No abstract

No abstract

There was a small decrease in grain yield (from 10.8 to 10.5 t ha-') when wheat straw (3 t dry matter ha-') was incorporated into a silty clay loam soil sown to winter wheat. In the absence of straw, 60% of autumn-applied '5N-labelled nitrate was lost from the crop:soil system. Straw incorporation decreased this loss to 47%. There was little overall effect on the uptake of N by the crop, presumably because straw immobilised inorganic N that would otherwise have been leached from the soil during winter. Only 12% of the N in "N-labelled straw was recovered by the crop; 78% still remained in the soil one year after incorporation.

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The recovery of autumn-applied labelled fertilizer N in winter wheat and in the soil and roots was measured in five experiments on three soil types in eastern England. In four of the experiments, crop recoveries of fertilizer N ranged from 11 to 34 % in years when drainage during winter and early spring was close to, or less than, the long-term average of about 200 mm. Crop recovery was higher (42 %) at a site where the soil was heavier and winter drainage was less. Total recoveries (in crop and soil, 0-50 cm) ranged from 22 to 61 %. Fertilizer N was at least risk to leaching when there was a large soil moisture deficit at the time of application. There was a linear relationship between fertilizer N lost and drainage (but not rainfall) between the time of N application and the end of March of the following year. Autumn-applied fertilizer N increased grain yield slightly in two of the experiments and decreased it in a third.