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Dryness to blame for potassium deficiencies

An extension soil specialist says potassium deficiencies are evident where soils have been dry.

Daniel Kaiser is with the University of Minnesota.

“This last year was a good example (because) we had dryer conditions (and) in some of our fields we tended to see, particularly some of those more medium soil tests, really showing some clear deficiencies.”

He tells Brownfield the macronutrient can provide a significant return on investment.

“There’s a lot of potassium in the foliage. If you look at a corn (plant), you’re going to have of the uptake, you’d look at roughly 60 to 75 percent of what’s going to be taken up is going to be in the vegetative biomass.”

Kaiser says potassium helps stave off plant diseases and increases grain moisture content at the end of the growing season.