Growers should be monitoring soil temperatures to guide fall nitrogen management. Provincial weather station soil temperatures are posted at: http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/weather/soil-temperature.html
The principle of fall fertilization is generally to delay applications until soils have cooled so microbial activity is curtailed. That way less of the stable ammonium form-N (NH4+,) that is held on clay and OM, is converted to nitrate (NO3-) which can leach or denitrify.
The rate of nitrification of banded N to nitrate is illustrated in the following table from http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/crops/soil-fertility/a-fall-fertilization-refresher.html
Table 1. Nitrification rates of ammonia to nitrate form-N from banded urea (calculated from Tiessen et al, 20031).
Average soil temperature at band depth | Days for 50% conversion to nitrate | Days for 100% conversion to nitrate |
1 oC
5 oC 10 oC 15 oC 20 oC |
190
40 20 13 10 |
380
80 40 25 20 |
So as soils cool and eventually freeze, the microbial activity is reduced such that ammonium-N is retained in its stable form. If one chooses to apply nitrogen before Mother Nature provides cool soil – they may consider using one of several enhanced efficiency fertilizers – N-Serve, eNtrench, ESN or SuperU.
Submitted by: John Heard, Soil Fertility Specialist