ENHANCING NITROGEN USE EFFICIENCY BY COMBINATIONS OF NITROGEN APPLICATION AMOUNT AND TIME IN WHEAT

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) is one of the most important impact factors on development and growth of wheat. In this study the effects of nitrogen use efficiency on quantity and quality of grains were studied by agronomic management of N fertilizers on spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grown under field conditions for two years. The experiments were performed at 16 combinations of N application amount and time, including four levels of N at 0, 60, 120 and 180 kg N ha⁻¹ that were used as pre-plant fertilizers, sub-treated with four levels of the same N amount used as top-dress fertilizers. As a result, with an increase in total N fertilizers, grain yield increased in a cubic equitation, but partial factor productivity (PFP_N, kg grain yield per kg N applied) decreased exponentially. With total fertilizers, N content and accumulation in vegetative tissues and grains increased linearly, but N uptake efficiency (UtE_N, kg nutrient taken up per kg N applied) decreased exponentially. When N was over-applied (>360 kg N ha⁻¹ in this study), grain yield clearly declined, due to decrease in productivity from per unit N. The high N level (240∼300 kg N ha⁻¹), the reasonable distribution between pre-plant and top dress from the same amount N fertilizer not only increased grain yield but also enhanced N use efficiency.

Keywords:

• nitrogen fertilizer, nitrogen use efficiency
• nitrogen uptake and utilization
• wheat nutrition
• pre-plant and top-dress fertilizers

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by the Agricultural Special Research project of Ministry of Agriculture of China (200803037).