Nitrogen use efficiency of organically fertilized white cabbage and residual effects on subsequent beetroot

authored by

Kai Uwe Katroschan, Ralf Uptmoor, Hartmut Stützel

Abstract

Background and aims: The low N availability in organic cropping systems requires an efficient use of the limited N sources. The study aimed to analyze the N efficiency of organically fertilized white cabbage on a crop and crop rotation basis. Methods: Effects of soil-incorporated lupine seedlings and seed meal on the N use efficiency (NUE) and individual NUE components of cabbage were investigated in field experiments. Cabbage was followed by beetroot to quantify residual fertilizer effects. Results: Generally, NUE decreased with increasing N availability. Nitrogen uptake efficiency, however, was low at low N supply and increased curvilinearly to an asymptotic maximum. Variation in harvest index between and within experimental years was explained by differences in thermal growing time and initial cabbage growth, respectively. The increase in beetroot N supply by fertilizer treatments averaged 18 % of applied lupine seed N corresponding to 63 % of the incremental N in cabbage residues. Conclusions: Dry matter partitioning alters during cabbage yield formation in favor of the harvest residue fraction if abiotic stress like water shortage occurs directly after crop establishment, being associated with reduced NUE. The residual effect depends largely on the re-utilization of incremental fertilizer N in cabbage residues and thus on the short-term net N mineralization of organic fertilizers.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Horticultural Production Systems

External Organisation(s)

Landesforschungsanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Fischerei Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (LFA)
University of Rostock

Type

Article

Journal

Plant and soil

Volume

382

Pages

237-251

No. of pages

15

ISSN

0032-079X

Publication date

29.05.2014

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Soil Science, Plant Science

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 2 - Zero Hunger

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-014-2133-6 (Access: Closed)