A Detailed Guide to Identifying Corn Fertilizer Burn Symptoms and Rescue Methods
Corn is one of the main cash crops in China and is widely distributed across the country. How to increase corn yield is something many farmers care about, but during the planting process, excessive fertilization can cause fertilizer burn, and fertilizer burn has an extremely large impact on corn. So what are the causes of corn fertilizer burn? How should it be rescued? Let's take a look together.
1. Fertilizer burn symptoms
The most common symptom of corn fertilizer burn is dehydration. A single excessive fertilization or a lack of soil moisture, with higher soil concentration after fertilization, causes the water in the corn to reverse-osmose into the soil, leading the corn plants to wilt, just as if they had been scalded by boiling water. This is dehydration of the plants; in mild cases growth is slow, and in severe cases they die. In addition, the leaves may also show scorching. When a large amount of nitrogen fertilizer is applied under high-temperature conditions, ammonia gas forms after volatilization, scorching the leaves and young tender parts of the plants. In mild cases the leaf tips and leaf margins turn yellow, and in severe cases the whole plant turns red and dies.
2. Causes of fertilizer burn
In traditional fertilizer formulas, the nitrogen content generally does not exceed 15%. If the nitrogen content in a formula exceeds this limit, the corresponding fertilization method must be changed accordingly; otherwise, excessively high concentration will cause fertilizer burn, typically root burning. When organic fertilizer or farmyard manure is applied without being fully decomposed, it releases a large amount of organic acids and heat during decomposition, causing root burning. When soil moisture content is good, fertilizer dissolves relatively quickly, but years of cultivation make the lower soil layer hard and shallow, restricting corn root growth; when the local fertilizer solution concentration is relatively low, the water supply becomes insufficient, growth is slow, and in severe cases a reverse flow of water occurs, causing the plants to lose water while the temperature gradually rises.
3. Rescue methods
In most cases, once fertilizer burn occurs, flooding the field with water can quickly reduce the damage, because the large amount of water dilutes the fertilizer concentration. If too much nitrogen fertilizer has been applied, an appropriate amount of plant growth regulator can be sprayed to relieve it, such as paclobutrazol. If too much phosphate fertilizer has been applied, more nitrogen and potassium fertilizer and other micronutrient fertilizers can be added to adjust the soil's element ratios to a reasonable level. For scorching caused by ammonia gas, micronutrient fertilizers such as boron, molybdenum and magnesium, as well as low-concentration monopotassium phosphate foliar fertilizer, can be sprayed, and watering can lower the soil concentration and reduce the degree of damage.
The above is an introduction to corn fertilizer burn symptoms and rescue methods. We hope it can help you. To learn more related knowledge, please keep following us.