Nitrogen applied at ear emergence to winter wheat or spring barley grown in pots with various levels of basal nitrogen fertilizer, increased grain and total dry weight much less than similar amounts of nitrogen applied in March or April. No nitrogen was absorbed after ear emergence from unfertilized soil, or from the early application, and at maturity equal amounts of nitrogen had been absorbed from early and late applications.

Early nitrogen increased final ear number by increasing the number at emergence and also increased grain size. Late nitrogen had negligible effect on yield of ears present when it was applied and caused the production of new shoots with small ears. Nitrogen applied at both times increased leaf area duration after ear emergence similarly; early nitrogen by increasing area at ear emergence and late nitrogen by delaying senescence of existing shoots and causing production of new shoots. The efficiency in grain production of the leaf area present after ear emergence was less with late than with early nitrogen, mainly because of the low efficiency of the shoots produced after ear emergence.

These results differed from those of field experiments in which early and late nitrogen usually increased grain yield similarly, probably because in the field there were no late unproductive tillers and all the late nitrogen was utilized in increasing grain yield of existing shoots. Another difference was that nitrogen uptake from soil in the field continued until maturity.