Do soybeans need nitrogen fertilizer?
According to a University of Illinois crop sciences researcher, there has been a great deal of interest recently in the idea of using nitrogen fertilizer during the growing season to increase soybean yields.
“This is somewhat surprising given that there has been so little evidence from published and unpublished reports showing that this practice increases yields, let alone provides a return on the cost of doing this,” said Emerson Nafziger.
Soybean plants in most Illinois fields produce nodules when roots are infected by Bradyrhizobium bacteria early in the season, Nafziger said. Bacteria growing inside these nodules are fed by sugars coming from the plant. “In one of the more amazing feats in nature, these bacteria are able to break the very strong chemical bond between nitrogen atoms in atmospheric nitrogen gas (nitrogen gas makes up some 78 percent of the air but is inert in that form.) This ‘fixed’ nitrogen is available to the plant to support growth,” he said.
The soybean crop has a high requirement for nitrogen; the crop takes up nearly 5 pounds of nitrogen per bushel, and about 75 percent of that is removed in the harvested crop. Nafziger explained that it is generally estimated that in soils such as those in Illinois, nitrogen fixation provides 50 to 60 percent of the nitrogen needed by the soybean crop. A small amount of nitrogen comes from atmospheric deposition, including some fixed by lightning. The rest comes from the soil, either from that left over from fertilizing the previous corn crop or from soil organic matter mineralization carried out by soil microbes.
Nitrogen fixation takes a considerable amount of energy in the form of sugars produced by photosynthesis in the crop. “Estimates of the amount of energy this takes range widely but could be in the vicinity of 10 percent of the energy captured in photosynthesis, at least during part of the season,” Nafziger said. “Because photosynthesis also powers growth and yield, it seems logical that the crop might not be able to produce enough sugars to go around, especially at high yield levels, and that either yields will suffer or nitrogen fixation will be reduced.”
Would adding nitrogen fertilizer fix this problem and result in higher yields?
