Summary
Differences in N2-fixation byPhaseolus vulgaris bean cultivars were successfully evaluated in the field using15N isotope dilution technique with a non-fixing test crop of a different species (wheat). The Phaseolus cultivars could have been similarly ranked for N2-fixation capacity from either seed yield or total nitrogen yield, but the isotope method provided a direct measure of N2-fixation and made it possible to estimate the proportion of fixed to total nitrogen in the crop and in plant parts.
Amounts of nitrogen fixed varied between 24.59 kg N/ha for the 60-day cultivar Goiano precoce to 64.91 kg N/ha for the 90-day cultivar Carioca. The per cent of plant nitrogen due to fixation was 57–68% for the 90-day cultivars and 37% for Goiano precoce (60-day cultivar).
Fertilizer utilization was 17–30% of a 20 kg N/ha fertilizer application. 100 kg N/ha fertilizer application decreased N2-fixation without suppressing it totally.
Differences in yield between the highest yielding (Carioca) and the lowest (Moruna) 90-day cultivars were also due apparently to varietal differences in efficiency of conversion of nitrogen to economic matteri.e. seed, as well as to differences in capacity of genotypes for N2-fixation.
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The work described here was in part supported by IAEA Research Contract No. RC/2084
UNDP/IAEA Project BRA/78/006
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Ruschel, A.P., Vose, P.B., Matsui, E. et al. Field evaluation of N2-fixation and N-utilization by phaseolus bean varieties determined by15N isotope dilution* . Plant Soil 65, 397–407 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02375060
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02375060