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Chinese Agricultural Science Bulletin ›› 2024, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (7): 27-32.doi: 10.11924/j.issn.1000-6850.casb2023-0213

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Studies on Effects of Nitrate Nitrogen and Ammonium Nitrogen Combination on Alleviating Ammonium Toxicity in Cucumber Seedlings

FAN Yaping(), LI Jingyi, HE Miaomiao, WANG Changxian()   

  1. College of Modern Agricultural and Ecological Environment, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080
  • Received:2023-03-15 Revised:2023-09-11 Online:2024-02-27 Published:2024-02-27

Abstract:

To explore the effects of NO3--N on alleviating ammonium toxicity and mechanism involved at cucumber seedling stage, a pot experiment was carried out. In the experiment, the variety of ‘Jinyan No.4’ was selected as the experimental material, and vermiculite was used as the seedling substrate. The total nitrogen concentration was 15 mmol/L, NH4+-N and NO3--N were supplied respectively at seedling stage. 5 weeks later, the growth and physiological indexes of cucumber seedlings were measured. The results showed that it was easy to cause toxicity, if only NH4+-N was supplied. The contents of total nitrogen and total phosphorus in shoots treated by NO3--N were 1.08 times and 1.11 times higher than those treated by NH4+-N, respectively. Meanwhile, the leaf area, biomass and seedling's quality index were significantly higher than those treated by NH4+-N. For seedlings only supplied with NH4+-N, MDA content in shoots was significantly higher than that of NO3--N treatment, but chlorophyll content was significantly lower than that of NO3--N treatment. The growth was significantly inhibited by NH4+-N. When NH4+-N was mixed with the same amount of NO3--N, the inhibition was weakened. The pH value of seedlings rhizosphere increased from 6.28 to 6.54, at the same time chlorophyll content and LA increased in a degree. The shoots and roots dry weights increased by 26.6% and 29.5%, respectively. There was no significant difference in seedling's quality index between NH4+-N treatment and NO3--N treatment. It is concluded that ammonium toxicity is relieved by NO3--N, and the beneficial effect depends on the balance of nutrition and physiological metabolism of seedlings.

Key words: cucumber, NH4+-N, NO3--N, ammonium toxicity, alleviating