Crops ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (1): 125-132.doi: 10.16035/j.issn.1001-7283.2026.01.016

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Effects of Nitrogen Fertilizer on Maize Root Growth and Nitrogen Metabolism under High-Density Planting

Zhou Wenli(), Hao Miaoyi, Zhang Renhe()   

  1. College of Agronomy, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China
  • Received:2024-12-30 Revised:2025-02-25 Online:2026-02-15 Published:2026-02-10

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Abstract:

The effects of nitrogen (N) application on maize yield, root distribution, and N metabolism were analyzed under high-density planting by using the maize cultivar Xianyu 335 as material, setting up a conventional density treatment of 6.75×104 plants/ha (D1) and a high-density treatment of 8.25×104 plants/ha (D2), and applying N at five rates (0, 160, 220, 280, and 340 kg N/ha) per density treatment. The results indicated that with the increasing of N application rate, the maize yield showed a trend of increasing and then decreasing. The yield of D2 treatment was significantly higher than that of D1 treatment and the combination of high-density planting and optimized N application (160-220 kg N/ha) increased the yield by 39.1%-51.8% compared to conventional management. The optimized combination of N rates and planting densities increased root length, root length density, root surface area, root volume, specific root length, as well as the activities of glutamate synthase and glutamine synthetase in roots. The two enzyme activities were positively correlated with root growth distribution. In conclusion, an application of 160-220 kg/ha of N at a planting density of 8.25×104 plants/ha is recommended. This combination enhances nitrogen metabolism enzyme activities, promotes root growth, and increases soil nutrient uptake, thereby improving maize yield. This can serve as a high-yield maize planting model for the Guanzhong region of Shaanxi.

Key words: Maize, Root system, Density, Nitrogen fertilizer, Nitrogen metabolism, Yield

Fig.1

Changes of daily average temperature and precipitation during maize growth period from 2021 to 2022"

Table 1

Effects of sowing density and nitrogen application on the grain yield of maize from 2021 to 2022"

年份
Year		 密度处理
Density
treatment		 氮肥处理
N treatment
(kg/hm2)		 穗数
Ear number
(×104 plants/hm2)		 穗粒数
Kernel number
per ear		 百粒重
100-grain
weight (g)		 出籽率
Kernel
percentage (%)		 籽粒产量
Grain yield
(×104 kg/hm2)
2021 D1 N0 6.72c 470.08a 31.05c 0.79bc 0.78c
N1 6.78c 476.95a 35.40bc 0.82ab 0.94abc
N2 6.56c 539.09a 39.89ab 0.76c 1.07ab
N3 6.17c 496.80a 36.09bc 0.82ab 0.90bc
N4 6.22c 517.39a 32.86c 0.80ab 0.84b
D2 N0 7.17ab 486.21a 38.27ab 0.82ab 1.09a
N1 7.50a 552.21a 40.39a 0.82ab 1.25a
N2 5.94c 502.00a 37.44abc 0.84a 1.03abc
N3 6.39c 491.84a 37.07abc 0.81ab 0.95abc
N4 7.22ab 476.35a 33.59bc 0.80ab 0.93bc
F值F value 密度 * ns * * **
施氮量 * ns * ns **
密度×施氮量 ns ns ns * ns
2022 D1 N0 5.87bc 404.57de 33.76ab 0.70ab 0.79c
N1 5.60c 484.40bc 35.39a 0.79ab 0.96bc
N2 5.92bc 488.17bc 34.83ab 0.78ab 1.00bc
N3 5.17c 460.60bcd 34.96ab 0.74ab 0.82c
N4 5.87bc 441.20cde 35.38a 0.71ab 0.92bc
D2 N0 7.57a 399.27e 33.90ab 0.77ab 1.01abc
N1 6.99a 423.21de 35.37a 0.82a 1.04abc
N2 7.47a 501.50a 33.64ab 0.75ab 1.25a
N3 6.88ab 480.77bc 33.04ab 0.65b 1.09ab
N4 7.31a 398.90e 30.80b 0.80ab 0.90bc
F值F value 密度 ** ns ns * *
施氮量 ns ** ns ns *
密度×施氮量 ns * ns * ns

Fig.2

Effects of different densities and nitrogen fertilizer treatments on root morphology of maize from 2021 to 2022 Different capital letters indicate significant differences among different planting density treatments (P < 0.05), different lowercase letters indicate significant differences among different nitrogen fertilizer treatments under the same density (P < 0.05).“*”,“**”and“***”indicate the effect is significant at P < 0.05, P < 0.01 and P < 0.001 levels, respectively,“ns”indicates the effect is not significant. The same below."

Fig.3

Effects of different densities and nitrogen fertilizer treatments on maize root architecture from 2021 to 2022 RIA: root inter-row angle; RRA: root intra-row angle; MRIW: maximum root inter-row width; MRRW: maximum root intra-row width; RA: ratio of maximum root inter-row to intra-row angle; RW: ratio of maximum root inter-row to intra-row width; RSA: root surface area; RV: root volume; RL: root length; RLD: root length density; SRL: specific root length; RSR: root-shoot ratio."

Fig.4

Effects of different densities and nitrogen fertilizer treatments on nitrogen metabolism enzyme activities in maize roots from 2021 to 2022"

Table 2

Correlation analysis of yield, root biological characteristics and physiological indexes"

指标Index RIA RRA MRIW MRRW RA RW RSA RV RL RLD SRL RSR NR GS GOGAT GY
RIA 1.000
RRA 0.809** 1.000
MRIW 0.708** 0.734** 1.000
MRRW 0.295* 0.194 0.306* 1.000
RA 0.148 -0.452** -0.127 0.121 1.000
RW 0.330* 0.473** 0.609** -0.551** -0.261* 1.000
RSA 0.582** 0.506** 0.529** 0.136 0.063 0.325* 1.000
RV 0.372** 0.212 0.270* 0.006 0.236 0.209 0.806** 1.000
RL 0.600** 0.547** 0.596** 0.212 0.029 0.340** 0.767** 0.560** 1.000
RLD 0.583** 0.528** 0.591** 0.193 0.028 0.359** 0.692** 0.524** 0.969** 1.000
SRL 0.290* 0.319* 0.358** 0.209 -0.069 0.161 0.637** 0.460** 0.803** 0.761** 1.000
RSR 0.690** 0.704** 0.681** 0.267* -0.113 0.362** 0.600** 0.360** 0.657** 0.627** 0.266* 1.000
NR 0.163 0.157 0.075 -0.122 -0.030 0.153 0.410** 0.242 0.323* 0.233 0.312* 0.122 1.000
GS -0.105 -0.095 0.008 -0.203 0.002 0.175 0.028 0.124 0.087 0.125 0.153 -0.088 0.064 1.000
GOGAT 0.485** 0.368** 0.504** 0.287* 0.127 0.191 0.676** 0.563** 0.741** 0.718** 0.655** 0.521** 0.498** 0.142 1.000
GY 0.198 0.183 0.331** 0.053 -0.007 0.221 0.163 0.177 0.356** 0.425** 0.142 0.274* -0.005 0.348** 0.395** 1.000
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