Genotypic differences in nitrogen efficiency of white cabbage (Brassica oleracea L.)

Abstract

In vegetable production, N balance surpluses are especially high which increases the risk of environmental pollution. The cultivation of Nefficient cultivars may contribute to alleviate the problem. A 2-year field experiment was conducted with eight white cabbage cultivars of three different maturity groups at two N fertilization levels. Genotypes differed both in N efficiency (head fresh weight at low N supply) and in yield at high N supply. These differences were not related to N uptake but to N utilization efficiency. At low N supply, harvest index was the main determining factor for genotypic yield differences. For earlier maturing cultivars a slower leaf emergence was responsible for the low harvest index. The response of the cultivars to low N supply was dependent on the weather conditions, particularly temperature, (highly significant year × cultivar × N supply interaction) at early growing stages. This suggests that breeding of cultivars with generally low-temperature tolerance could contribute to enhancing N utilization. Especially at high N supply, a high N harvest index was important for yield formation due to its effect on head water accumulation. For late cultivars, a high N retranslocation from leaves to the heads was related to yield both at low and high N supply. The study suggests that breeding of Nefficient cultivars may reduce N release to the environment by reducing the necessary N input and reducing the N content remaining in the crop residues.

Seasonal Nutrient Cycling and Enrichment of Nutrient-Related Soil Microbes Aid in the Adaptation of Ramie (Boehmeria nivea L.) to Nutrient-Deficient Conditions

“…As expected, N, P, and K retranslocation to the root at the end of the growing season helped ramie plants adapt to poor soil conditions. Our results also support the idea that nutrient retranslocation to the root is a survival strategy for perennial rhizomatous plants to adapt to nutrient-deficient conditions (Fife et al, 2008;Moreira and Fageria, 2009;Erley et al, 2010). However, delayed harvest is necessary for this strategy to be effective given that it provides sufficient time for the plant to complete the retranslocation process before harvest.…”

“…The aim of this study was to investigate the strategies by which ramie plants cope with poor soil conditions. In perennial plants, nutrient retranslocation (or seasonal nutrient cycling) plays an important role in maintaining their normal growth when nutrients are limited (Fife et al, 2008;Moreira and Fageria, 2009;Erley et al, 2010), especially for plants with extensive underground root systems, such as miscanthus (Miscanthus spp.) and giant reed (Arundo donax L.) (Nasso et al, 2011(Nasso et al, , 2013Ruf et al, 2017).…”

Diverse concepts of breeding for nitrogen use efficiency. A review

“…Cabbage has the ability to root quite deep and to deplete the soil to a large extent. This leads to the statement that the uptake of cabbage is already quite efficient (ThorupKristensen 2006a;Schulte auf'm Erley et al 2010); however, research to date has only focused on a limited set of cultivars and to the best of our knowledge, no research has included a large set of genotypes to show whether there is variation that can be exploited in breeding to improve uptake efficiency in cabbage. Moreover, wheat can also root to the same depth as cabbage (2.0 m) and for wheat, much variation has been shown for N uptake and for root length densities at larger depth (beyond 1 m) (Ehdaie et al 2010;Andresen et al 2016).…”

Population divergence in nutrient-temperature interactions in Pieris rapae

“…There is a single summer growing season for domesticated Brassica in Nova Scotia, and multiple plantings of Brassica in North Carolina, primarily in spring and fall. Additionally, Brassica leaf N concentrations are known to increase at warmer temperatures ( 57 , 58 ); this may differentiate the conditions under which NC and NS populations interact with Brassica sp. host plants, with NC populations being used to higher N concentrations and unable to cope with lower concentrations.…”