Abstract
Ten widely different plant species were compared for their ability to reduce soil mineral nitrogen levels in the autumn and their ability to improve the nitrogen nutrition of the succeeding crop. The species included monocots and dicots, crops that survived the winter (persistent) or were winter killed (non-persistent) as well as legumes and non legumes. Their ability to reduce soil mineral nitrogen content was dependent on both root depth and persistency of the crops in the autumn. For non-persistent catch crops most of the mineralization of plant nitrogen occurred during the winter, and for some of these so early as to allow leaching of some mineralized nitrogen. For persistent crops most of the mineralization occurred shortly after incorporation in the spring. The effect of the catch crops on nitrogen uptake by the succeeding barley crop varied from 13 to 66 kg N ha−1 and the differences between the crops could not be related to any single character, but to a combination of root depth, persistency, plant nitrate accumulation, and depletion of the soil mineral nitrogen pool in spring.
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Thorup-Kristensen, K. The effect of nitrogen catch crop species on the nitrogen nutrition of succeeding crops. Fertilizer Research 37, 227–234 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00748941
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00748941