Response of winter wheat to nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer placement and time of application

Abstract

The expansion of direct seeding of crops and the ability to side-band fertilizer has created a number of opportunities, including applying all fertilizer needs of winter wheat at seeding time. The objective of this study was to explore the opportunities for winter wheat grown in the Dark Brown and Black Soil Zones of southern Alberta. In two sets of experiments we compared the effect of fall side-band placement of urea-N to that of spring broadcast of ammonium nitrate-N at rates of 0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 kg N ha-1, and of fall side-banded 80 kg ha-1 urea-N to that of ammonium nitrate, or liquid urea-ammonium nitrate N on the yield and protein content of winter wheat. We also compared side-banded to seed-placed application of phosphate fertilizer (0, 15, 30, 45 and 60 kg P2O5 ha-1). There was a strong response of winter wheat grain yield to N application rate that was directly related to the NO3-N level of the soil in the 0–60 cm depth. Fall banded urea resulted in the same or higher yields than all spring treatments. Nitrogen fertilizer lacement had no effect on grain protein levels. Seed-placement and side-banding of P fertilizer rates resulted in equal grain yield increases. Key words: Side banding, seed-placement, urea, ammonium nitrate