (1971). Determination of ammonium in Kjeldahl digests of crops by an automated procedure. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 22, 9–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easson, D. L. (1984). The timing of nitrogen application for spring barley. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 102, 673–678.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
East Of Scotland College Of Agriculture (ESCA) (1985). Fertilizer recommendations. Publication No. 160.Google Scholar
Entwistle, G. & Crabtree, B. (1988). Malting barley supplies for the Scottish malt industry – background and prospects. SAC Economics Report 0953–4148 No. 5, SAC, Aberdeen.Google Scholar
Follett, R. F., Porter, L. K. & Halvorson, A. D. (1991). Border effects on nitrogen-15 fertilized winter wheat microplots grown in the Great Plains. Agronomy Journal 83, 608–612.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallagher, E. J., Doyle, A. & Dilworth, D. (1987). Effect of management practices on aspects of cereal yield and quality. Aspects of Applied Biology 15, Cereal Quality, 151–170.Google Scholar
Garstang, J. R. & Vaughan, J. (1992). Nitrogen and malting barley quality. Aspects of Applied Biology 30, Nitrate and Farming Systems, 403–408.Google Scholar
Gee, G. W. & Bauder, J. W. (1986). Particle-size analysis. In Methods of Soil Analysis, Part I (Ed. Klute, A.), pp. 383–411. Madison, Wisconsin: American Society of Agronomy.Google Scholar
Greenwood, D. J. & Draycott, A. (1988). Recovery of fertilizer-nitrogen by diverse vegetable crops: processes and models. In Nitrogen Efficiency in Agricultural Soils (Eds Jenkinson, D. S. & Smith, K. A.), pp. 46–61. London: Elsevier Applied Science.Google Scholar
Harper, L. A., Sharpe, R. R., Landgale, G. W. & Giddens, J. E. (1987). Nitrogen cycling in a wheat crop: soil, plant and aerial nitrogen transport. Agronomy Journal 79, 965–973.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, P. B. S., Rayner, J. H. & Jenkinson, D. S. (1986). Influence of pool substitution on the interpretation of fertilizer experiments with 15N. Journal of Soil Science 37, 389–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henriksen, A. & Selmer-Olsen, A. R. (1970). Automatic methods for determining nitrate and nitrite in water and soil extracts. Analyst 95, 514–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, J. C. (1976). Effects of tillage, direct drilling and nitrogen in a long term barley monoculture system. Edinburgh School of Agriculture, Annual Report 1976, 104–112.Google Scholar
Janzen, H. H. (1990). Deposition of nitrogen into the rhizosphere by wheat roots. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 22, 1155–1160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkinson, D. S., Fox, R. H. & Rayner, J. H. (1985). Interactions between fertilizer nitrogen and soil nitrogen – the so-called ‘priming’ effect. Journal of Soil Science 36, 425–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kowalenko, C. G. & Cameron, D. R. (1978). Nitrogen transformations in soil–plant systems in three years of field experiments using tracer and non-tracer methods on an ammonium-fixing soil. Canadian Journal of Soil Science 58, 195–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lord, E. I. & Vaughan, J. (1987). Optimising nitrogen applications for the production of malting barley. Aspects of Applied Biology 15, Cereal Quality, 319–335.Google Scholar
McLean, E. O. (1982). Soil pH and lime requirement. In Methods of Soil Analysis. Part 2 (Eds Page, A. L., Miller, R. H. & Keeney, D. R.), pp. 199–224. Madison, Wisconsin: American Society of Agronomy.Google Scholar
McTaggart, I. P. & Smith, K. A. (1993). Estimation of potentially mineralisable nitrogen in soil by KC1 extraction. II. Comparison with soil N uptake in the field. Plant and Soil 157, 175–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, N. E., Schjørring, J. K. & Jensen, H. E.(1988). Efficiency of fertilizer nitrogen uptake by spring barley. In Nitrogen Efficiency in Agricultural Soils (Eds Jenkinson, D. S. & Smith, K. A.), pp. 62–72. London: Elsevier Applied Science.Google Scholar
Pidgeon, J. D. (1980). A comparison of the suitability of two soils for direct drilling of spring barley. Journal of Soil Science 31, 581–594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Recous, S., Fresneau, C., Faurie, G. & Mary, B. (1988 a). The fate of 15N urea and ammonium nitrate applied to a winter wheat crop. I. Nitrogen transformations in the soil. Plant and Soil 112, 205–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Recous, S., Machet, J. M. & Mary, B. (1988 b). The fate of 15N urea and ammonium nitrate applied to a winter wheat crop. II. Plant uptake and N efficiency. Plant and Soil 112, 215–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rees, R. M., McTaggart, I. P., Smith, K. A. & Stockdale, E. A. (1994). Methodology for the study of nitrogen mineralization in the field. European Journal of Agronomy 3, 301–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, D. & Smith, K. A. (1991). Analysis of nitrogen isotope ratios by mass spectrometry. In Soil Analysis (Ed. Smith, K. A.), pp. 465–503. New York: Marcel Dekker.Google Scholar
Sanchez, C. A., Blackmer, A. M., Horton, R. & Timmons, D. R. (1987). Assessment of errors associated with plot size and lateral movement of nitrogen-15 when studying fertilizer recovery under field conditions. Soil Science 144, 344–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schjorring, J. K., Nielsen, N. E., Jensen, H. E. & Gottschau, A. (1989). Nitrogen losses from field-grown spring barley plants as affected by rate of nitrogen application. Plant and Soil 116, 167–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sorensen, L. H. (1982). Mineralisation of organically bound nitrogen in soil as influenced by plant growth and fertilization. Plant and Soil 65, 51–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, K. A., Elmes, A. E., Howard, R. S. & Franklin, M. F. (1984). The uptake of soil and fertilizer-nitrogen by barley growing under Scottish climatic conditions. Plant and Soil 76, 49–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steele, K. W., Saunders, W. M. H. & Wilson, A. T. (1980). Transformation of ammonium and nitrate fertilisers in two soils of low and high nitrification activity. New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research 23, 305–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vinten, A. J. A., Howard, R. S. & Redman, M. H. (1991). Measurement of nitrate leaching losses from arable plots under different nitrogen input regimes. Soil Use and Management 7, 3–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westerman, R. L. & Kurtz, L. T. (1974). Isotopic and nonisotopic estimations of fertilizer nitrogen uptake by sudangrass in field experiments. Soil Science Society of America Proceedings 38, 107–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheatley, R., Ritz, K. & Griffiths, B. (1990). Microbial biomass and mineral N transformations in soil planted with barley, ryegrass, pea or turnip. Plant and Soil 127, 157–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Widdowson, F. V., Penny, A. & Williams, R. J. B. (1964). Side-placing urea and other nitrogen fertilizers for spring barley. Journal of Agricultural Science 62, 73–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar