Effects of nitrogen application on the growth and yield of quinoa under saline conditions in Northern Vietnam

 nitrogen at different rates 
induced differences in the growth parameters 
across the two quinoa varieties. The values of 
these parameters reached the highest at the 
nitrogen application dose of 90 kg N ha-1 (Table 
5), then reduced when the nitrogen level was 
increased up to 150 kg N ha-1. 
Effects of nitrogen application on the growth and yield of quinoa under saline conditions in Northern Vietnam 
908 Vietnam Journal of Agricultural Sciences 
Effects of salt stress and applied nitrogen 
doses on lodging resistance and insect 
infection rates of quinoa in the 2018 spring 
cropping season under natural field salinity in 
Hai Hau, Nam Dinh 
In the 2018 spring cropping season, no 
diseases or the lodging phenomenon were 
detected, and the severity for some major worms 
including black cutworm and green clover worm 
were at similar and moderate rates both in both 
varieties (Table 6). The highest infection rate 
with black cutworm was recorded at the 
treatment of 150 kg N ha-1 and was significantly 
higher than other treatments except for 90 kg N 
ha-1. At the treatment of 60 kg N ha-1, the 
infection rate with clover worm was higher than 
all the other treatments. 
Effects of salt stress and applied nitrogen 
doses on the yield components of quinoa in the 
2018 spring cropping season under natural 
field salinity in Hai Hau, Nam Dinh 
The data in Table 7 show the influence of 
nitrogen levels to the yield and yield components 
of the quinoa varieties. The table illustrates that 
there were no significant differences in the 
number of panicles and actual yield between the 
two varieties. In contrast, head panicle length, 
1000-seed weight, and individual yield of the 
quinoa varieties were significantly different. 
Moradas had a higher head panicle length and 
1000-seed weight, but lower individual seed 
yield than Atlas did. The results of the study also 
showed that different nitrogen application levels 
led to differences in all the indicators. The values 
of all the target indicators increased and reached 
the highest when the nitrogen application dose 
was increased to 90 kg N ha-1. 
Discussions 
This study showed that salt concentrations 
(100 mM NaCl) in irrigated water non-
significantly affected the seed emergence rate 
and growth duration of quinoa (Table 1). The salt 
stress reduced plant height, the number of leaves 
on the main stem, the number of branches on the 
plant, and the plant diameter (Table 2). The dry 
matter accumulation, panicle length, number of 
panicles on the plant, 1000-seed weight, and 
individual yield also declined significantly under 
the effects of saline conditions (Table 3). Under 
artificial salt stress conditions for 14 days at the 
flowering stage, Nguyen Viet Long (2016b) also 
indicated that increasing the salt concentration 
reduced the morphological traits and yield 
components of quinoa varieties. Our results were 
in agreement with the findings of Nguyen Viet 
Long (2016a) about plant height, the number of 
branches on the plant, the number of leaves on
Table 5. Effects of salt stress and nitrogen application on plant height, number of leaves on the main stem, number of branches on 
the plant, and plant diameter of quinoa varieties in the 2018 spring cropping season in Hai Hau, Nam Dinh 
Treatment 
Plant height 
(cm) 
Leaves number/ 
main stem 
(leaves) 
Number of branches 
(branches) 
Plant diameter 
(cm) 
Varieties 
Atlas 72.0b 32.7b 22.9b 1.10b 
Moradas 82.1a 35.5a 24.7a 1.15a 
Nitrogen levels 
0 N 66.5e 31.6c 20.7c 0.91d 
30 N 71.8d 31.9c 23.3b 1.06c 
60 N 76.5c 34.0b 23.7b 1.10c 
90 N 86.9a 37.3a 26.0a 1.31a 
150 N 83.4b 35.6b 25.4a 1.24b 
 Note: Means followed by the same lowercase letter in a column are not significantly different at the 5% level by LSD. 
Dinh Thai Hoang et al. (2021) 
https://vjas.vnua.edu.vn/ 909 
Table 6. Effects of salt stress and nitrogen application on the resistance to lodging and infection rate of black cutworm and clover 
worm of quinoa varieties in the 2018 spring cropping season in Hai Hau, Nam Dinh 
Treatment 
Resistance to lodging 
(1-5) * 
Black cutworm 
(1-5)** 
Clover worm 
(1-5)** 
Varieties 
Atlas 1.0a 2.4a 2.6a 
Moradas 1.0a 2.2a 2.6a 
Nitrogen levels 
0 N 1.0a 2.0c 2.5bc 
30 N 1.0a 2.2b 2.5bc 
60 N 1.0a 2.2b 3.0a 
90 N 1.0a 2.5ab 2.3c 
150 N 1.0a 2.7a 2.7b 
Note: *1 - no lodging, 5 - heavy shedding; **1 - not infected, 5 - serious infection; means followed by the same lowercase letter in a 
column are not significantly different at the 5% level by LSD. 
Table 7. Effects of salt stress and nitrogen application on the yield and yield components of quinoa varieties in the 2018 spring 
cropping season in Hai Hau, Nam Dinh 
Treatment 
Number of panicles 
(panicles) 
Head panicle length 
(cm) 
1000-seed weight 
 (g) 
Individual 
yield 
(g plant-1) 
Actual 
yield 
(tons ha-1) 
Varieties 
Atlas 17.3 22.7b 2.44b 22.4a 1.17 
Moradas 17.5 23.4a 2.51a 21.3b 1.15 
Nitrogen levels 
0 N 13.2e 20.3c 2.35e 15.3e 0.86d 
30 N 15.2d 23.0b 2.43d 18.2d 1.09c 
60 N 17.3c 23.1b 2.48c 22.7c 1.24b 
90 N 21.3a 25.7a 2.59a 27.2a 1.35a 
150 N 19.9b 23.2b 2.54b 25.8b 1.25b 
 Note: Means followed by the same lowercase letter in a column are not significantly different at the 5% level by LSD. 
the main stem, and the head panicle length under 
artificial salt stress conditions. Previous studies 
showed similar results in that plant height, dry 
matter accumulation, seed number, seed weight, 
and grain yield were reduced under the effects of 
saline stress (Jacobsen et al., 2001; Koyro & 
Eisa, 2008; Gómez-Pando et al., 2010; Ruiz-
Carrasco et al., 2011; Razzaghi et al., 2012; Eisa 
et al., 2012; Bonales-Alatorre et al., 2013; 
Peterson & Murphy, 2014; Panuccio et al., 2014). 
In this research, applying nitrogen at a 
different doses in the winter cropping season did 
not have any effect on the time from sowing to 
flowering, but extended the total growth duration 
(Table 1). This could be explained that in the 
Effects of nitrogen application on the growth and yield of quinoa under saline conditions in Northern Vietnam 
910 Vietnam Journal of Agricultural Sciences 
winter cropping season, plant growth was 
accelerated due to high temperatures at the early 
stages of development, so the impacts of 
fertilizer were negligibly noticeable which led to 
similar flowering times in all the fertilized 
treatments. However, at the later stages of 
development, when the influence of fertilizer 
becomes more significant, increasing the 
nitrogen levels resulted in better plant growth 
along with longer growth duration. In the spring 
cropping season, the time from sowing to 
flowering as well as the total growth duration 
tended to increase as the nitrogen level was 
increased (Table 4). Dinh Thai Hoang et al. 
(2015) also indicated that when the amount of 
nitrogen fertilizer was increased, the time from 
sowing to flowering and the total growth 
duration of the investigated quinoa varieties were 
not affected in the winter cropping season, but in 
the spring cropping season, they were extended 
from 1 to 3 days. Basra et al. (2014) also reported 
similar results that increasing the amount of 
fertilizer from 0 to 125 kg N ha-1 did not affect 
the flowering time but extended the total growth 
duration. In this study, under net-house 
conditions with both salinity levels, the growth 
ability and yield of quinoa increased when the 
amount of nitrogen application increased from 0 
to 90 kg N ha-1, and decreased when the fertilizer 
amount reached 150 kg N ha-1 (in the first 
experiment). Similar results were found in the 
second experiment for the two quinoa varieties 
conducted under natural saline conditions in Hai 
Hau, Nam Dinh province. In Hanoi, under non-
saline alluvial land of the Red River Delta, Dinh 
Thai Hoang et al. (2015) also showed similar 
results when nitrogen was applied in the range of 
0 to 102 kg N ha-1, plant height, plant diameter, 
SPAD index, dry weight accumulation, and yield 
of quinoa varieties reached the highest values at 
a rate of 90 kg N ha-1. However, the optimum 
amount of fertilizer depends on the specific 
conditions of each region. Basra et al. (2014) 
reported that the 1000-seed weight, the number 
of panicles per plant, and the grain yield of 
quinoa increased when the nitrogen doses were 
increased from 0 to 75 kg N ha-1. An experiment 
with the five nitrogen levels of 0, 90, 180, 270, 
and 360 kg N ha-1 on sandy soils in Egypt, Shams 
(2012) stated that the grain yield of quinoa was 
maximized when nitrogen was applied at a rate 
of 90 kg N ha-1. Therefore, it could be concluded 
that the growth and yield of quinoa increase to 
their maximum when the nitrogen application 
level reaches the optimum level, then begin to 
decrease if the nitrogen level is further increased. 
The optimum nitrogen application level for the 
coastal provinces in the Northern part of Vietnam 
is 90 kg N ha-1. 
Conclusions 
Saline stress had no effect on quinoa growth 
duration, but reduced the growth and yield 
parameters of the quinoa cultivars. Similar trends 
were found in the response of quinoa to the 
nitrogen application rates in both experiments, 
particularly in the increases of plant height, 
number of leaves on the main stem, number of 
branches, stem diameter, dry matter 
accumulation, panicle length, panicle number, 
1000-seed weight, individual yield, and actual 
yield of the quinoa cultivars according to the 
increase of nitrogen application rates from 0 to 
90 kg N ha-1. The application dosage 90 kg N ha-1 
was recommended as the optimum dose of 
nitrogen application for quinoa grown under 
saline soil conditions in Northern Vietnam. 
Acknowledgments 
This study was supported by grants from the 
Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology 
(Grant-in-Aid for evaluation of quinoa in 
different ecological conditions in Vietnam 
HNQT/SPDP/07.17). We also thank Dr. Daniel 
Bertero (Buenos Aires University, Argentina) 
and Dr. Robert Van Loo (Wageningen UR, the 
Netherlands) for providing the quinoa genotypes 
for this study. 
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