Abstract
A.O. Rozhkov, O.M. Belashov, O.V. Gepenko, S.V. Stankevych*, T.A. Romanova and A.V. Matsyura
Of the technological methods, fertilizers have the most significant effect on the performance of crops. However, limited resources of mineral fertilizers and their high cost necessitate research to identify the most effective options for their application. Our purpose was to optimize the nutrition system of winter triticale crops by determining the best options for the pre-sowing application of polynutrient fertilizers, establishing the effectiveness of different variants of additional fertilization that ensure the highest grain yield of winter triticale in years with various temperature and precipitation during the growing period. The study was conducted using the conventional technique in the Private Agricultural Enterprise Imeni Shevchenka (Kharkivska Oblast. Velykoburlutskyi Raion) in 2018–2020. The two-factor experiment was performed in segregated plots arranged in two bands in four replications. The plot area was 150 m2; the recording area was 100 m2. Various temperatures and significant fluctuations in the precipitation amount and its distribution during the spring-summer vegetation of winter triticale greatly influenced the growth processes in plants, which significantly affected the grain yield. Simultaneously, this made it possible to more fully determine the impact of the studied nutrition variants on the grain yield of this crop. In general, the highest grain yield of winter triticale in 2018, 2019, and 2020 (5.67 t/ha, 6.67 t/ha, and 5.72 t/ha, respectively) was achieved where the nutrition algorithm included the pre-sowing application of compound fertilizer, ammophos, at a dose of N12P52, root application of ammonium nitrate at a dose of N50 at the beginning of the tillering phase (microphase 22) and two foliar treatments – at the beginning of stem elongation (microphase 31) and in the flag-leaf ligule phase (microphase 39) with the following mixture: urea (N5.4), magnesium sulfate (1.0 kg/ha) and water-soluble compound fertilizer FerCristal SUMMUM (1.5 kg/ha). The third foliar application in the early milky ripeness phase (microphase 73) with the same fertilizer mixture did not significantly increase the grain yield. The proposed fertilization algorithm of winter triticale is of great ecological importance, as the rejection of fertilization on frozen-thawed soil lessens nitrogen outflow attributed to a possible runoff on the soil surface during thawings, and the replacement of compound fertilizer ammonium nitrate phosphate fertilizer with ammophos, due to reduction in the nitrogen dose, decreased the risk of nitrate migration into groundwater, while improving the phosphorus nutrition of plants with half the dose of fertilizer.