Effects of controlled-release fertilizers (CRFs) (C-AS, polyolefin coated ammonium sulfate, 50-day-type; Dd-LP, polyolefincoated urea with dicyandiamide, 40-day-type; C-ANP, polyolefin coated ammonium nitrate phosphate, 40-day-type; andC-DAP, polyolefin coated diammonium acid phosphate, 40-day-type), ammonium sulphate and no fertilizer control, andtheir application methods (spot, band, surface and mixed) on germination and seedling development of sweet corn (Zeamays L.var. saccharata Sturt.) and dent corn (Zea mays L.var. indentata Sturt.) were investigated in a greenhouse. Underco-situs application (band and spot) of CRFs, there were no obvious differences in the germination speed and rate for bothdent corn and sweet corn relative to control. Mortality rates of sweet corn seedlings under co-situs application were highin experiment 1, but were very low in experiment 2, because the environmental conditions were different in the twoexperiments. That is, under lower temperature and weaker sunlight, young seedlings easily die due to high soil nutrientconcentration and slow growth speed of corn. Shoot weight of both dent and sweet corn did not greatly decrease inexperiment 1. In experiment 2, there were no significant differences in shoot and root weight of both corns between co-situs and surface or mixed application methods. However, with spot and band application of ammonium sulfate, shoot androot weight were significantly reduced. Soil EC and pH were considerably affected by co-situs application, especially atthe fertilizer application site. For both dent and sweet corn, EC in the 0-3 cm soil was significantly higher under co-situsapplication and surface application than that under mixed application, whereas in the 3-6 cm soil depth the situation wasreversed. Compared with control, mixed application of CRFs decreased soil pH slightly (0-3 cm depth) or greatly (3-6 cmdepth).
[Objective] The aim was to research the effect of concentration of NO-3-N on root vigor and rhizosphere pH of winter wheat seedlings under water culture.[Method]By selecting Hoagland's nutritional solution as cultural medium and winter wheat as material of experiment,on the basis,testing root vigor,nutrient solution NO-3 and change of pH values under the different level of disposal,such as high(containing NO-3-N 15 mmol/L),medium(containing NO-3-N 7.5 mmol/L)and lower(containing NO-3-N 2.5 mmol/L).[Result]The results of this research showed that the effect of different nitrogen level on the wastage of nutrient solution NO-3,the changes of pH values and root vigor is obvious under the hydroponics condition.[Conclusion]Though NO-3 is a safe nitrogen sources when it was supplied to plants too more,it would restrain assimilation on nitrate nitrogen farther,but when it was supplied to plants too little,it would lead to deficiency of NO-3 that plants uptake and decrease of root activity,so it isn't useful to wheat young seedling to absorb nitrogen nutrition.
The response of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) plants basically fertilized with 0.3 g N per plant of compound fertilizer with a N:P2O5:K2O ratio of 20:10:20 to sticks of polyolefin-coated fertilizer (POCF) (Long70 with a N:P2O5:K2O ratio of 14:12:14) applied 23 d after transplanting was investigated using rooting boxes in the greenhouse. The results at 26 and 40 d after stick fertilizer treatment showed that the use of the stick fertilizer greatly increased the production of many new fine roots from the tomato plants. Compared to the unfertilized control, root length and root length density in the stick fertilizer treatment increased by 3.6-6.7 fold. In the soil zones near the stick fertilizer, root weight and root mass density were also significantly higher for the stick fertilizer treatment. Additionally, the use of the stick fertilizer increased the N, P and K concentrations in the leaves and stems of the tomato plants. The new fine roots growing near the stick fertilizer not only absorbed more nutrients and translocated them to the shoots, but also contained more nutrients within themselves. The soil ammonium and nitrate N data showed that N released from the stick fertilizer played a major role in inducing the production of new fine roots. These results indicated that stick fertilizer could be used as an alternative to the co-situs application technique to change and control the root distribution of crops as well as to increase the potential capacity of roots for water and nutrient absorption.
Influences of root-growing space of maize upon root physiological characteristics, nutrient uptake and crop yields were studied under conditions with and without supply of water and N. Results showed that limitation of the root-growing space greatly affected root growth, decreased total root-absorbing area and TTC-reductive amounts. However, it obviously increased the root active-absorbing area, specific absorbing area (absorbing area per gram root weight) and specific active-absorbing area (actively absorbing area per gram root weight) in addition to promoting the TTC-reductive intensity. This clearly showed that plants were not passively tolerant to stress, but actively regulated their physiological metabolic processes, and strengthened their absorbing ability to increase water and nutrient uptake so that root injury by the environmental stress could be reduced. Supply of water and N stimulated root growth, increased root-absorbing area and activity, promoted nutrient uptake, and therefore increased crop yield and decreased the detrimental effects resulting from the limitation of roots-growing space.
SONG Hai-xing and LI Sheng-xiu(College of Resources and Environment, Northwestern Science and Technology University of Agriculture and Forestry , Shaanxi 712100 , P. R. China)
