Effects of irrigation type and fertilizer application rate on growth, yield, and water and fertilizer use efficiency of silage corn in the North China Plain

Yuchun Liu; Ning Wang; Changsong Jiang; Yao Wang

doi:10.7717/peerj.18315

Effects of irrigation type and fertilizer application rate on growth, yield, and water and fertilizer use efficiency of silage corn in the North China Plain

PeerJ. 2024 Nov 27:12:e18315. doi: 10.7717/peerj.18315. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Yuchun Liu¹, Ning Wang², Changsong Jiang², Yao Wang²

Affiliations

¹ College of Urban and Rural Construction, Hebei Agricultural University AND Key Laboratory for North China Water-Saving Agriculture of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Ministry, Baoding, Hebei, China.
² College of Urban and Rural Construction, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding, Hebei, China.

Abstract

Background: There is an urgent need to save water and decrease fertilizer application rates in agricultural areas of the North China Plain (NCP) and similar regions.

Methods: Field experiments were conducted in 2017 and 2018 in the NCP to investigate the effects of border and furrow irrigation under different fertilizer application rates on the growth, yield, and water and fertilizer use efficiencies of silage corn. The experiment applied two irrigation methods, i.e., border and furrow irrigation, each with four compound fertilizer application rates: 750, 600, 450, and 300 kg/ha.

Results: While the two experiment years were normal hydrological years, variation in precipitation resulted in no irrigation being applied in 2017 and 70 mm of irrigation being applied after sowing in 2018. Plants appeared to grow slightly taller and thicker with larger leaf areas, but with a 9.7% lower fresh weight yield in 2017 relative to 2018. The actual evapotranspiration (ET_a) in 2017 was 37.22 mm more than that in 2018, and the higher fresh weight yield and lower ET_a caused higher water use efficiency (WUE) in 2018, which was 32% higher than that in 2017. Furrow irrigation promoted growth compared with border irrigation under the same irrigation amount, but without significant effects on fresh weight yield, ET_a, or WUE of silage corn. The fertilizer application amount had a significant effect on fresh weight yield and the partial fertilizer productivity of N, P and K of silage corn, but did not affect ET_a or WUE of silage corn. Additionally, the fertilizer rate of 600 kg/ha induced slightly higher growth indexes and fresh weight yields compared with the fertilizer rates of 750, 450, and 300 kg/ha.

Discussion: In the NCP, lower irrigation amounts at the crop development period of silage corn appeared to promote higher yield, WUE, and fertilizer use efficiency, under the condition that there was sufficient water to ensure the emergence of seedlings. The current fertilizer application model, compound fertilizer applied with a seeder at planting, does not match the fertilizer needs of silage corn, and more efficient water and fertilizer application techniques should thus be adopted.

Keywords: Irrigation type; Fertilizer rate; North China Plain; Silage corn; Water and fertilizer use efficiency.

MeSH terms

Agricultural Irrigation* / methods
China
Fertilizers* / analysis
Silage*
Water* / metabolism
Zea mays* / growth & development

Substances

Fertilizers
Water

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Science and Technology Research Project of Higher Education in Hebei Province (ZD2021324), China, and the Scientific Research Project Independent Set by the Smart Horticulture Subject Group in the Agricultural University of Hebei (2021). The Key Laboratory for North China Water-Saving Agriculture of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Ministry funded the APC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.