Physiological and Agronomic Response to N Fertility in Southern Georgia in a Long-Term Conservation Tillage System

The cotton crop is highly responsive to N fertility, especially on coarse-textured soils of the coastal plain, and established N recommendations exist for lint yield goals up to 1500 lbs/acre in Georgia. However, the near constant release of improved, higher-yielding Upland cotton varieties necessitates a reevaluation of yield response to N fertility and of the underlying physiological processes that influence yield response to N management. The current study addressed the physiological and agronomic responses of cotton to N fertility rates of 0, 75, 94, 112, 131, and 150 lbs N per acre in a long-term conservation tillage production environment in 2015 and 2016.