Nitrogen fertilization for wheat following soybean and interfering factors on spectral reflectance readings

A field experiment examined the wheat response following soybean due to urea-N fertilization at sowing (0, 20, 40, and 60 kg N ha −1 ) and top dressing (0, 30, 60, and 90 kg N ha −1 ). Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) measurements using a GreenSeeker active sensor were taken at different growth stages, at various sensor heights above the canopy, and at different times of day. Both the shoot dry matter yield and the grain yield were not affected by N fertilization at sowing and increased with increasing N rates at top dressing. A maximum economic yield was obtained at 55 kg N ha −1 in top dressing, causing a 33% increase in grain yield and an economic return of US$ 189.50 ha −1 . Differences in NDVI were found before and after top-dressing N fertilization, indicating that GreenSeeker was efficient in monitoring wheat N nutrition. NDVI varied depending on the measurement distance, stabilizing from 0.30 to 1.20 m above the canopy. Because of the influence of incident radiation, higher NDVI values were obtained at the beginning and end of the day. The results suggest that for the wheat cultivar Quartzo following soybean under minimum soil disturbance, while there is no need to apply N at sowing, an important increase in grain yield can be obtained with top-dressing N fertilization. In addition, to improve the accuracy in developing N fertilizer recommendation models using GreenSeeker, a consistent protocol for spectral reflectance readings, mainly regarding the time of day, is required.