A Full Breakdown of the Latest Management Key Points for Corn During the Grain-Filling Stage
Corn is a grain crop we often eat in our daily lives, and it has a very large market demand and planting area in our country. When growing corn, we need to pay attention to doing a good job in management and reasonably adjust management methods according to the growth stage of corn. Among these, management during the grain-filling stage is especially important. So how should corn be managed during the grain-filling stage? Below, the editor brings you the key management points for corn during the grain-filling stage. Let's take a look!
1. Water and Fertilizer Management
After corn enters the tasseling stage, in general, the base fertilizer previously applied in most plots has already been used up. At this time, in order to ensure grain filling and grain quality, a topdressing of nitrogen fertilizer should be applied appropriately to avoid premature aging of corn and increase grain weight. Then during the corn growth period, it is not only necessary to meet corn's demand for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers, but also to appropriately apply trace elements such as boron. Proper watering during the grain-filling stage is key to ensuring a bumper corn harvest, but watering should not be excessive, so drainage work should be done well to avoid excessive watering causing corn to stay green and mature late.
2. Intertillage and Earthing Up
In the middle and late stages of corn growth, if management is improper, lodging is very likely to occur, and this has a very large impact on corn yield. Therefore, in the late grain-filling stage, a shallow cultivation should be carried out appropriately, and soil loosening and weed control should be done well to improve soil permeability and moisture conservation capacity. It can also accelerate the decomposition of nutrients and promote root growth. Moreover, proper intertillage and earthing up can also effectively prevent corn lodging. The earthing-up height should be kept at about 8 cm to promote the growth of aerial roots and ensure yield.
3. Alternate-Row Detasseling
Alternate-row detasseling is a basic skill that everyone needs to master when growing corn. After entering the grain-filling stage, male flowers should be removed in the corn field every two plants or every two rows, which can effectively increase the cross-pollination rate and thereby increase yield. This is also one of the main measures for increasing corn yield. When detasseling, the tassel should be pulled out when about half of it has emerged and then thrown outside the field. The effect of detasseling every other plant is generally better than detasseling every other row, and pollination opportunities can also be increased as a result. Then the plants on both sides of the field should not be detasseled, as this would instead affect pollination.
4. Removing Empty Stalks
In many cases, corn cannot grow ears because of variety, planting density, or when about two tillers grow from the base of the corn. These are empty stalks, and these empty stalks as well as tillers should be removed in time. This avoids consuming too many nutrients, improves field permeability, promotes normal plant growth, and improves the quality and yield of ears and grains. During the grain-filling stage, the goal should be to protect roots and leaves, and the harvest time can be appropriately delayed at harvest, which can also achieve the purpose of increasing yield.
The above is a brief introduction to how to manage corn during the grain-filling stage. That is all for today's introduction. This article is for reference only, and we hope it can help everyone!