Efficiency of early spring feeding of winter wheat complex fertilizers on light podzolic soil in Poland

Abstract

Field experiments were carried out on sandy loamy podzolic soil in the Łdź Voivodship (Wieluń commune, Masłowice parish) at the Experimental Station of the Polish Research Variety Testing Center, to study the effect of various winter wheat feeding systems with an intensive cultivation system on yield and grain quality indicators. The soil before conducting the experiments was characterized by a neutral reaction of the soil environment, a very high level of mobile phosphorus, and an average content of mobile potassium in 2017 and 2019, and high availability in 2018. The initial level of nitrate nitrogen in the soil was medium in 2017 and high in 2018 and 2019. The podzolic soils of the region, with a light granulometric composition, often have a low supply of sulfur available to plants. With a low content of humus in such soils, there is a small reserve of sulfur in organic form, and therefore, variants with sulfur-containing fertilizers were included in the intensive technology of winter wheat cultivation. Weather conditions of the growing seasons 2017-2018, 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 differed by an insufficient amount of atmospheric precipitation during the growth stages critical for grain formation. The yield of winter wheat grain in all years of research was maximum in variant 3 with the use of ammonium nitrate and complex sulfur-containing fertilizer Apaviva NPK(S) 15:15:15(10) as top dressing. The yield increase resulted from the autumn phosphorus-potassium application (double superphosphate and potassium chloride) was 25, 34 and 30 % in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. The maximum grain yield of winter wheat in the experiment of 6.93 t/ha was obtained in variant 3 in 2019. Such a system of winter wheat top dressing provided a stable high additional income.