Skip to main content
Log in

The tolerance of a grass forage, grown in pots, to urea applied to calcareous soils under very hot, dry conditions

  • Published:
Fertilizer research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Proso grass was grown in pots in calcareous soils that received different levels of urea applied at seeding under very hot, dry conditions. Urea applications greater than 83 mg N kg/1 in one experiment and 130 mg N kg/1 in another caused severe toxicity to the grass seedlings. The toxicity corresponded to the period of active urea hydrolsis, 3–5 days from germination. At this time detectable NH4 in a low-and a high carbonate soil was equally far below that applied. A level of 40 mg NH4-N per kg soil appeared critical to seedling toxicity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Bremner JM (1965) In methods of Soil Analysis, part 2, Black CA, ed. Inorganic forms of nitrogen, pp: 1179–1237. Madison, Wisc American Society of Agronomy

    Google Scholar 

  2. Cook IJ (1962) Damage to plant roots caused by urea and anhydrous ammonia. Nature (Lond.) 194, 1262–63

    Google Scholar 

  3. Court MN, Stephen RC and Waid JS (1964) Toxicity as a cause of inefficiency of urea as a fertilizer. I Review J Soil Sci 15, 42–48

    Google Scholar 

  4. Cox WJ and Reisenauer HM (1973) Growth and ion uptake by wheat supplied nitrogen as nitrate, or ammonium, or both. Plant and Soil 38, 363–380

    Google Scholar 

  5. Frantz TA, Peterson DM and Durbin RD (1980) Ammonium accumulation in oat leaves incubated with methionine sulfoxinine or toxin from Pseudomonas coronafaciens. Agron. Abst. 72nd annual Meeting, Amer Soc Agron Publ: Madison, Wisc, USA

    Google Scholar 

  6. Goyal SS, Huffaker RC and Lorenz OA (1982) Inhibitory effects of ammonical nitrogen on growth of radish plants II. Investigation on the possible causes of ammonium toxicity to radish plants and its removal by nitrate. J Amer Soc Hort Sci 107, 130–135

    Google Scholar 

  7. Jorwekar AD, Shindae PB and Khanvikar G (1975) Effect of biuret content of urea on wheat. Indian J Agric Chem 8, 99–104

    Google Scholar 

  8. McElhannon WS and Mills HA (1977) The influence of nitrogen concentration and nitrate ammonia ratio on the growth of lima and snap bean and southern field pea seedlings. Commun Soil Sci Plant Anal 8, 677–687

    Google Scholar 

  9. McIntyre GJ and Hunter JH (1975) Some effects of the nitrogen supply on growth and development of Cirsium arvense. Can J Bot 53, 3012–21

    Google Scholar 

  10. Pierpont RA and Minotti PL (1977) Effect of Calcium Carbonate on ammonium assimilation by tomato. J Amer Soc Hort Sci 102, 20–23

    Google Scholar 

  11. Weil RR, Kroontje W and Jones GD (1979) Inorganic nitrogen and soluble salts in a Davidson clay loam used for poultry manure disposal, J Envir Qual 8, 86–91

    Google Scholar 

  12. Woltz SS and Jones JP (1973) Response of Manapal tomato seedlings to variations in inorganic nutrition. Proc 85th Ann Meeting Florida Sta Hort Soc Miami Beach, USA, 175–177

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ayed, I., Mashhady, A. The tolerance of a grass forage, grown in pots, to urea applied to calcareous soils under very hot, dry conditions. Fertilizer Research 5, 175–180 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01052714

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01052714

Key words

Navigation