Agronomy Journal Grow Your Career With ASA
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

Published online 1 July 1972
Published in Agron J 64:487-490 (1972)
© 1972 American Society of Agronomy
677 S. Segoe Rd., Madison, WI 53711 USA
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by White, L. M.
Right arrow Articles by Brown, J. H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by White, L. M.
Right arrow Articles by Brown, J. H.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by White, L. M.
Right arrow Articles by Brown, J. H.

Nitrogen Fertilization and Clipping Effects on Green Needlegrass (Stipa viridula Trin.): II. Evapotranspiration, Water-Use Efficiency, and Nitrogen Recovery1

Larry M. White and Jarvis H. Brown2

Soil water and N are the major factors limiting forage production of green needlegrass (Stipa viridula Trin.) on the northern Great Plains. We studied the effects of N fertilization rate and clipping frequency on evapotranspiration (ET), water extraction pattern in soil profiles, water-use efficiency, and fertilizer N recovery by dryland green needlegrass. Nitrogen was broadcast at 0, 70, and 140 kg of N/ha in November 1968. Green needlegrass was either left undipped or clipped to a 5-cm height five times during 1969 at approximately 21-day intervals.

Green needlegrass showed visual signs of water stress when water was deficient in the surface 30 cm of soil. On undipped plots, 80% of the ET was from the 0- to 30-cm depth. Water-use efficiency of undipped green needlegrass increased during May and June and decreased during July, but that of clipped plants decreased from May through July. Nitrogen fertilization increased and clipping decreased water-use efficiency.

Average N recoveries with 70 and 140-kg rates were 22% for the first year and 8% for the second year. Recovery was highest with 70 kg of N/ha and frequent clipping. Low recovery of N fertilizer was not due to loss of nitrate-N by leaching. At the end of the first crop season, 7% of the 70 kg N/ha applied and 17% of the 140 kg of N/ha applied the previous year remained in the soil as nitrate-N.

Key Words: Extraction patterns of soil water • Soil nitrate-nitrogen

1 Joint contribution from the Northern Plains Branch, Soil and Water Conservation Research Division, Agricultural Research Service, USDA, and Montana Agricultural Experiment Station, Journal Series No. 275. Part of a thesis submitted by the senior author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the M.S. degree at Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana.

2 Range Scientist, USDA, Sidney, Montana 59270, and Associate Professor of Agronomy, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana 59715.

Received for publication November 1, 1971.




HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
The SCI Journals Crop Science Vadose Zone Journal
Journal of Natural Resources
and Life Sciences Education		 Soil Science Society of America Journal
Journal of Plant Registrations Journal of
Environmental Quality		 The Plant Genome
Copyright © 1972 by the American Society of Agronomy.