RESEARCH ARTICLE

N-catch crops affect soil profile nitrate-N accumulation during vegetable cultivation

  • Yanzhi JI 1 ,
  • Xiaotang JU 2 ,
  • Wanzhong FENG 3 ,
  • Lijuan ZHANG , 1,4 ,
  • Shuqing LIU 1
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  • 1. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Agricultural University of Hebei, Baoding 071000, China
  • 2. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100094, China
  • 3. Great Wall College, China University of Geosciences, Baoding 071000, China
  • 4. Agricultural Engineering Research Center of North China Mountain Country, Baoding 071001, China

Received date: 21 Apr 2010

Accepted date: 11 May 2010

Published date: 05 Jun 2011

Copyright

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Abstract

To reduce nitrate leaching, the effects of three N-catch crops of sweet corn (Zea mays L.), amaranth (Amaranthus spp.), and sweet sorghum (SorghumLinn.) on nitrate-N accumulation in the soil profile were examined using an incubation experiment. Results showed that the biomass and N absorbed by sweet corn were the largest compared with the other two N-catch crop treatments. Root length density for sweet corn, amaranth, and sweet sorghum in the 0–150 cm soil layer was 0.66, 0.34 and 0.46 cm/cm3, respectively, and root dry weight was 0.065, 0.021 and 0.038 mg/cm3, respectively. In the 0–200 cm soil layer, nitrate-N accumulation for fallow, mature sweet sorghum, amaranth, and sweet corn was 1124.7, 899.4, 867.4 and 794.2 kg/hm2, respectively, where the treatment of sweet corn had the smallest N-accumulation. The nitrate-N leachability of fallow, sweet corn, amaranth, and sweet sorghum treatment was 3.6, 1.9, 2.4 and 2.6 kg/hm2, respectively, indicating that cropping of sweet corn, amaranth, and sweet sorghum could reduce the leachability by 47%, 35% and 28% in comparison with fallow treatment. Therefore, the cultivation of N-catch crops can reduce nitrate leaching in seasonal soil, and the sweet corn might be the most suitable catch crop.

Cite this article

Yanzhi JI , Xiaotang JU , Wanzhong FENG , Lijuan ZHANG , Shuqing LIU . N-catch crops affect soil profile nitrate-N accumulation during vegetable cultivation[J]. Frontiers of Agriculture in China, 2011 , 5(2) : 225 -230 . DOI: 10.1007/s11703-011-1052-z

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 30940048 and No. 30571110) and the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (the 863 project) (No. 2008AA06Z315) and the National Great Project of Scientific and Technical Supporting Programs Funded by Ministry of Science & Technology of China During the 11th Five-year Plan (No. 2006BAD17B05).
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