Several factors affect nutrient availability in soil; thus, tissue analyses complement soil tests to properly diagnose the nutritional health of crops. There are reference nutrient sufficiency ranges for plant analysis for different crops, but they have not been updated recently.
A typical example is the reference sufficiency ranges in the Southern Cooperative Series Bulletin, a publication from the collaboration of states in the southern region of the United States, where the recommendations for cotton and corn are largely based on data published more than 25 years ago. Some of the reference sufficiency ranges are quite wide. For instance, the reference sufficiency range of nitrogen for corn at the tasseling stage is 2.8 to 4%. In principle, the growth and productivity of plants within the sufficiency range should be similar.
The project is evaluating the productivity of corn and cotton plants maintained at different levels of the sufficiency range that will help optimize recommendations for tissue analyses.
We appreciate the Georgia Corn Commission and Georgia Cotton Commission for funding and Georgia Corn Growers Association; Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc; and BASF for providing some resources for the project.
