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Agriculture vocabulary · Plant Nutrition and Fertilizers

Top-dress

Meaning in agriculture, with examples

verbAdvanced term

In agriculture, top-dress means: To spread fertilizer on the surface of a field where a crop is already growing, usually nitrogen in spring for cereals.

In Turkish: üst gübreleme yapmak, üst gübre vermek

How it is used

A standard term in cereal and pasture management. Farmers top-dress wheat with ammonium nitrate or urea, often in one or two splits. The noun is 'top dressing' or 'top-dressing'.

Example sentences

  1. We top-dress the wheat with ammonium nitrate in March, just before tillering ends.

  2. The barley was top-dressed twice because of the heavy winter rains.

Common collocations

  • top-dress with nitrogen
  • top dressing
  • spring top dressing
  • split application
  • fertilizerA natural or manufactured substance added to soil or plants to supply nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and increase growth.
  • NPKNitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), the three main plant nutrients; also the three numbers on a fertilizer bag that show how much of each it contains.
  • nutrient deficiencyA condition in which a plant does not get enough of a particular nutrient, shown by symptoms such as yellow leaves, poor growth or low yield.
  • cerealA grass grown for its edible grain, such as wheat, barley, maize, rice, oats or rye; also the grain itself.
  • soil analysisA laboratory test of soil samples that measures nutrients, pH, organic matter, lime, salinity and texture, used as the basis for fertilizer recommendations.

More terms: Plant Nutrition and Fertilizers

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