Maize growth and nutrient uptake as influenced by nitrogen management in Jilin province

Aimed to the current problem of fertilizer application in Jilin province, e.g. excessive fertilization, one time fertilization, fewer or no use organic manure, and the lower fertilizer use efficiency, a field experiment was conducted to study the effects of various nitrogen managements in traditional and recommended nitrogen rate on growth, yield and nutrient uptake of maize. Results showed that dry matter accumulation of maize in seedling stage and grain filling stage was significantly increased under recommended nitrogen rate compared to under traditional farmer's practice. Dry matter accumulation rate was improved when fertilizer nitrogen was applied combined with organic manure. All the treatments with nitrogen applied significantly increased grain yield by 11.2%-16.8% compared with control without nitrogen application. Although nutrient managements under the recommended nitrogen rate produced similar grain yields to those of farmer's practices, partial factor productivity and agronomic efficiency of nitrogen were significantly improved. On the basis of the same amount of N, P and K, fertilizer nitrogen substitution by pig manure produced similar yield and nitrogen use efficiency and resulted in lower soil inorganic nitrogen compared with full chemical nitrogen applications. In summary, rational application of nitrogen fertilizer could not only sustain maize yield, reduced nitrogen input and also improved N use efficiency. Part of nitrogen substitution by organic manure may be a feasible way in nutrient management on spring maize in Jilin.