Purpose
Nitrogen (N) loss and utilization can have a major impact on final wheat yield. This project was undertaken to evaluate the impact of eNtrench nitrogen stabilizer (nitrapyrin) on wheat yield. eNtrench is a nitrification inhibitor which slows the conversion of ammonium nitrogen (NH4-N) to nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N). This helps prevent early nitrogen fertilizer applications from converting into nitrate nitrogen early in the growing season. Nitrate nitrogen is susceptible to denitrification, a process where the NO3-N is used as the electron receptor for respiration by bacteria when oxygen is limiting in the soil. This process removes oxygen from NO3-N, changing it into NO2, NO, or N2O, all of which are gases that escape to the atmosphere. The nitrogen is then lost to the plant. Denitrification can occur rapidly when warm soils remain saturated for 2-3 days or longer.