ISSN:
1573-5036
Keywords:
aerobic incubation
;
fallow plot
;
inorganic N
;
N mineralization
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Fishery, Domestic Science, Nutrition
Notes:
Abstract Legumes managed as green manures provide a good alternative to the use of commercial N-fertilizer for non-legume crop production. A laboratory procedure based on the aerobic incubation (35 °C) of soil samples taken from plots with legumes incorporated was proposed for predicting the N supplying potential of legumes to succeeding non-legume crops. This procedure was evaluated by comparing the amount of inorganic N determined in the soil samples after incubation with N content of aboveground dry matter of maize or with inorganic N found in the soil of an adjacent fallow plot. The soil samples (0.00 to 0.15 m and 0.15 to 0.30 m) were obtained from two field experiments conducted in similar soils of the Cerrado Region of central Brazil during 1984–85 and 1986–87. Although incubation results were affected by the different pretreatments, soil samples prepared and incubated as soon as possible after being taken from the field gave the best correlations. The most convenient incubation procedure was the one-week aerobic incubation of samples previously oven dried at 50°C. The results obtained by this procedure were significantly correlated with N content in aboveground dry matter of maize and with the inorganic N accumulated in an adjacent fallow plot.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02182040
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