central - east central Minnesota - | briggsfm - 3/9/2013 21:18 Below is a link to information as to when corn takes in it's nutrients. The information is provided by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This information suggests a corn plant takes in it's nutrient requirements much later than I thought. Take for instance Zinc, which is about the 8th or 9th slide down. It appears it takes in virtually no zinc until about V4. And even at V10, corn has only taken in about 25 percent of it's Zinc needs. The other micronutrients seemed to follow the same pattern. And remarkably, the same thing holds true for the macro and secondary nutrients as well. A couple of questions. 1. Do you think this information is accurate?
Generally, yes ~
briggsfm - 3/9/2013 21:18 2. If so, if we were setup to do so, do you think we should be applying these nutrients a little later in the plant's life cycle, instead of say, at planting time? Or perhaps at least applying a portion of the nutrients later?
This may sound elementery, but, this is where the soil as a whole should be understood. The nutrients needed later in the season should be available from mineralization from the healthy fertil soil. If everything is in sync, with the soil, the nutrients you put down pre, should be there for the plant to utilize later, when they need them most. As someone posted, there are needs for those elements, early in the plants life and as the charts showed, through out the plants growth. Of course, as the plant is reaching its height and setting seed, the plant is going to require more nutrients. Same as a human, babies do not eat as much as older teens - but the elemental requirements are the same. THe question is, are your soils healthy enough and enough water available to move the nutrent requirments to the plant, when they require the most ?
That's the concept behind "spoon feeding". It could take less, at the proper time ?
Edited by iseedit 3/10/2013 07:41
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beginning to question when corn needs it's nutrients
