Recovery of Fertilizer Nitrogen by Maize Grown with Nutriseed Pack and Soil Nitrogen Retention Using 15N Tracer

Abstract

In a cropped land plant and soil utilizes nitrogen (N) mainly from fertilizer. Deep placement of fertilizer N enhances added N use efficiency. Nutriseed Pack technique is a way of deep placing fertilizer in the root zone simultaneously when sowing the seed. A Green house experiment with 15 N tracer technique was conducted during 2009 at open premises of green house in the Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, TNAU, Coimbatore to evaluate the effect of application of fertilizers in maize by surface broadcast and Nutriseed Pack. Each Nutriseed Pack was assembled by stacking of seed, manure and fertilizer pellets and then wound in newspaper as a roll. On placement in soil, supply of nutrients is expected from Nutriseed pack throughout the crop period. Column study on 15 N recovery of added fertilizer by maize resulted in high recovery (NUE) for horizontal placement of Nutriseed Pack (36.17%) followed by placement of vertical Nutriseed Pack with Furadan (33.62%), and moderate recovery for surface broadcast (30.45%). The applied labelled N retained in surface layer was high in horizontal placement of Nutriseed Pack which ranged from 8.0 to 18.1 per cent in surface layer (0-15 cm), 4.9 to 10.8 per cent in sub-surface layer (15-30 cm), and 2.8 to 6.0 per cent the lower layer (30-45cm) respectively. In case of surface application of fertilizers, N retained was 5.5 per cent in surface layer (0-15 cm), 3.2 per cent in sub-surface layer (15-30 cm), and 11.1 per cent in lower layer (30-45 cm) respectively.