High value crops in coarse-textured soil and nitrate leaching - How risky is it?

Abstract

. 2010. High value crops in coarsetextured soil and nitrate leaching Á How risky is it? Can. J. Plant Sci. 90: 515Á528. To identify practices that minimize the risk of NO 3 -N leaching to groundwater from high-value crops produced on coarse-textured soil, NO 3 -N movement was determined from varied water (overhead vs. drip irrigation) and nutrient (pre-plant broadcast vs. fertigation) management in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) over three growing seasons, and municipal compost rate and mulch type in ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.) over 5 yr. Under cucumber, seasonal NO 3 -N leaching ranged from 4 to 28 kg ha Apre`s l'application de compost a`l'automne, la concentration de N-NO 3 dans la solution de sol augmente jusqu'a` 100 mg de N-NO 3 par litre au de´but de de´cembre. Meˆme sans application de compost, la concentration de N-NO 3 dans l'eau qui s'e´coule du sol ou`pousse le ginseng de´passe la norme fixe´e pour l'eau potable.

Nitrogen Related Diffuse Pollution from Horticulture Production—Mitigation Practices and Assessment Strategies

“…When irrigation is correctly managed, leaching will be minimized, but N will accumulate in the soil profile, increasing the post-harvest leaching potential. Leaching losses for a variety of vegetable crops, climates, soils and management practices are presented by several authors [12,21,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. A leaching loss of 207 kg NO 3 -N ha −1 was reported from a cabbage crop on a sandy soil harvested in September; a broccoli crop in a loamy soil harvested in November leached 282 kg·NO 3 -N ha −1 , while in a sandy soil planted with cauliflower harvested in November, leaching reached a value of 293 kg·NO 3 -N ha −1 .…”