Exploration of Responses to Potassium in Western Uruguay
Several regions of Uruguay has recently shown K deficiencies and responses. This project looks to determine the different areas with K deficiency, evaluate responses in the main field crops, and provide information on K soil testing.
IPNI-2007-URY-2
06 Jan 2009
2008 Annual Interpretive Summary
Previous observations have indicated possible K deficiencies and responses in field crops within the northwestern Uruguay region. In the first year of this study during the 2006/07 season, a field experiment also showed a significant response to K fertilization.
For the 2007/08 season, three corn experiments were established under different ecological situations within western Uruguay. One experiment showed a very large grain yield response to K fertilization applied as 150 kg/ha of banded potassium chloride (KCl). This yield response was correlated to low soil K availability (58 mg/kg exchangeable K), and low leaf K concentration (0.4%). The other two sites presented high soil K availability (308 and 324 mg/kg exchangeable K), and yield responses were not observed.
Additional field study is planned with winter and summer crops at other sites for the 2008/09 season to further clarify the extent of K responses in the region. Uruguay-02