Know Your Nutrient Deficiency Symptoms

Agronomist in dense soybean field. Examining plants for nutrient deficiency. cloudy blue sky.

Alan Blaylock, Ph.D.

It’s that time in the growing season when crop scouting is at its peak. Growers should be paying close attention to crop progress and any abnormal appearance in their crops. Adverse weather conditions can affect nutrient availability and can even produce symptoms that mimic nutrient deficiencies. Nutrients have characteristic deficiencies that are closely related to their behavior and function in plants. Deficiency symptoms of nutrients that are mobile in the plant commonly appear on lower leaves first. Deficiency symptoms of immobile nutrients normally appear on upper leaves first. When nutrient deficiencies occur, rapid diagnosis and treatment is important to preserve yield potential. Keep in mind, by the time the symptoms appear, some yield potential may have already been lost. Knowing the deficiency symptoms well can aid timely diagnosis and treatment. A recent University of Minnesota blog post provides a review of nutrient deficiency symptoms in corn and soybeans. Click here to see images and review symptom descriptions.

Sources:

Scouting for Nutrient Deficiencies in Corn and Soybean (With Photos). By: Dan Kaiser, Extension nutrient management specialist, and Paul McDivitt, Extension communications specialist. June 23, 2021. https://blog-crop-news.extension.umn.edu/2021/06/scouting-for-nutrient-deficiencies-in.html