Micronutrients for Corn from 6–8 Leaves to Tasselling: Zinc, Boron, Iron, Manganese

Corn is among the most productive crops of modern farming. To form a high yield the crop needs balanced nutrition. The priority mineral nutrient for the crop is nitrogen. Corn uses the aftereffect of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers applied to the preceding crop quite effectively. At the same time, insufficient attention is still paid in production to microelement nutrition of corn, and wrongly so, since even when they are present in the soil plants can experience deficiency. Boron, iron and manganese are important, but the key microelement for corn plants is zinc.
It is especially important to prevent microelement deficiency in the early stages of corn growth and development. With the development of the 6th–8th leaf corn enters the fast growth phase, the formation of the plant's male and female inflorescences continues, and they need increased nutrient supply. As a rule the stress effect of herbicides appears at this time and plants begin to lag in growth. To bring corn out of stress we recommend foliar feeding with special fertilizers containing readily available amino acids, phytohormones and phosphorus in the form of phosphites.

From the range of fertilizers produced by ECOORGANIC the following are suitable: Ecoline Phosphite K Amino 1.0–2.0 l/ha, Gros Health 1.0–2.0 l/ha, and also Ecoline Universal Growth Amino (by prior order) at 1.5–2.0 l/ha. If the farm's technical capabilities do not allow entering the crop later, 0.5–1.0 l of boron should be added to the tank mix to prevent kernel gaps caused by poor pollen quality. If crops are not under stress, foliar feeding at this stage of plant development can be done with the tank mix Ecoline Corn Chelates 1.5 l/ha + Ecoline Boron Premium 1.0 l/ha.
Trials of various corn feeding schemes carried out in 2017 were effective and profitable in all natural and climatic zones of our country. Quite significant corn grain yield gains from using fertilizers made by ECOORGANIC were obtained both on trial plots and on production crops carried out by other companies. Quite telling were the results obtained by Pioneer Nasinnia Ukraina at the demo plot in Ternopil region (table)