No abstract

The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of foliar application of urea and urea-formaldehyde, triazone-based fertilizers on soybean and corn crops. Four experiments were carried out, two on soybeans, one on first season corn, and the other on second season corn. The experiments were conducted using a randomized block design, with 5 treatments studied: T1—control without application of foliar nitrogen (N); T2—foliar application of conventional urea solution and three treatments with Hexion foliar fertilizers based on urea-formaldehyde and triazone (N-Hexion®), with varying levels of N and slow-release components; T3—Hexion 1; T4—Hexion 2; and T5—Hexion 3. The foliar application of conventional urea showed no statistically significant difference in relation to the control for the yield components and grain yield for the soybean crops in seasons 2018–2019 and 2019–2020. Urea-formaldehyde/triazone treatments showed a significant increase in yield for soybeans in the 2018–2019 season compared to the control and to conventional urea. Nitrogen fertilizers with high percentages of slow-release compounds promote nitrogen release more slowly, which led to no significant increase in yield for Hexion 1. No statistical differences were observed in the corn yield for the first and second crop.

Soybean is one of the world’s most economically important crops and several factors can affect the productivity of this culture. Among these factors is the supply of needed nitrogen, especially in the reproductive stage, as it acts in photosynthetic activity and in grain filling. In view of this, the objective of our work was to evaluate the effect of foliar application of nitrogen in different reproductive stages in soybean culture. Two sources of nitrogen were used: conventional urea and urea-formaldehyde/triazone, both applied in reproductive stages R2, R3, R4, or R5, as well as a control treatment without foliar application of nitrogen. Plants submitted to foliar application of urea-formaldehyde/triazone showed an increase in nitrogen metabolism (percentage of nitrogen derived from the atmosphere [Ndfa] and nitrate reductase activity [NR]), an increase in peroxidase (POD), and the consequent reduction in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in all stages of application of this treatment. When urea-formaldehyde/triazone was applied in R4, it resulted in a 7% increase in yield. The application of conventional urea in reproductive stages R4 and R5 increased nitrogen metabolism and resulted in an increase in yield by 4%. However, conventional urea reduced yield when applied in stages R2 and R3. The use of low doses of foliar nitrogen in stages R4 and R5, increased nitrogen metabolism in soybean plants. The timing of the application has a direct impact on the results with the slow-release nitrogen (urea formaldehyde /triazone) showing better results when applied in stage R4 and better results for conventional urea in R5.