Submitted by John Heard, Crop Nutrition Specialist, Manitoba Agriculture

Interest and acreage of fall rye has grown substantially in Manitoba. Hybrid rye has about a 20% yield advantage over traditional open pollinated (OP) varieties and are expanding onto more productive soils than rye’s historic range on the droughty sands.

With increased yield potential comes the question about nitrogen rates to sustain that higher yield. The hybrids are shorter and more lodging tolerant, so one might suspect they can tolerate more nitrogen, and hence respond to more nitrogen. Very few studies have looked at nitrogen rates of the open pollinated versus hybrid varieties. Three Saskatchewan studies provide the extent of the data. From this data we observe the substantial yield increase of the hybrids over the open pollinated variety but that similar rates of nitrogen are required to optimize yield of each.

Read the whole story here (PDF 325KB): hybrid-rye-fertilization-rates

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