Influences of nitrogen fertilizer application rates on radish yield, nutrition quality, and nitrogen recovery efficiency

Abstract

Radishes (Raphanus sativus L.) were grown in plastic pots in a screenhouse to investigate the influences of nitrogen fertilizer application rates (NFAR) on yield, nitrate content, nitrate reductase activity (NR), nutrition quality, and nitrogen recovery efficiency (NRE) at commercial mature stage. Five N-rate treatments, 0.644, 0.819, 0.995, 1.170, and 1.346 g•pot^-1, were set up in the screenhouse pot experiments, and nitrogen fertilizer (unlabeled N and ¹⁵N-labeled fertilizer) was applied as basal dressing and topdressing, respectively. The results indicated that the fresh and dry weight yields of radish increased with the increase of NFAR at the range of 0.099 to 0.180 g N•kg^-1 soil, decreased at 0.207 g N•kg^-1 soil, and accordingly there was a significant quadratic relationship between the fresh and dry weight yields of radish and the NFAR. At the high addition of urea-N fertilizer, the nitrate content accumulated in the fleshy roots and leaves due to the decline in NR activity. From 0.644 to 0.819 g N•pot^-1 NR increased most rapidly, the highest NR activity occurred at 0.819 g N•pot^-1, and the lowest NR activity happened at 1.346 g N•pot^-1. Soluble sugar and ascorbic acid initially increased to the highest value and then decreased, and, contrarily, crude fiber rapidly decreased with the increase of NFAR. Total N uptake (TNU), N derived from fertilizer (N_dff), and N derived from soil (N_dfs) in radish increased, except that N_dfs relatively and slightly decreased at the rate of 0.207 g N•kg^-1soil. The ratio of N_dff to TNU increased, but the ratio of N_dfs to TNU as well as NRE of N fertilizer decreased with the increase of NFAR. Therefore, the appropriate NFAR should be preferably recommended for improving the yields and nutrition qualities of radish and NRE of N fertilizer.

Key words： ¹⁵N-labeled nitrogen fertilizer; radish; yields; nutrition quality; nitrogen recovery efficiency

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the International Plant Nutrition Institute, China (IPNI China Program: Hunan-11) and the Hunan Provincial Key Subject, China (No. 04NK2006). We thank the workers at the farm of Hunan Agricultural University for assistance with the experiments. We also thank our colleagues for providing basic soil data.

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