Yield and Nitrogen Recovery of Wheat Plants Subjected to Urea Application With or Without a Urease Inhibitor in the Absence of Irrigation

Abstract

The use of urease inhibitors and irrigation are management options to increasing the efficiency of top-dressed urea by reducing NH 3 volatilization. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the productive performance and N recovery of 'BRS 254' wheat plants without irrigation after applying urea or urea+NBPT [N-(n-butyl)thiophosphoric triamide] as the top dressing. The experiment was carried out in Viçosa, MG, Brazil, between May and September of 2008 using a complete randomized block design with a 2×6+1 factorial arrangement of the following treatments: 1) urea or urea+NBPT, 2) six periods without irrigation (0, 48, 96, 144, 192 or 240 h after applying the top-dressing fertilizer), and 3) a control without N; there were four replications. The data were subjected to an analysis of variance (P≤0.05). The mean values of the treatments with urea or urea+NBPT were compared by Tukey's test (P≤0.05), and the effects of the periods without irrigation were analyzed by a regression (P≤0.05). The results of the study show that NBPT did not lead to agronomic advantages for the wheat crop under the study conditions, and the absence of irrigation after urea application as the top dressing led to less N utilization by the wheat plants.

Urea (NBPT) una alternativa en la fertilización nitrogenada de cultivos anuales

“…El suministro de urea NBPT, se ha evaluado con éxito en cultivos básicos como maíz, trigo, papa, girasol, algodón, chícharo y praderas, donde diversos investigadores reportan incrementos en el rendimiento por unidad de superficie y una mayor eficiencia en el uso de nitrógeno (Dawar et al, 2011;Gagnon et al, 2012;Kawakami et al, 2013;Zaman et al, 2013;Khan et al, 2014;Piña et al, 2014;Espíndula et al, 2016;Giannoulis et al, 2016;Vivian et al, 2018).…”

“…Vivian et al (2018) en experimentos de maíz realizados en Tenneesse, concluyeron que aplicando 150 kg ha -1 de urea recubierta con polímero, el rendimiento de grano se acrecentó en promedio en 2 t ha -1 respecto a la urea. Espíndula et al (2016) al investigar en trigo en Brasil reportaron que con la aplicación de urea de liberación lenta se elevó el rendimiento de grano sobre la urea común. Con 60 kg N ha -1 de urea NBPT se obtuvo 37.5% más rendimiento de grano y 38% más de N absorbido con relación al suministro de 60 Kg N ha -1 de urea normal.…”