Techniques for in-season assessment of nitrogen status and nitrogen need of potato crop

• Grant number: 16/15396-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: June 05, 2017
• End date: June 04, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Principal Investigator: Rogério Peres Soratto
• Grantee: Rogério Peres Soratto
• Host Investigator: Matthew Dwain Ruark
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas (FCA). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), United States

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) is required in large quantities by the potato crop and the potato response to N fertilization is dependent on several factors. The application of insufficient or too high rates of N can reduce the yield and quality of produced tubers and represent losses to farmers and risks to the environment, which makes the N management complicated. The combined use of in-season measurements of the plant N status (such as normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI)) with the concentration of nitrate-N in the petiole and total N in the petiole and leaf can be valuable in decision-making on the supply-N need, especially in the late-season, providing increased in the N-use efficiency and avoiding nutrient losses. Thus, there will be a field experiment during the 2017 growing season (as part of a larger project, in development since 2015), in Hancock, Wisconsin, USA, with the following objectives to: a) determine an optimum N rate for potato cultivar Goldrush; b) evaluate late-season N need for cultivar Goldrush; c) evaluate five methods (petiole nitrate-N concentration, petiole total N concentration, leaf total N concentration, whole plant N uptake, and NDVI readings) to determine the N status in potato crop; d) evaluate the benefit of using in-situ soil mineralization columns to predict N release and N leaching; e) establish criteria for more precise recommendations of supplemental N applications for the potato crop in situations where it will be economically beneficial; and f) develop methodologies/technologies that can provide greater N-use efficiency and avoid unnecessary fertilizer applications on potato crop. The results will be evaluated by analysis of variance and correlations, to define the best rates of N and methods for estimating the N status in the plant. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

FERNANDES, FABIANA M.; SORATTO, ROGERIO P.; FERNANDES, ADALTON M.; SOUZA, EMERSON F. C.. Chlorophyll meter-based leaf nitrogen status to manage nitrogen in tropical potato production. AGRONOMY JOURNAL, v. 113, n. 2, MAR 2021. (16/15396-5)

SORATTO, ROGERIO P.; SANDANA, PATRICIO; FERNANDES, FABIANA M.; FERNANDES, ADALTON M.; MAKOWSKI, DAVID; CIAMPITTI, IGNACIO A.. Establishing a critical nitrogen dilution curve for estimating nitrogen nutrition index of potato crop in tropical environments. FIELD CROPS RESEARCH, v. 286, p. 8-pg., 2022-06-29. (16/15396-5)

FERNANDES, FABIANA M.; SORATTO, ROGERIO P.; SANDANA, PATRICIO; SOUZA, EMERSON F. C.; YAGI, RENATO. Optimization of Leaf Nitrogen Concentration and Monitoring Time for Sustainable Potato Production in Tropics. JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE AND PLANT NUTRITION, v. 22, n. 2, p. 11-pg., 2022-04-08. (16/15396-5)