Relationship between soil nitrate accumulation and in-season corn N nutrition indicators

Abstract

Ziadi, N., Belanger, G. and Claessens, A. 2012. Relationship between soil nitrate accumulation and in-season corn N nutrition indicators. Can. J. Plant Sci. 92: 331-339. Nitrogen management tools are required to optimize crop growth and yield while minimizing the likelihood of N losses to the environment. We previously determined that non-limiting N conditions for near maximum corn (Zea mays L.) grain yield are reached with the following threshold values for three in-season plant-based indicators of corn N nutrition determined at approximately the V12 stage of development: N nutrition index (NNI)=0.88, leaf N (NL) concentration =32.7 mg N g-1 leaf DM, and relative chlorophyll meter (RCM) values =0.95. Our objective was to study the relationship between these plant-based indicators and soil NO3-N content in an effort to develop tools to reduce the likelihood of soil NO3-N accumulation without affecting grain yield. This study at 5 site-years in Quebec consisted of six N fertilizer rates (20-250 kg N ha-1)....