Evaluation of the performance of three advisory methods for nitrogen fertilization of sugar beet and potatoes.

Abstract

The performances of 3 different N fertilizer recommendation methods were retrospectively tested with data obtained from 150 trials with sugarbeet and 98 trials with potatoes in the Netherlands in 1973-82. The recommendations consisted of applying a fixed N rate in all situations (126 kg N/ha for sugarbeet and 286 kg N/ha for potatoes), the current Dutch method, which takes only the amount of mineral N present in the soil in early spring into account, and a refinement of the current method, which also takes soil type and recent applications of organic manures into account. On av., significantly lower amounts of fertilizer N were recommended with the current method. The difference from the other methods was on av. 25 kg N/ha for sugarbeet and 30 kg N/ha for potatoes. With the refined current method the highest crop yields were obtained but the difference from the other methods was not significant and averaged only 0.3-0.4 t/ha for sugarbeet and 0.1-0.2 t/ha for potatoes. The recovery of fertilizer N by the potato tubers was 2% higher with the current method than with the other methods. Based on these findings it is concluded that the current recommendation method is preferable to the other methods. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)