What are the causes of corn tillering and how can it be prevented and controlled?

Corn often shows tillering during the seedling stage. If corn tillering is not prevented and controlled in time, it will seriously affect the growth and development of corn. So what causes corn tillering? And how should it be prevented and controlled? Let's take a look.

1. Variety characteristics

Corn tillering is one of the characteristics of cereal crops. Under the same cultivation conditions, different varieties will show different tillering characteristics, and this is unavoidable.

Prevention and control method: Before planting, select varieties with weak tillering ability or no tillering through trial planting or comparison, such as Zhengdan 958, Jundan 20 and other varieties, which do not tiller under normal conditions.

2. Drought

Drought is also one of the causes of corn tillering. Severe drought during the corn growing period causes growth obstruction in the upper part of the main stem, and tillering often occurs as a result.

Prevention and control method: During drought, irrigate in time to keep the soil moist and promote corn growth and development. Especially when the soil water-holding capacity is not strong, water frequently, and during the rainy season, do proper drainage to avoid waterlogging and root damage.

3. Overdense planting

Too low a planting density also easily causes tillering. This is more obvious in varieties with strong tillering ability. Even when varieties with weak tillering ability are planted too densely, tillering can occur, so rational close planting helps control the occurrence of tillering.

Prevention and control method: Practice rational close planting, and determine a reasonable population density according to variety characteristics such as plant height and leaf angle size, so as to avoid field closure caused by too high a density or tillering caused by excessive thinning. If corn tillering occurs, it can be removed manually in combination with cultivation and hilling. The method is to first pull out the tillers, then carry out intertillage and hilling. Generally, high hilling combined with intertillage during the seedling stage can effectively inhibit tillering.

4. Disease

When corn suffers from certain diseases, tillering can also occur. For example, when it suffers from downy mildew, many sterile lateral branches grow from the stem nodes above ground. If the main stem is tall, the stalk is weak and prone to lodging, with no yield. The main reasons for the occurrence of corn downy mildew are low temperature and continuous rain during the growing period, or waterlogging damage, as well as field closure, insufficient light and poor ventilation.

Prevention and control method: Improve field drainage and irrigation conditions to avoid the occurrence of downy mildew. When planting, avoid shaded plots or low-lying dead corners. Change general planting to wide-narrow row planting, maintain reasonable plant and row spacing, and determine a reasonable row direction, which can effectively improve field ventilation and light transmission and prevent diseases and tillering. If downy mildew occurs, prevent and control it in time to avoid the spread of the disease.

The above is an introduction to the causes of corn tillering and the prevention and control methods. We hope it can help you. To learn more related knowledge, please keep following us.