Effect of sprinkler irrigation on fate of labelled ammonium sulphate applied to sugar cane in a silty clay loam of Mauritius
| MSI99P0281 | |
| Ng Kee Kwong, K. F. Deville, J. Rivière, V. | |
| Effect of sprinkler irrigation on fate of labelled ammonium sulphate applied to sugar cane in a silty clay loam of Mauritius | |
| Periodical article | |
| 1983 | |
| Proc. int. Soc. Sug. Cane Technol. | |
| 18: 219-227 | |
| En | |
| En Fr Es | |
| The influence of sprinkler irrigation (25 mm H2O per week) on the fate of labelled ammonium sulphate applied to plant cane (variety M377/56) was studied in a field experiment on a silty clay loam receiving on average less than 1 600 mm rainfall per year. Rainfall and irrigation waters were observed not to penetrate to depths greater than 70 cm. Consequently N, observed as NO3, was not detected in soil solutions at 120 cm soil depth. The movement of fertilizer N was further hampered by biological immobilization near the soil surface. In this context three years after fertilization most of the immobilized fertilizer N was found to be in the top 30 cm soil layer. The immobilized fertilizer N exhibited poor residual value in ratoons and indeed it contributed to less than one percent of N taken up by the second ratoon. Availability of soil N, fertilizer N use efficiency by plant cane and sugar cane yields were not increased by application of supplementary water. Moreover irrigation had no bearing on the amount (50 per cent) of fertilizer N that remained unaccounted for three years after fertilization. Much of the unaccounted for N was presumed to have been lost by volatilization. This study thus indicates that surface management of fertilizer N in soils of low rainfall and high temperature areas may be more important that measures to attenuate N leaching losses. | |
| SUGARCANE SPRINKLER IRRIGATION FERTILIZERS NITROGEN LEACHING NITROGEN FERTILIZERS PLANT NUTRITION ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION | |
| MAURITIUS | |
| Sugarcane: Water use and management | |
| Irrigation: Trickle irrigation | |
| 1992-02-18 | |
| En | |
| Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute | |
| LIB | |
| CAT | |
| CHEM |