Split Application of Nitrogen and the Effect on Corn Growth and Nitrogen Use Efficiency.

Abstract

Split Application of Nitrogen and the Effect on Corn Growth and Nitrogen Use Efficiency

Allison Vasey and Dr. Natasha Macnack

University of Wisconsin River Falls

Nitrogen in corn can be an extremely limiting factor. Pre-plant nitrogen application alone has a number of issues, the biggest being that the nitrogen is not present when the plant needs it due to losses from leaching or volatilization of simply plant use. This study will look at different split application methods and the impact it has on corn growth and nitrogen use efficiency. The study will have six different treatments along with a control in three randomized replications. The treatments will include: Treatment one, control (no nitrogen application); treatment two, full recommendation applied pre-plant; treatment three, one half of the recommendation applied pre-plant, one half applied at V5; treatment four, one-third of the recommendation applied pre-plant, two thirds applied at V5; treatment five, one-quarter of the recommendation applied pre-plant, three quarters applied at V5; treatment six, one-third of the recommendation applied pre-plant, one-third applied at V5, one-third applied at V8; treatment seven, one-quarter of the recommendation applied pre-plant, one-quarter applied at V5, one-quarter applied at V8 and one-quarter applied at V10. The pre-plant applications will receive broadcast urea and all other applications will receive varying amounts of UAN dribbled between the rows. The GreenSeeker^TMwill be used to collect NDVI information for biomass and will be taken at V5, V8, V10 and V12. Plant height and stalk diameter will also be measured. Results will show that treatment seven, with the most applications, will have the most efficient nitrogen usage.