Fate of ¹⁵N-labelled nitrogen fertilizer applied to kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) vines

Abstract

The fate of ¹⁵N-labelled ammonium fertilizer applied once to six-year-old field-grown kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa ‘Hayward’) vines was measured over three years. The three main treatments were nitrogen (N) applied singularly at 100 or 200 kg N ha⁻¹ in early spring (two weeks before bud burst) or split with 100 kg N ha⁻¹ (unlabelled) in early spring and 100 kg N ha⁻¹ (¹⁵N-labelled) ten weeks later. All N treatments were applied to vines with a history of either 50 or 200 kg N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. For three years after ¹⁵n application, components of the vines and soil (0–600 mm depth) were sampled at harvest in late autumn and the N and ¹⁵N contents determined.

By the first harvest, all plant uptake of ¹⁵N had occurred and this represented 48–53% of the ¹⁵N applied. There was no significant effect of current N fertilizer treatment or of N history on ¹⁵N recovery by vines. Removal of ¹⁵N in harvested fruit was small at 5–6% in the first year and 8% over 3 years. After 2–3 years, most plant ¹⁵N occurred in the roots and this component declined only slowly over time. In contrast, there was a large temporal decline in ¹⁵N in above-ground plant components due to the annual ‘removal’ in leaf fall and pruning. An associated experiment showed that when ¹⁵N-labelled prunings and leaves were mulched and returned to the soil, only about 9% was recovered by plants within 2 years. Almost all remaining mulched material had been immobilised into the soil organic N.

In all treatments, about 20% of the added ¹⁵N remained in soil at the first harvest. This was almost entirely in organic fractions (<0.4% in inorganic N) and mostly in the surface 150-mm layer. The ¹⁵N content in soil changed little over time (from 20 to 17% between the first and third harvests respectively) and indicated that most of the N had been immobilised into stable humus forms.