HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Peterson, L. A. Articles by Ogden, W. B. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Peterson, L. A. Articles by Ogden, W. B. Agricola Articles by Peterson, L. A. Articles by Ogden, W. B.

Correlation of Nitrogen Soil Tests With Nitrogen Uptake by the Tobacco Plant¹

ABSTRACT

Greenhouse and laboratory studies were conducted on soils collected from 37 Wisconsin tobacco fields to evaluate their capacity to supply nitrogen for two successive tobacco crops. Correlation analyses were made between the nitrogen content of each crop and the nitrogen determined by the various soil tests on the samples taken before the first crop. Highly significant correlation coefficients of 0.97 and 0.90 were obtained for soil nitrate nitrogen and Aspergillus niger tests, respectively. However, these tests were not significantly correlated with nitrogen uptake by the second crop, no doubt a result of depletion of the nitrates by the first crop. Similar results were obtained by dividing the soils into Prairie and Gray-Brown Podzolic groups, except that a highly significant coefficient was obtained between the Aspergillus niger test and nitrogen uptake by the second crop for the Prairie soils. The tests which determined all or a portion of the organic nitrogen correlated at significant or highly significant levels with the nitrogen content of the second crop but not by the first crop. This lack of consistency between crops was undoubtedly due to the pronounced effect of the higher content of nitrate nitrogen in the soil prior to the first crop. Highly significant correlation coefficients were obtained between total soil nitrogen and each of the following: alkaline permanganate nitrogen (0.95), percentage organic matter (0.99), nitrification rate (0.65) and the amount of ammonia nitrogen extracted by various concentrations of sulfuric and hydrochloric acids (0.59 to 0.71).

Contribution from the Departments of Soils and Horticulture, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Published with the approval of the director, Wisconsin Agr. Exp. Sta. Part of a dissertation submitted by the senior author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree at the University of Wisconsin. This work was supported in part by the Research Committee of the Graduate School with funds from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

² Formerly Research Assistant in Soils, now Assistant Professor of Horticulture; Professor of Soils; and Research Agronomist, Crops Research Division, ARS, USDA, University of Wisconsin, respectively.

Received for publication October 28, 1959. Accepted for publication December 7, 1959.