Corn Fertigation Plan & Schedule

The corn is a very important crop in all over the world due to its nutrients value and broad-spectrum use.

The fertilizer recommendations are based on the decades research in Pakistan Government Agriculture Research institutes. The macronutrients Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and potassium required for the best yield and profitable crop.  

While making the recommendation the fertilizer requirements declared by the international plant nutrition institute kept in consideration and Pakistani soils characteristics also big concerned due to chemical properties.

In the table number 01 macro Nutrients, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium recommendation is given for two patterns of crop production. In first row the recommendation for crop production with ridge or bed and furrow technology and in the second row the recommendation is for the corn crop with the Drip-Irrigation technique.   

Table: No 1

Crop Stage	Macro Nutrients Required in Kgs for complete Crop
	Nitrogen	Phosphorus	Potassium
Recommendations for traditional Patterns	92	57	37
Recommendation for the crop with Drip Irrigation	64	40	26
Consider the soil nutrients level	0	0	0
In-Terms of Urea, DAP & SOP	2.1	1.74	1.0

 

In the table number 02 the macro-Nutrients consumption per acre per day are given according to the crop stage.

Table No 02

Crop Stage	Macro Nutrients Required in Kgs/Acre/Day
	Nitrogen	Phosphorus	Potassium
Vegetative Growth ( 1-to-40 Days)	0.56	0.67	0.1
Reproductive Stages (41-to-60 Days)	0.84	0.67	0.19
Pollination – Cob maturity (61-to-90 Days)	0.56	0	0.39
Seed Formation – Grain maturity (91-to-120 Days)	0.28	0	0.19
	64.4	40.2	25.2

In the table number 03, the macro-Nutrients requirements per acre per day are given according to the crop stage.  Urea is considered a major source of Nitrogen, while DAP is the main source of phosphorus as well source of Nitrogen and SOP is a source of Potassium.

SOP is a source of Potassium and Sulphur as well; Sulfur is very important and considered as 4^th major macronutrient of crop production. It is a very important element for chlorophyll cell without Sulfur chlorophyll cell formation cannot complete. Furthermore, it plays a very important role in soil conditioning. Sulfur chemical reactions improve the soil physical properties.

The most important practice must follow is that the irrigation time for one zone should be divided into two half’s and in first half you should apply fertilizer and second half irrigate with only water. By following the practice, you will achieve a very important objective that is longer life of the Dripper, lateral, and whole system.

Start the potassium application keeping in view the soil chemical report if one don’t have the soil report then avoid to apply the potassium in the first 20 days because excessive concentrations of potassium in soil can burn the hair roots and retard the growth,

so, decision regarding the SOP application make with care. Apply on alternate days, or let the roots develop so much those can consume the fertilizer efficiently and concentration of potassium should not develop in the root zone at an early stage.    

2^nd option of potassium application is to start applying SOP at age of the 20- days of the corn plant.

The dosage of the fertilizers are given in the table number 03, pick the values according to the given plan and follow the two half formula of the irrigation timing.

Third development stage is supercritical for best yield, crop supervisor must be considerate regarding the Nutrient-Management, Irrigation and any kind of disease or insect & pest attack.

 

 Table Number 03

Crop Stage	Fertilizers Required in Kgs/Acre/Day
	Urea	DAP	SOP
Vegetative Growth (1-to-40 Days)	0.8	1.5	0.4
Reproductive Stages (41-to-60 Days)	1.4	1.35	0.6
Pollination – Cob maturity (61-to-90 Days)	1	0	0.7
Seed Formation – Grain maturity (91-to-120 Days)	0.5	0	0.3
	105	87	50

Now we will discuss the utility of the information in the table number 04. In this table requirements of the macro-Nutrient are given according to the corn plant development stages.

It is the possible fertilizer plan for the crop on ridges or bed and furrow method. The crop developments is subdivided into 4 main stages.

First 40 days when that is a critical period for vegetative growth.

Secondly next 20-days are also very important in the respect that vegetative growth is rapid

3^rd phase is the most critical phase for the grain-crop, the time between V8 to V11 can be considered as supercritical because during the time the cob size, number of lines on cob and number of grains per line has to decide, so at this stage any kind of deficiency like water, macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients (any disease or insect, pest attack) can reduce yield drastically.  

For ridge or bed and furrow technique Nutrient-Management is different than with Drip Irrigation technique. With this technique, we do not apply irrigation on daily basis similarly we can’t apply fertilizers on daily basis, therefore crop supervisor must be aware of the fertilizer chemistry with types of soil.

So that he can plan the fertilizer application keeping in view the reaction time and nutrients availability to crop.  

By knowing all the above, crop supervisor would be able to end crop with Success.

                                        Table No. 04

	Fertilizers Required in Kgs/Acre/stage-wise
	Urea	DAP	SOP
Vegetative Growth ( 1-to-40 Days)	32	60	8
Reproductive Stages (41-to-60 Days)	28	27	12
Pollination – Cob maturity (61-to-90 Days)	30	0	21
Seed Formation – Grain maturity (91-to-120 Days)	15	0	9
	105	87	50