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Other Cane-Producing Countries, Innumerable Field Experiments Have Been Run in Order to Determine the Most Profitable Amount of Nitrogen to Applv

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Other Cane-Producing Countries, Innumerable Field Experiments Have Been Run in Order to Determine the Most Profitable Amount of Nitrogen to Applv NITROGEN NUTRITION OF SUGAR CANE U. K. DAS (WITH TWENTY-THREE FIGURES) Introduction In the intenisive culture of sugar cane in Hawaii nitrogen plays a key role. It is largely through liberal increases in nitrogenous fertilization that the cane industry has been able to more than double its annual output in the last twenty years. On the irrigated plantations of Hawaii, an applica- tion of two to three hundred pounds of nitrogen per acre per crop is the usual practice. In terms of nitrogen-containing fertilizer like ammonium sulphate, this amount would represent an application of over half a ton of fertilizer per acre.' So enormous is the capacity of the cane plant to take up this nitrogen that little is left in the soil and each succeeding crop has to be fertilized equally heavily to maintain the yield, which runs about eighty to a hundred tons of millable cane per acre. These enormous applications of nitrogen have not, however, been with- out drawbacks; while the cane yield has increased more than 100 per cent., its quality, as measured by the number of tons of cane required to make a ton of sugar, has actually decreased about 15 per cent. It is estimated that had there been no loss in quality, the sugar industry might have netted several million dollars more every year. The question is therefore being seriously asked, Is high nitrogen fertilization incompatible with good quality? If so, is there any way of preventing at least the extent to which quality will deteriorate? Indeed, no further increases in the nitrogenous fertilization can be contemplated without an answer to these questions. The present study was undertaken for the purpose of gathering funda- mental information on the effects of widely varied amounts of nitrogen on the yield of cane and on the physico-chemical characteristics of the juice. Without such informationi, all efforts toward improvement of quality may not gain their objective. There is a considerable body of literature on the nitrogen nutrition of different plants, but so far as the writer is aware no such study appears to have been undertaken previously with sugar cane. In Hawaii and in other cane-producing countries, innumerable field experiments have been run in order to determine the most profitable amount of nitrogen to applv. The data on final yields thus gathered, while of undoubted agricultural 1 In marked contrast to other tropical cane regions, Hawaii 's mild and almost sub- tropieal climate makes it necessary to grow sugar cane as a biennial crop. The high appli- cations of nitrogen are therefore intended to maintain the crop over a period of two years. 251 252 PLANT PHYSIOLOGY value, do not give any insight into the influence of nitrogen on the metabolic processes of the plant. Plan and experimental procedure It was proposed to study three widely different amounts of nitrogen, one considered to be very low, one known from field experiments to be about optimum, and one very high. It was felt that only through such exaggera- tion of differences would the metabolic effects of nitrogen on cane plants be clearly brought out. A uniform area of land at the Experiment Station in Honolulu was chosen as the locale of the study. The land was thoroughly prepared and divided into three sections, each being separated from the other by 10 feet. Each section was further divided into nineteen rows, each row 25 feet long and 5 feet wide. PLANTING MATERIAL, TAGGING OF PLANTS.--On June 21, 1933, uniform seed pieces2 of the sugar cane variety H 109 were planted. Germination of new shoots started within three weeks. At the end of five weeks, when ger- mination was considered to be complete, the weak shoots in each row were weeded out, leaving only the more uniform and vigorous ones. In order to eliminate variations arising from differences in the original stand, the same number of shoots, namely sixty-five, were kept in each row. These original shoots arising from the seed piece are in this paper called mother stalks or stalks of the first order. Each of these stalks was numbered in sequence with a weatherproof tag so that at any later period its identity would be precisely known. The tillers that came up between the date of marking the mother stalks and the third month are called daughter stalks or stalks of the second order. All the second order stalks were similarly tagged. These precautions were undertaken to facilitate sampling procedures when the heavy growth of cane would render separation of the various orders impossible by the eye alone. FERTILIZATION.-The total amounts of fertilizer applied were as follows: Low nitrogen plot: 133.30 pounds of N from ammonium sulphate, 200 pounds of P205 from superphosphate, 200 pounds of K2O from potassium sulphate. Medium nitrogen plot: 266.65 pounds of N; P.0O, and K,O same as in the low N plot. High nitrogen plot: 645 pounds of N; P20,, and K,O same as in the other treatments. The phosphate and potash fertilizers were applied in one dose at the time of planting but the nitrogen was applied in seven doses: 2 Sugar cane is propagated vegetatively by planting a section of the stalk, preferably a young stalk. Such setions are referred to as seed pieees, as distinguished from true seeds. DAS: NITROGEN NUTRITION OF SUGAR CANE 253 SCHEME OF NITROGEN FERTILIZATION AGE OF CROP Low N MEDIUM N HIGH N 0 month (with seed) ......... 25 pounds 50 pounds 75 pounds 3" ........................."............ 25 " 50 " 75 " 6 " .............. 16.66 " 33.33 " 99 " 8k " ..16.66 " 33.33 " 99 " 10" ...........'............ 16.66 " 33.33 " 99 " 12 " 16.66 " 33.33 " 99 " 141 " ....................... 16.66 " 33.33 " 99 " Total 133.30 " 266.65 " 645 " Whenl the cane was young alnd the rows physically accessible, the nitro- geln was applied by hand. After nine months the cane field was such a jungle of growth that application by hand was impossible; the last three applications were therefore applied in the irrigation water. IRRIGATION.-Water was applied at the rate of 2 inches per acre per irrigation, two applications per week, irrespective of season.3 Sixteen to 18 inches of water thus applied every month is considered more than suffi- cient for the requirements of the plant. Water is thereby removed as a limiting factor or as a source of variation. HARVESTING PROCEDURE.-Beginning at the age of three and one-half months and every second month thereafter, one line of cane from each sec- tioIn was harvested. A day or two before the harvest, samples were taken from each line for physico-chemical determinlations. These samples con- sisted of five first-order stalks taken 5 feet apart in the row and two or three seconld-order stalks growing in the immediate vicinity of the selected first-order stalks. The first, second, and higher orders of stalks were segregated at each harvest. The dead and the dying leaves were removed from the stalks, which were then divided into two sections, the millable cane and the non- millable top. The latter is that part of the cane which, in commercial practice, is left in the field. It consists of green blades, sheath, and very immature joints of cane. The millable cane was further divided into two sections: (1) the "green-leaf" cane, i.e., that part of the millable stalk where some green or partly green leaves are still tightly adhering; (2) the "dry-leaf" or the "dead-leafy" section, where the joints are fully exposed and nlo leaves are adhering. This manner of dividing the cane into three sections for the purpose of studying quality was first employed in our previous study (10) and repre- 3 In the rainy season (precipitation about 3 inches per month) allowance was made for heavy showers so that the ground might not become too wet. 254 PLANT PHYSIOLOGY sents a departure from the usual practice in chemical studies of the cane plant. It will be obvious that the separation of the tissue in the various plant parts, although entailing much more work, must provide better infor- mation on the biochemical effects of nitrogen fertilization. At this point it should be emphasized that although the separation of the dry-leaf section from the rest of the cane is more or less precise, the separation of the green-leaf cane from the non-millable top is much more subject to errors of judgment. What one person employed for cutting the cane might consider a non-millable joint, another might consider a part of the millable green-leaf cane. This empirical method of separation intro- duces a source of uncontrolled variation in the green-leaf and the top sec- tions which is not present in the dry-leaf section. Agronomy GENERAL OBSERVATIONS Tillering was more pronounced in the high N plot than in the others, resulting in more stalks per line at harvest. At three months of age the low N plants looked the greenest and the cane in parts of the other two plots somewhat yellow. This was contrary to expectations. It so happens that the part of the area showing this yellowing had been cleared of grow- ing cane only a short while before, while the areas in the low N plot and in parts of the other two treatments were fallow for several months. It is hard to say whether fallowing had any beneficial effect on the general meta- bolism and on nitrogen availability or its uptake by the plants. Analysis previous to planting showed about the same amount of total nitrogen in all the plots.
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