ABSTRACT
Efficiency of two nitrogen fertilizers applied in different dates on spring wheats (Triticum aestivum L.)

Mario Mellado Z.1
 

At the Quilamapu Experiment Station (INIA), Chile, three field experiments were carried out during 19861988, to evaluate the efficiency of N use by wheat plants, when this nutrient is applied as Chilean nitrate or as Urea, at differents dates, to spring wheat varieties.
The trials were set up under irrigation, in a split plot designo The treatments (7) were the N application dates, and the subtreatments (2) were the N fertilizers, Chilean nitrate or Urea. Both fertilizers were applied once at arate of 150 kg N/ha, on the soil surface the first day of each month, from May till November. Since planting date was always August first, the N treatments were applied befare, during and after seeding time.
Evaluations were: grain yield and yield components, biomass and N of grain and straw.
The most important conclusions were:
1. Chilean Nitrate and Urea applied at differents dates in spring wheat had the same performance.
2. Dates of N applications affected grain yield and other agronomic characteristics.
3. Early N applications (befare wheat planting) or late (spike emergence) negatively affected the grain production efficiency, N extraction, and N recovery by the wheat plant.
4. Accumulated rainfall between the fertilizers' applications and plant emergency, might explain the variations of wheat N extraction capacity.

Keywords:
1 Estación Experimental Quilamapu (INIA), Casilla 426, Chillán, Chile.