Abstract

The incorporation of corn stubble with application of nitrogen fertilizers can create benefits in soil fertility, however, adding fertilizers during the incorporation could generate nitrate losses due to leaching, causing environmental problems. For this reason, the objective of the study was to evaluate the mineralization and leaching rates of N with different management techniques under controlled conditions, evaluating 4 treatments: T0: Control, T1: Stubble without N, T2: Stubble + Methyl-urea (slow delivery fertilizer), these were conducted at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Chile. For leaching, lysimeters were installed in a completely randomized block design with 4 repetitions, to which were added sandy-textured soil at an experimental site located in San Luis, Pichidegua municipality. From this same site, we extracted our soils for a mineralization test in a design of repeated measurements with 3 repetitions, which were incubated in darkness at 25°C. In relation to leaching, the T3 treatment was the best of those evaluated as it leached a lower concentration of nitrate, obtaining significant differences compared to the other treatments; however, with regards to ammonium, pH and CE, it behaved in a manner similar to the T2 treatment. On the other hand, there was mineralization of N in all the treatments, with a decrease in the C/N ratio at the end of the test. T3 obtained the best results in this measured variable.