Aerial accumulation and partitioning of nutrients by hard red spring wheat

Abstract

Abstract Periods of maximum hard red spring (HRS) wheat (Jriticum aestivum L.) nutrient demand need to be determined in order to develop best nutrient management practices, and to provide data for nutrient uptake modeling. Aerial (aboveground biomass) whole plant samples of irrigated HRS wheat were collected from the field at 16 growth stages and separated into leaves, stems, heads, and grain for dry matter determinations and analyzed for N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Cl, Zn, Mn, Fe, and Cu concentrations. Accumulation curves were computed for each plant part for the growing season from compound cubic polynomial models based on accumulated growing degree units (GDUs). Total aerial accumulations of dry matter, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Cl, Zn, Mn, Fe, and Cu were 14400, 116, 30.8, 103, 9.2, 9.3, 15.2, 32.3, 0.18, 0.58, 2.05, and 0.045 kg/ha, respectively. Grain at maturity accumulated greater than 78% of the total aerial N, P, and Zn, while it contained less than 20% of the aerial accumulated K, Ca, Cl, and Fe. Nitrogen a...