| Directories One Stop myU ... Search Volume 1 Issue June 11 Has Recent Wet Weather Resulted in Soil Nitrogen Loss? The recent heavy rains have raised questions about nitrogen (N) losses. In wet field areas it is common to find off-color crops, but that does not necessarily equate to N shortage. So be careful as you initially are seeing plant response to wet conditions (slowed root activity and growth.) The good news is that farmers have probably not lost much of their N application during this latest round of wet weather. The bad news is that significant N loss could still occur if wet weather continues. On the good news side, soil temperatures during the first three weeks of May at the NW Research and Outreach Center (NWROC) at Crookston were in the high forties to low fifties which are not ideal for denitrification to take place. I am not going to go into the denitrification process as Bobbie Holder explained the process in the May 28 Issue 3 of this newsletter. Nitrogen is lost from soils as nitrate-N with leaching (water movement through soil) and denitrification (biological conversion to N gases with saturated soil). It is the conversion of soil N and applied N (fertilizer and manure) to nitrate, and subsequent excessively wet, warm soils, that enhance the potential for N losses. Nitrogen in organic or ammonium forms will not be subject to loss. Use of fertilizer products containing more ammonium and application closer to a period of wet conditions result in less loss. According to Univ. of Illinois data ( | |
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