Effects of Nutrient Expert Recommend Fertilization on Yield and Fertilizer Efficiency of Summer Maize in Fluvo-Aquic Soil

Abstract

Maize(Zea mays L.) is the largest grain crop, and plays an important role in ensuring the food security in China. However, there exist some problems in summer maize production such as excessive or unreasonable N, P2O5 and K2O ratios, which hinders the realization of high-yield. In order to realize the scientific fertilization of summer maize in the fluvo-aquic soil region, field experiments were conducted to study the effects of nutrient expert recommend fertilization on yield, economic benefit, nutrient accumulation and fertilizer use efficiency of summer maize. The results showed that yield was increased by 6.55%–39.32% and 5.53%–21.19% in 2010 and 2011 respectively in the treatment of applying fertilizer. Compared with conventional fertilizer application, the nutrient expert and Agro Services International Inc recommend fertilization increased grain yield by 4.06% and 5.04%, and economic benefit by 21.90% and 27.44%. The agronomic efficiency of N, P2O5, and K2O was 11.46, 25.89, and 9.93 kg kg–1, and fertilizer use efficiency was 41.13%, 31.48%, and 50.35%, respectively, the partial factor productivity from applied fertilizer was 36.62 kg kg–1, based on the nutrient expert recommend fertilization. Fertilizer application recommended by the nutrient expert increased the content of leaf chlorophyll, the accumulation of N, P, K, and dry matter in summer maize. In conclusion, the nutrient expert can be used to recommend fertilizer application in this area and increase production and fertilizer use efficiency.