Side-placing urea and other nitrogen fertilizers for spring barley

Abstract

1. Laboratory experiments compared alternative ways of placing urea for wheat. Urea greatly increased the pH in the seed-row; placed in contact with seeds, it killed many plants, but did not when placed 1 in. to the side of the seed.2. A combine-drill was modified so that, by simple adjustments, fertilizers could be placed in contact with the seed, or at 1 in. to the side of the seed, or broadcast over the seed-bed.3. Fifteen experiments with spring barley and one with spring wheat, made from 1960–62, compared yields from urea with yields from ammonium sulphate; calcium nitrate and sodium nitrate were tested in seven and in six experiments, respectively.