Yield and Nitrogen Balance of Greenhouse Tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum Mill.) with Conventional and Site-specific Nitrogen Management in Northern China

Abstract

In a greenhouse experiment with tomato, the N fertilizer reduction potential, tomato yield, N use and environmental implications were examined, in a comparison of site-specific N management with conventional N fertilization during three successive growing seasons from Feb. 2004 to Jun. 2005 in Shouguang, a typical greenhouse vegetable production region in Shandong province, Northern China. Fertilizer N recommendation with site-specific management was based on the difference between N target value and soil initial nitrate-N content (0-0.3 m) with pre-sidedress soil nitrate testing (PSNT) and nitrate-N applied from irrigated water. The same basal dressing of 8, 11 and 8 t ha À1 of chicken manure (supplying 260, 360 and 316 kg N ha À1 in the first, second, and the third growing season, respectively) was broadcasted with conventional N, site-specific N and N from manure three treatments. The N target value with site-specific management was 300 kg N ha À1 in the first season, and then modified to 200 kg N ha À1 in the second and third seasons. In comparison with the fertilizer N applied rate with conventional N management (870, 720 and 630 kg N ha À1 in the three seasons, respectively), site-specific management reduced N fertilizer by 62, 78 and 80% without significant influences on tomato yield. The fruit yield of tomato with only basal dressing manure treatment was significantly decreased in the second season, compared with conventional N management. The nitrate content in 0-0.9 m soil depth with site-specific management was much lower than that with conventional N management in all three seasons. The 53-83% of emitted nitrous oxide (N 2 O) was measured from transplanting to the first sidedressing in the three seasons, strongly related to dryingwetting soil process. As a result, the cumulative emission with site-specific management was only reduced by 38% than that with conventional N management throughout three seasons. Considering N release from mineralization and irrigation water, site-specific N management could efficiently control N application in intensive irrigated-vegetable production region. Thus, it is valuable to obtaining vegetable crops with high yield and economic return while alleviating the risk of environmental pollution. But it is necessary to optimize irrigation regime to minimize N loss through nitrate leaching and N 2 O emission.

Fallow Cover Crop Species and Nitrogen Rate of Fertigated Solution on Cucumber Yield and Soil Sustainability in Greenhouse Condition

“…Meanwhile, N concentration of fertigated solution showed no significant effect on the growth and yield of cucumber (Table 4). These results were same as previous reports mentioning that high N input by excessive application for greenhouse vegetable production could be effectively reduced without yield loss (Olfs et al, 2005;He et al, 2007), and this may not only increase the economic benefit for farmers but also greatly reduce the pollution potential and provide a sustainable use of soil and water resources (Shi et al, 2009). Other study said that the average threshold EC values for total and marketable fruit yield were, respectively, 3.2 and 3.3 dS m -1 , and the total and marketable yield decreased linearly with increasing salinity above a threshold Table 5.…”

Seasonal temperatures have more influence than nitrogen fertilizer rates on cucumber yield and nitrogen uptake in a double cropping system

“…N leaching during crop establishment accounted for over 50% of total N leaching in tomato cropping systems with drip-irrigation in Spain (Vázquez et al, 2006). Moreover, the highest emission rates of N 2 O, representing 66.5% of the cumulative fluxes were measured by He et al (2007) from transplanting to the first N topdressing with four events of irrigation in greenhouse tomato cropping systems in Shouguang. In addition, N losses outside the growing season might appear to be completely out of the grower's control.…”

“…Practical N recommendation strategies, such as the PSNT technique (Breschini and Hartz, 2002;Hartz et al, 2000;Heckman et al, 2002;Krusekopf et al, 2002), the N-EXPERT system (Fink and Scharpf, 1993) and the target value for N recommendations (He et al, 2007) have been used to maintain optimum soil N min levels in the effective root zone for sustainable vegetable production. Different seasonal patterns of vegetable N uptake are regarded as an important parameter for balanced N recommendations and this also increases the complexity involved in calculating a suitable N supply in the root zone as influenced by variation in seasonal temperatures.…”

Influence of root zone nitrogen management and a summer catch crop on cucumber yield and soil mineral nitrogen dynamics in intensive production systems

“…Consequently, very high proportions of unused nutrients accumulate in the soil, and N is released into the environment through nitrate leaching, denitrification and NH 3 volatilization (Cabrera and Chiang 1994;Fox et al 1996;Gollany et al 2004;He et al 2007;Ramos et al 2002). Double cropping systems with two vegetable crops per year are widespread in northern China using unheated greenhouses constructed with a clay or brick wall with bamboo supports attached that are covered with polyethylene film.…”

“…This involves (1) maintaining a critical N concentration in the root zone by determining the N supply from the soil and from organic and inorganic fertilizers, (2) synchronizing nutrient supply with critical crop nutrient demand at different growth stages, and (3) spatially optimizing nutrient and water supply in the root environment. Using these strategies 73% of N fertilizer was saved in a continuous three-season greenhouse tomato cropping system (He et al 2007). However, significant losses of nitrate-N in drainage discharge still continued to occur because of long-term surplus nutrient supply and very high soil fertility through excessive application of organic manures and nitrogen fertilizers, together with excessive irrigation (He et al 2007;Strock et al 2004) and heavy rainfall events in the summer season when the polyethylene covered greenhouses are opened on the North China Plain (Chen et al 2005;He et al 2003).…”