Effects of Reduced Fertilization on Field Propagation Efficiency and Fertilizer Utilization Rate of Disease-free Sugarcane Original Seed-lings under Mulched Drip Fertigation System
The present study investigated the effects of chemical fertilizer reduction patterns on the growth,field propa-gation efficiency,and fertilizer utilization rate of disease-free sugarcane original seedlings to provide a theoretical basis for the application of mulched drip fertigation,and to identify the optimal pattern for reducing fertilizer in the field propagation of disease-free sugarcane original seedlings.Under the condition of drip irrigation management,six differ-ent treatments were set:no fertilization(CK0),conventional fertilization(CK1),mulched drip fertigation T100(fertilizer amount equated with CK1)and T80,T70,T60(20%,30%and 40%reduction of the fertilization rate in T100).A compara-tive analysis was done on the main agronomic traits,total bud count per unit area,propagation efficiency,economic benefit,and nutrient utilization rate during the field propagation of disease-free sugarcane original seedlings.The results showed that the two-year average tillering rate in the treatment T100 and T80 was slightly lower than that in CK1.How-ever,significant improvement was observed in the stalk formation rate,the number of buds per plant,and the number of millable stalks compared to CK1 Notably.T100 and T80 exhibited the highest values for the total number of propagation buds,with averages 1.4809 million buds/hm2 and 1.4779 million buds/hm2,respectively in two years,both significantly exceeding the 1.3025 million buds/hm2 in CK1.In contrast,there was no significant difference between T70 and CK1,while T60 had the lowest value of only 1.1705 million buds/hm2.T100 and T80 showed the highest field propagation mul-tiples of original seedlings,reaching 66.64 and 66.50 times,respectively,followed by T70 and CK1 with propagation multiples of 59.61 and 58.61 times,respectively,and T60 had the lowest propagation multiple of 52.67.Compared to CK0 without fertilization,T100 and T80 achieved the highest income increase,reaching 58 200 and 58 700 Yuan/hm2,respec-tively,followed by T70 with an income increase of 41 900 Yuan/hm2 which was slightly higher than CK1's 38 400 yuan/hm2;T60 had the lowest income increase of only 25 100 Yuan/hm2.Regarding the fertilizer input-output ratio,T80had the highest ratio of 1∶21.89,significantly exceeding that of 1∶17.36,while CK1 had the lowest ratio of 1∶11.45.Among all the fertilization treatments,CK1 had the lowest utilization rates of nitrogen,phosphorus,and potassium fertilizers.Furthermore,T80 boasted the highest fertilizer utilization rates,with 51.57%for nitrogen,27.37%for phos-phorus,and 67.45%for potassium in two-year averages,which was 21.21%,10.37%,and 23.13%higher than those in CK1,respectively.In conclusion,for laterite soil with medium fertility,the mulched drip fertigation pattern T80 per-formed the best in field propagation efficiency and economic benefits for disease-free sugarcane seedlings.
disease-free sugarcane original seedlingsmulched drip fertigationreduction fertilizationpropagation effi-ciencyfertilizer utilization rate