Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017
Palmer amaranth influences selection of crop production practices such asirrigation, nitrogen (N) application, and weed control. The objectives ofthis research were to determine if Palmer amaranth was more responsive toapplied N than corn and if this differed under dryland and irrigatedconditions in Kansas. Field experiments were conducted near Manhattan, KS,in 2005 and 2006 to evaluate the influence of N rate and Palmer amaranthdensities when grown with corn in two soil moisture environments. A verydrought-stressed environment and a well-watered environment occurred in2006, while both environments in 2005 were intermediate. Dryland weed-freecorn yields were 46.5% of irrigated corn yields at the high N rate acrossyears. Irrigated corn yields responded to increasing N rates. In thepresence of Palmer amaranth, parameter estimates I and A for the yield lossrelationship were not different across N rates for each environment and yearexcept 2006 where 100% yield loss was estimated in dryland compared to 62.5%loss in irrigated environment at high N rates. In three of fourenvironment-years, N rate did not affect the corn yield loss relationshipwith weed density. In 2006 irrigated environment, greater N rates had lesscorn yield loss caused by Palmer amaranth. By corn anthesis, weed-free cornbiomass was 167.5% greater in irrigated than dryland environments in 2006.Palmer amaranth with no corn increased its biomass by 373 and 361% as N rateincreased in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Nitrogen concentrations in planttissues of corn or weed increased similarly as N rates increased from 0 to224 kg N ha−1, thus highlighting that both corn and Palmeramaranth responded similarly to increasing N. In general, soil moistureenvironment was most critical when determining potential corn yield,followed by Palmer amaranth density and N rate.
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