Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T06:17:10.089Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Effect of green manures on yield and nitrogen requirement of sugar beet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

P. J. Last
Affiliation:
Broom's Barn Experimental Station, Higham, Bury St Edmunds
A. P. Draycott
Affiliation:
Broom's Barn Experimental Station, Higham, Bury St Edmunds
D. J. Webb
Affiliation:
Broom's Barn Experimental Station, Higham, Bury St Edmunds

Summary

Four field experiments in 1972–6 investigated the effect of undersowing trefoil or ryegrass in barley, and of fodder radish sown after barley, on yield and nitrogen requirement of following sugar beet. Autumn applications of isobutylidene diurea or glycoluril (slow-release nitrogen fertilizers) were also included for comparison with green manures. The plots were split in the following spring and dressings of 0, 50, 100 and 150 kg N/ha as ‘Nitro-Chalk’ tested on the sugar-beet crop.

The undersown green manure crops slightly decreased the yield of barley but, at the time of ploughing, returned up to 3·7 t dry matter/ha and 50 kg N/ha. In the absence of spring-applied nitrogen fertilizer for the sugar beet, green manures increased root and sugar yield, but when more than 50 kg N/ha was applied for the sugar beet they had no effect on yield. Autumn applications of nitrogen fertilizers such as isobutylidene diurea decreased the requirement for nitrogen in spring, but yields were no greater than from spring-applied nitrogen alone. Top and subsoils sampled in late winter and early summer from plots where green manures had been grown showed no detectable increase in soil organic carbon or total nitrogen, but soil mineral-nitrogen concentrations were increased slightly by green manures as was the potentially available mineralnitrogen released in an incubation test. It is concluded that, on loamy soils, green manures decrease the nitrogen requirement of sugar beet but give no benefits in yield which cannot be obtained from nitrogen fertilizer in spring before sowing the crop. assistance and Miss G. Smith for statistical analyses.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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

REFERENCES

Bremner, J. M. (1960). Determination of nitrogen in soil by the Kjeldahl method. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 55, 133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bremner, J. M. (1965). Methods of soil analysis. 2. Chemical and microbiological properties (ed. Black, C. A. et al. Agronomic Monograph of the American Society of Agronomy 9, 11791237.Google Scholar
Bremner, J. M. & Waring, S. A. (1964). Ammonium production in soil under waterlogged conditions as an index of nitrogen availability. Nature 201, 951952.Google Scholar
Chater, M. & Gasser, J. K. R. (1970). Effeots of green manuring, FYM and straw on the organic matter of soil and green manuring on available nitrogen. Journal of Soil Science 21, 127137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Draycott, A. P. & Last, P. J. (1970). Effect of previous cropping and manuring on the nitrogen fertilizer needed by sugar beet. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 74, 147152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyke, G. V. (1965). Green manuring for sugar beet. British Sugar Beet Review 34, 9498.Google Scholar
Dyke, G. V., Patterson, H. D. & Barnes, T. W. (1976). The Woburn long-term experiments on green manuring, 1936–67. Results with barley. Rothamsted Report for1976, Part 2, pp. 119151.Google Scholar
Gasser, J. K. (1961). Effects of air-drying and air-dry storage on the mineralisable-nitrogen of soils. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 12, 778784.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jorritsma, J. (1961). The fertilising of sugar beet. II. Nitrogen fertilizer. Mededeelingen van het Instituul voor rationelle suikerproductie 106120, 414–421.Google Scholar
Jurgens-Gschwind, S. & Jung, J. (1979). Results of lysimeter trials at the Limburgerhof Facility, 1927–1977; the most important findings from 50 years of experiments. Soil Science 127, 146160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Last, P. J. & Draycott, A. P. (1971). Predicting the amount of nitrogen fertilizer needed for sugar beetby soil analysis. Journal of the Sence of Food and Agriculture 22, 215220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miczynski, J. & Siwicki, S. (1959). Investigations on the influence of green manures on sugar beets. Biuletyn Instytutu Hodowl i Aklimatyzacji Roślin 3960.Google Scholar
Mubarak, A., Howald, R. & Woodriff, R. (1977). Elimination of chloride interferences with mercuricions in the determination of nitrate by phenol disulphonic acid. Analytical Chemistry 49, 857860.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rauhe, K. & Hesse, M. (1959). The role of organic manuring in increasing the yield of row crops, including maize. Deutsche Landwirt 10, 284288.Google Scholar
Tinsley, J. (1950). The determination of organic carbon in soils by dichromate mixtures. Transactions of the 4th International Congress of Soil Science 1, 161164.Google Scholar