Corn agronomic traits and recovery of nitrogen from fertilizer during crop season and off-season

• Autor(a) principal: Garcia Fuentes, Luis Felipe
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Souza, Luiz Carlos Ferreira de, Serra, Ademar Pereira, Rech, Jerusa, Vitorino, Antonio Carlos Tadeu
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://seer.sct.embrapa.br/index.php/pab/article/view/25877
• topic: Zea mays; N-fertilizer management; plant nutrition; soil fertility; soil-N supply; Zea mays; manejo da adubação nitrogenada; nutrição de plantas; fertilidade do solo; suprimento de N pelo solo

The objective of this work was to evaluate corn agronomic traits in a cultivation subjected to different N rates, during the fall–winter (off-season) and spring–summer crop seasons, and N recovery from fertilizer. The experiment was set up in a randomized complete block design with four replicates, in a 5x2 factorial arrangement, with the following treatments: five N topdressing rates – 0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 kg ha-1 –, using urea as source; and two crop seasons, fall–winter and spring–summer. The following variables were determined: plant height, height of the first ear insertion, number of grains per ear, diameter and length of ear, 1,000-grain weight, N concentration in the leaves and grains, grain-protein concentration, grain yield, N recovery from fertilizer, and soil-N supply. Nitrogen rates in the fertilizer in the fall–winter season had no effect on grain yield, although corn agronomic traits showed a greater reliance on fertilizer-N rates in that season than in the spring–summer, which is a season associated to a greater capacity of soil-N supply to plants. The quantification of soil-N supply enabled knowing the nutrient dynamics during the fall–winter and the spring–summer seasons, which may be useful to guide N fertilization of corn.