Abstract
The application of nitrogen fertilizer on the soil surface leads to widespread and high nutrient loss, thereby requiring more fertilizer times to avoid N deficiency in crops. The aim of this study was to explore whether what we refer to herein as “one-time root-zone N management” (ORN), involving basal fertilizer without topdressing, can produce a high yield and reduce N loss compared to “conventional split N management by broadcast” (CSN) in wheat. The “critical fertilizer placement interval (the distance between two adjacent fertilizer sites in the same fertilization line)” was identified. A 4-year field study was conducted to compare ORN (with fertilizer placement intervals of 5, 10, 15 and 20 cm) and CSN for wheat. The soil available-N concentration close to the site of fertilizer placement was 29.3 mg/kg higher under ORN than CSN at anthesis. High N supply stimulated root proliferation in wheat close to the site of fertilizer placement and increased the spike number compared to CSN. The N concentrations of the grain and straw at maturity were higher with ORN than CSN for all four placement intervals. ORN increased wheat yield by 5.5–25.4%, and decreased the N loss ratio from 35 to 25% relative to CSN. The optimal fertilizer placement interval was 15 cm for ORN, and increasing or decreasing the fertilizer placement interval from 15 cm significantly reduced wheat yield. One-time root-zone N management as basal fertilizer without topdressing realized high wheat yield and reduced N loss rate with an appropriate fertilizer placement interval.
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The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the National Natural Young Scientist of China (No. 41907075). We also thank anonymous referees for their extremely helpful comments on the manuscript.
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HS: Investigation, methodology, formal analysis, data curation, writing. GY and WH: Investigation, editing. DL: Resources, investigation, validation, editing. XC: Editing, supervision. HW: Conceptualization, validation, editing, supervision.
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Song, H., Yuan, G., Huan, W. et al. Establishing optimal one-time root-zone nitrogen management for winter wheat in a loamy soil. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 125, 15–27 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-022-10249-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-022-10249-7