Effects of nitrogen application rate on grain yield and grain nitrogen concentration in two maize hybrids with contrasting nitrogen remobilization efficiency

•The optimum N level for the highest GNC was greater than that for the highest GY.•The high-NRE hybrid XY335 has higher GNC potential and needs more N to realize it.•Increasing N levels increased residual stalk N to a larger extent in the low-NRE hybrid ZD958.•The response of GNC to increasing N levels was the same between XY335 and ZD958.

A target in crop production is to simultaneously increase grain yield (GY) and grain nitrogen concentration (GNC). In maize, nitrogen (N) and genotype are two major factors affecting GY and GNC. Both N remobilization from vegetative tissues and post-silking N uptake contribute to grain N, but their relative contributions are genotype specific, and are affected by the N application rate. It is unclear whether the responses of GY and GNC to N application differ between genotypes with different post-silking N uptake and vegetative N remobilization characteristics. We investigated the effect of N application rate on post-silking N uptake, vegetative N remobilization, GY, and GNC of two high-yielding maize hybrids, ZD958 and XY335, which have contrasting N remobilization characteristics. We tested five N application rates (0, 60, 120, 180, 240 kg N ha−1) in a 4-year field study (from 2010 to 2013). There was a significant year × N × genotype interaction in the amount of vegetative N remobilization and N remobilization efficiency (NRE), and residual stalk N concentration at maturity. Compared with the low-NRE cultivar ZD958, XY335 showed the same GY but higher GNC because it had higher vegetative N remobilization, NRE but lower residual stalk N concentration under the favorable weather condition in 2010. The response of GNC to increasing N levels was the same between XY335 and ZD958 and was not affected by year conditions. The N level required to obtain the highest GY was the same in the two hybrids (156 ± 13 kg ha−1and 159 ± 19 kg ha−1), but that required to obtain the highest GNC was greater in XY335 (216 ± 30 kg ha−1) than in ZD958 (195 ± 23 kg ha−1). From these results, we conclude that precise N fertilizer management as well as the selection of high-yielding hybrids with high NRE can increase GNC without negatively affecting GY or leading to surplus N storage in vegetative organs.