Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nmvwc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T15:32:49.180Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Comparisons of liquid and solid fertilizers and anhydrous ammonia for sugar beet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

A. P. Draycott
Affiliation:
Broom's Barn Experimental Station, Higham, Bury St Edmunds
R. Holliday
Affiliation:
School of Agricultural Sciences, University of Leeds

Summary

Six field experiments (1963–8) in eastern England compared solid fertilizer with liquid fertilizer or anhydrous ammonia for sugar beet. Two glasshouse experiments investigated the interaction between depth of placement of fertilizer and soil moisture.

Yields of sugar were the same from broadcast solid and sprayed liquid in all the experiments, but nitrogen uptake by the crop was less from liquid than from solid. Three experiments tested placement of liquid 4 in to the side and either 2 or 6 in below the seed. Plants with deep-placed fertilizer consistently out-yielded those with shallowplaced fertilizer, but yields were never significantly different from broadcast solid fertilizer. Dry-matter yields of sugar beet grown in containers indoors showed that the crop responded to deep placement when the surface soil was watered infrequently.

With anhydrous ammonia injected during seed-bed preparation, sugar yield and nitrogen uptake were the same as with solid fertilizer in the seed bed, and were greater than with anhydrous ammonia injected in the ploughed land during early spring. A side-band injection of anhydrous ammonia before singling gave a crop containing as much nitrogen at harvest as, but less sugar than, nitrogen applied in the seed bed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adams, S. N. (1961). The effect of time of application of phosphate and potash on sugar beet. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 56, 127–30.Google Scholar
Cooke, G. W. (1949). Placement of fertilizers for row crops. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 39, 359–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, G. W. (1967). The availability of plant nutrients in soils and their uptake by crops. Rep. E. Mailing Res. Stn 1966, pp. 4869.Google Scholar
Crist, J. W. & Weaver, J. E. (1924). Absorption of nutrients from subsoil in relation to crop yield. Bot. Gaz. 77, 121–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gasser, J. K. R. (1964). Some factors affecting losses of ammonia from urea and ammonium sulphate applied to soils. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 15, 258–72.Google Scholar
Hendrickson, A. H. & Veihmeyer, F. J. (1931). Influence of dry soil on root extension. Pl. Physiol., Lancaster 6, 567–76.Google Scholar
Holliday, B. & Draycott, A. P. (1968). Effect of placement of liquid and solid fertilizer on the growth and yield of potatoes. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 71, 413–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hull, R. & Webb, D. J. (1967). Effect of time of sowing and harvesting on sugar beet yield. Rep. Rothamsted exp. Stn 1966, p. 298.Google Scholar
Jamison, V. C. & Thornton, J. F. (1960) Results of deep fertilization and subsoiling on a claypan soil. Agron. J. 52, 193–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohnke, H. & Bertrand, A. B. (1956). Fertilizing the subsoil for better water utilisation. Proc. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. 20, 581–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, W. E., Lovely, W. G., Pesek, J. T. & Burwell, R. F. (1960). Effect of subsoiling and deep fertilizer placement on yields of corn in Iowa and Illinois. Agron. J. 52, 185–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Last, P. J. & Tinker, P. B. H. (1968). Nitrate nitrogen in leaves and petioles of sugar beet in relation to yield of sugar and juice purity. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 71, 383–92.Google Scholar
Nowakowski, T. Z. (1961). The effect of different nitrogenous fertilizers, applied as solids or solutions, on the yield and nitrate-N content of established grass and newly sown ryegrass. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 56, 287–92.Google Scholar
Prummel, J. (1957). Fertilizer placement experiments. Pl. Soil 8, 231–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sabey, B. R., Bartholomew, W. V., Shaw, B. & Pesek, J. (1956). Influence of temperature on nitrification in soils. Proc. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. 20, 357–60.Google Scholar
Shotten, F. E. (1962). Placement of fertilizer for sugar beet. Expl Husb. 7, 816.Google Scholar
Sohn, J. B. & Peech, M. (1958). Retention and fixation of ammonia by soils. Soil Sci. 85, 19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, J. F. & Mulkey, J. R. (1961). Pliable, rootpermiable layers for separation of portions of experimental plant root systems. Science, N.Y. 133, 329.Google Scholar
Taylor, H. M. & Gardner, H. R. (1960). Relative penetrating ability of different plant roots. Agron. J. 52, 579–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Burg, P. F. J., Van Brakel, G. D. & Schepers, J. H. (1967). The agricultural value of anhydrous ammonia on arable land: experiments 1963–66. Neth. Nitrogen tech. Bull. 3, 139.Google Scholar
Werkhoven, C. H. E. & Miller, M. H. (1960). Absorption of fertilizer phosphorus by sugar beets as influenced by placement of phosphorus and nitrogen. Can. J. Soil Sci. 40, 4958.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Widdowson, F. V. & Penny, A. (1964). Experiments comparing liquid and solid fertilizer for grass and kale. Expl Husb. 10, 97100.Google Scholar