Symptoms of nitrogen deficiency in wheat Reduced tillering Reduced root mass Smaller leaf size Lower leaves turn yellow and died from the tip back Stunted growth and reduced tillering Adverse effect on spikelet formation, floret formation, kernel fill, and grain protein

Other causes of similar symptoms Drought injury Sulfur deficiency Barley yellow dwarf virus Wheat streak mosaic virus Herbicide injury due to: –Acetanilides (Stampede) –Imidazolinone symptoms on leaf tips (Assert, Pursuit, Scepter) –Sulfonylurea symptoms on leaf tips (Accent, Ally, Amber, Beacon, Classic, Express, Glean, Muster, Pinnacle, Refine) –as-Triazines (Lexone, Sencor) –s-Triazines (Aatrex, Atrazine, Bladex)

N deficiency conditions and patterns Favorable conditions: –Lack of available nitrogen due to excessively wet soils in the growing season. –Drought, sandy soils, and soils low in organic matter –Intensive cropping with insufficient nitrogen Pattern in field: –Nitrogen deficiency generally occurs in areas of soil compaction or high crop residue which may tie up available nitrogen early in the growing season –Symptoms also can appear on sandy ridges, eroded hilltops and areas where water has accumulated and leached the nitrogen out of the root zone

Nitrogen deficiency Cool, wet weather: the plant can’t take N up from the soil, even if the N is available (when the temperature warms up, the plants will recover) Can look like a virus (Wheat streak), but more general chlorosis on leaves, look at the pattern Nitrogen Wheat streak mosaic virus