Supplemental Late-Vegetative Nitrogen Applications for High-Yield Corn: Agronomic, Economic and Environmental Implications with Modern Versus Older Hybrids

IPNI-2014-USA-4RN25

01 May 2014

Project Description


Introduction:
Modern corn hybrids have a “functional stay green” capacity whereby their leaves not only stay green longer during the grain filling period, but also maintain their photosynthetic capacity until much later in the grain filling period (Tollenaar and Lee, 2011). Modern hybrids also yield more than hybrids of earlier decades because of their improved stress tolerance to plant density and other stress factors (whether pest-related factors or abiotic challenges). Therefore, one of the major corn management questions of our time is whether corn hybrids take up more of their total plant N during the reproductive period (i.e. beginning at the R1 stage as defined by Abendroth et al., 2011) and, if they do, whether modern hybrids are more responsive to intentionally very late- vegetative stage N fertilizer applications.

Additional Resources

4RN-25 ProposalSize: 0.56 MB