Loss of nitrogen in deep drainage from agriculture is an important issue for environmental and eco-nomic reasons, but limited field data is available for tropical crops. In this study, nitrogen (N) loadsleaving the root zone of two major humid tropical crops in Australia, sugarcane and bananas, weremeasured. The two field sites, 57 km apart, had a similar soil type (a well drained Dermosol) and rain-fall (∼2700 mm year−1) but contrasting crops and management. A sugarcane crop in a commercial fieldreceived 136–148 kg N ha−1year−1applied in one application each year and was monitored for 3 years(first to third ratoon crops). N treatments of 0–600 kg ha−1year−1were applied to a plant and follow-ing ratoon crop of bananas. N was applied as urea throughout the growing season in irrigation waterthrough mini-sprinklers. Low-suction lysimeters were installed at a depth of 1 m under both crops tomonitor loads of N in deep drainage. Drainage at 1 m depth in the sugarcane crops was 22–37% of rainfall.Under bananas, drainage in the row was 65% of rainfall plus irrigation for the plant crop, and 37% for theratoon. Nitrogen leaching loads were low under sugarcane (<1–9 kg ha−1year−1) possibly reflecting the Nfertiliser applications being reasonably matched to crop requirements and at least 26 days between fer-tiliser application and deep drainage. Under bananas, there were large loads of N in deep drainage whenN application rates were in excess of plant demand, even when applied fortnightly. The deep drainageloss of N attributable to N fertiliser, calculated by subtracting the loss from unfertilised plots, was 246and 641 kg ha−1over 2 crop cycles, which was equivalent to 37 and 63% of the fertiliser application fortreatments receiving 710 and 1065 kg ha−1, respectively. Those rates of fertiliser application resulted insoil acidification to a depth of 0.6 m by as much as 0.6 of a unit at 0.1–0.2 m depth. The higher leachinglosses from bananas indicated that they should be a priority for improved N management.
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