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Keywords

maize, nitrogen uptake, post-flowering, fertilizer recovery efficiency, corn

Abstract

In corn (Zea mays L.), breeding and selection for grain yield over time has been accom­panied by a simultaneous increase in plant nitrogen (N) uptake. The understanding of plant N dynamics has attracted attention due to the environmental concerns related to N losses coming from fertilization. This research study was implemented to 1) describe N uptake and allocation dynamics, and 2) quantify fertilizer recovery efficiency across late-N strategies. Two field experiments (one under irrigation and one rainfed) were conducted at the Ashland Bottoms Research Farm, KS, during 2017. Three hybrids with different year of release and three N scenarios were tested. Isotope 15N was utilized as tracer to determine 15N recovery and N fate within plant organs when both timings of late-N were evaluated. As 15N fertilizer was applied later in the season, lower recovery of the fertilizer was achieved and proportionally more N was allocated to the developing grains. These findings can motivate future investigations using 15N labelling technique to evaluate fertilizer recovery efficiency in corn.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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