Rain or lack of rain is on many farmers’ minds. With our current weather conditions in eastern Iowa, potassium deficiencies are beginning to show up. The following situations are generally associated with the potassium deficiencies this year:
- The later planted corn is having a significant problem.
- We are finding that the corn’s nodal root system is generally small and very restricted in depth, limiting nutrient uptake.
- Compaction may be limiting rooting depth and overall development.
- Dry weather is reducing nutrient availability in the upper soil profile.
At the Agronology 10 Research Center at Walcott in our corn variety plots, the following observation can be drawn:
- Based on 5 hybrids, corn on soybean ground has approximately 4500 more plants per acre vs. corn on corn ground.
- Corn height is about 45 to 48 inches tall on the soybean ground and about a foot shorter on the corn on corn ground. In both of these areas, the corn was planted the same days, 24 April 2012.
On 13 June, I saw my first flowers on soybeans. These soybeans were planted on 25 April 2012 and have a maturity group rating of 2.5 to 3.0.
