Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T05:39:39.280Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effect of previous cropping and manuring on the nitrogen fertilizer needed by sugar beet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

A. P. Draycott  and
P. J. Last
A. P. Draycott
Affiliation:
Broom's Barn Experimental Station, Higham, Bury St Edmunds
P. J. Last
Affiliation:
Broom's Barn Experimental Station, Higham, Bury St Edmunds
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Six field experiments made between 1960 and 1968 determined the effect of previo cropping and manuring on the nitrogen requirement of sugar beet. Three were at Silsoe in Bedfordshire on soils developed over Lower Greensand and Gault Clay and three were at Broom's Barn (Suffolk) on Calcareous Drift soils over chalk. Each experiment lasted 2 years, a preparatory crop followed by sugar beet.

Spring barley and potatoes were treatment crops in all the experiments and winter wheat, a ryegrass ley and barley undersown with trefoil were included in the Suffolk experiments. Nil, 0·6 or 1·2 cwt N/acre was tested on the sugar beet in the first three experiments and 0, 0·5, 1·0 or 1·5 cwt N/acre in later ones.

All the experiments showed that previous cropping influenced the nitrogen requirement of the sugar beet. There was a linear relationship (r = – 0·86) between the amount of fertilizer nitrogen given minus that removed by the preparatory crop, and the quantity of nitrogen fertilizer needed by the sugar beet for maximum sugar yield. Sugar beet grown after barley or potatoes (each given 0·5 cwt N/acre) needed on average 1·0 cwt N/acre at both Broom's Barn and Silsoe for maximum sugar yield. Sugar beet after winter wheat or a ryegrass ley also needed 1·0 cwt N/acre at Broom's Barn. When the previous potato crop was given 1·5 cwt N/acre, 0·5 cwt/acre sufficed for maximum yield of sugar at both centres; also after ploughed-in trefoil, sugar beet needed only 0·5 cwt N/acre.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 74 , Issue 1 , February 1970 , pp. 147 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adams, S. N. (1962). The response of sugar beet to fertilizer and the effect of farmyard manure. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 58, 219–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, G. W. (1967). The Control of Soil Fertility. London: Crosby Lookwood.Google Scholar
Dyke, G. V. (1965). Green manuring for sugar beet. Br. Sug. Beet Rev. 34, 94–8.Google Scholar
Hull, R. & Webb, D. J. (1967). The effect of subsoiling and different levels of manuring on yields of cereals, lucerne and sugar beet. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 69, 183–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owers, A. C. (1960). Wheat manuring after potatoes on silt soils. Prog. Rep. Minist. Agric. Fish. Fd exp. Husb. Fms. exp. Hort. Stns. for 1960, pp. 22–3.Google Scholar
Patterson, H. D. & Watson, D. J. (1960). Farmyard manure and its interaction with fertilizers. Rep. Rothampsted exp. Stn for 1959, 164–8.Google Scholar
Warren, R. G. (1956). N P K residues from fertilizers and farmyard manure in long-term experiments at Rothamsted. Proc. Fertil. Soc. no. 37.Google Scholar
Widdowson, F. V. & Penny, A. (1965). Experiments measuring the residual effects of nitrogen fertilizers. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 65, 195–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar