Corrigendum: Sub-surface drip fertigation improves seed cotton yield and monetary returns

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1038163.].

Sub-surface drip fertigation improves seed cotton yield and monetary returns

Surface flood (SF) method is used to irrigate cotton in India, which results in huge wastage of water besides leaching of nutrients. This necessitates the adoption of efficient management strategies to save scarce water without compromising the yield. Therefore, a 2-year field investigation was conducted under two climatic regimes (Faridkot and Abohar) to study the effect of sub-surface drip fertigation (SSDF) on seed cotton yield (SCY), water productivity, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), and economic parameters in comparison with SF and surface drip fertigation (SDF). The field experiment had a total of eight treatments arranged in a randomized complete block design. Three levels of sub-surface drip irrigation [(SSDI); i.e., 60%, 80%, and 100% of crop evapotranspiration (ETc)] and two N fertigation levels [100% recommended dose of nitrogen (RDN; i.e., 112.5 kg N ha^-1) and 75% RDN] made up six treatments, while SF (Control 1) and SDF at 80% ETc (Control 2), both with 100% of RDN, served as the controls. Among irrigation regimes, the SSDI levels of 80% ETc and 100% ETc recorded 18.7% (3,240 kg ha^-1) and 21.1% (3,305 kg ha^-1) higher SCY compared with SF (2,728 kg ha^-1). Water use efficiency under SF (57.0%) was reduced by 34.2%, 40.8%, and 38.2% compared with SSDI's 60 (76.5%), 80 (80.3%), and 100% ETc (78.8%), respectively. Among fertigation levels, NUE was higher by 19.2% under 75% (34.1 kg SCY kg^-1 N) over 100% RDN (28.6 kg SCY kg^-1 N), but later it also registered 11.9% higher SCY, indicating such to be optimum for better productivity. SSDF at 80% ETc along with 112.5 kg N ha^-1 recorded 26.6% better SCY (3455 kg ha^-1) and 18.5% higher NUE (30.7 kg SCY kg^-1 N) over SF. These findings demonstrate that the application of SSDF could save irrigation water, enhance SCY, and improve the farmers' returns compared with SF. Therefore, in northwestern India, SSDF at 80% ETc along with 112.5 kg N ha^-1 could be a novel water-savvy concept which would be immensely helpful in enhancing cotton productivity.

Combined application of soluble organic and chemical fertilizers in drip fertigation improves nitrogen use efficiency and enhances tomato yield and quality

BACKGROUND

Sustainable greenhouse tomato production requires optimal fertilizer management to achieve the double-win strategy of producing high yields and maximizing profits with less environmental pollution. The objective of this study was to seek an optimal fertilization strategy maintaining high productivity of greenhouse tomato, improving nitrogen use efficiency and reducing nitrate leaching risk.

RESULTS

The combined application of soluble organic and chemical fertilizers for topdressing (SOSC) not only produced more fruit yield (75.18 Mg ha^-1 ) and plant dry matter (10 449.12 kg ha^-1 ), but also enhanced plant nutrients uptake, nitrogen recovery efficiency (39.22%), nitrogen agronomic efficiency (176.78 kg kg^-1 ), soluble solids, vitamin C and lycopene content in tomato fruits compared with the other treatments, that is chicken manures for basal application and chemical fertilizer for topdressing (CC), soluble organic fertilizer for topdressing (SO) and soluble chemical fertilizer for topdressing (SC). In terms of soil nutrients residue, SOSC had no obvious NO₃ ^- -N accumulation area in the 0-60 cm soil layer, unlike large accumulation in the soil layer below 30 cm in SO and SC.

CONCLUSION

The combined application of soluble organic and chemical fertilizers is highly recommended to sustain fruit yield, improve nitrogen use efficiency and reduce soil degradation risks in commercial greenhouse tomato production.