Effect of Fertigation Frequency and Duration on Yield and Water Productivity of Wheat: Field and Modelling Study Using the Saltmed Model

This study investigated the impact of fertigation frequency and fertigation time on wheat production. The field experiment included nine treatments over two seasons, 2014/2015 and 2015/2016. The same amount of water and nitrogen fertilizer was given for all treatments, either over 1 day, divided over 2 days or over 3 days. Three fertigation times (FT, period of injecting fertilizers in irrigation water) as a fraction of the irrigation period were also applied. In FT strategies, nitrogen is given either during the same period of the irrigation from the start to the end, at the last three‐quarters of the irrigation period or at the second half of the irrigation period, IT [FT = IT, FT = 0.75IT and FT = 0.5IT]. The observed and simulated nitrogen uptake and grain nitrogen content showed an increasing trend when fertigation frequencies increased and fertigation time decreased.The field and modelling results indicated that increasing fertigation frequencies and decreasing fertigation time have benefits particularly for sandy soils, including higher yields and less pollution. In conclusion, the use of the fertigation frequency of 3 days and fertilizer injection in the second half of the irrigation period is a good fertigation strategy for sandy soils. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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