Response of Wheat to Residual Fertilizer Nitrogen Applied to Previously Failed Corn

Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports, Feb 2015

When drought conditions result in poor corn growth and yield, the potential exists for carryover of fertilizer nitrogen (N) to wheat. Soil sampling at the wheat jointing stage showed that NO3-N levels increased slightly as previous N rate increased up to 240 lb/a N, but did not appear sufficient for the wheat yield increase to previous N rate. The relationship between wheat normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) measurements at jointing and wheat yield was linear. The use of crop active sensors such as the GreenSeeker (Trimble Navigation Ltd., Sunnyvale, CA) may provide plant response data to supplement soil sampling to more adequately determine residual effects on a following wheat crop.

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Response of Wheat to Residual Fertilizer Nitrogen Applied to Previously Failed Corn

Response of W heat to Residual Fertilizer Nitrogen Applied to Previously Failed Corn D. W. Sweeney 0 1 D. Ruiz Diaz 0 1 0 Part of the Agricultural Science Commons , Agriculture Commons, and the Agronomy and Crop 1 Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service , USA Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/kaesrr Sciences Commons Recommended Citation - This report is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. Copyright January 2015 Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service. Contents of this publication may be freely reproduced for educational purposes. All other rights reserved. Brand names appearing in this publication are for product identification purposes only. No endorsement is intended, nor is criticism implied of similar products not mentioned. K-State Research and Extension is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Response of W heat to Residual Fertilizer Nitrogen Applied to Previously Failed Corn Abstract When drought conditions result in poor corn growth and yield, the potential exists for carryover of fertilizer nitrogen (N) to wheat. Soil sampling at the wheat jointing stage showed that NO3-N levels increased slightly as previous N rate increased up to 240 lb/a N, but did not appear sufficient for the wheat yield increase to previous N rate. The relationship between wheat normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) measurements at jointing and wheat yield was linear. The use of crop active sensors such as the GreenSeeker (Trimble Navigation Ltd., Sunnyvale, CA) may provide plant response data to supplement soil sampling to more adequately determine residual effects on a following wheat crop. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. This Southeast Agricultural Research Center article is available in Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports: https://newprairiepress.org/kaesrr/vol1/iss3/2 Kansas Fertilizer Research 2015 Response of Wheat to Residual Fertilizer Nitrogen Applied to Previously Failed Corn D.W. Sweeney and D. Ruiz Diaz1 Summary When drought conditions result in poor corn growth and yield, the potential exists for carryover of fertilizer nitrogen (N) to wheat. Soil sampling at the wheat jointing stage showed that NO3-N levels increased slightly as previous N rate increased up to 240 lb/a N, but did not appear sufficient for the wheat yield increase to previous N rate. The relationship between wheat normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) measurements at jointing and wheat yield was linear. The use of crop active sensors such as the GreenSeeker (Trimble Navigation Ltd., Sunnyvale, CA) may provide plant response data to supplement soil sampling to more adequately determine residual effects on a following wheat crop. Introduction In 2012, extreme hot and dry conditions reduced corn crop yields. These drought-induced, low-yielding conditions likely resulted in low N uptake by corn. As a result, the potential exists for unused fertilizer N left in the soil, but the potential carryover of unused N fertilizer is uncertain because of the dynamics of N cycling. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of residual N that had been applied to a previous, drought-failed corn on the following wheat crop. Experimental Procedures A study was started in 2012 to determine the effect of N rates and nitrification inhibitors on short-season corn grown with no tillage. The experimental design was a splitplot arrangement of a randomized complete block with four replications. Nitrogen fertilizer rates were the whole plots and nitrification inhibitors were the subplots. An untreated control was included in each replication. Because of replanting and hot, dry weather, corn yields were less than 30 bu/a with no response to nitrification inhibitors and a slight decline in yields as N rate increased (data not shown). Because many farmers rotate winter wheat after corn and the 2012 experiment would not be repeated, ‘Everest’ wheat was drilled on October 12, 2012, with no added fertilizer and no tillage. The same plots with the same experimental design were used to study the residual effect of the N treatments. Wheat was harvested on June 25, 2013. In early April when the wheat was beginning to joint (Feekes 6), soil samples were taken from 1 Kansas State University Department of Agronomy. each plot to a 12-in. depth and analyzed for NH4-N and NO3-N. At the same time, a GreenSeeker handheld crop sensor was used to take NDVI readings. Results and Discussion The use of nitrification inhibitors on the previous corn crop had no residual effect on soil inorganic N levels and wheat NDVI readings taken in early April or wheat (...truncated)


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D. W. Sweeney, D. Ruiz Diaz. Response of Wheat to Residual Fertilizer Nitrogen Applied to Previously Failed Corn, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports, 2015, Volume 1, Issue 3,