Three experiments were conducted in Illinois to determine the relative efficiency of broadcast versus banded potassium for corn. The pounds of banded K required to obtain a specified corn yield were divided by the pounds of broadcast K required to obtain the same yield. This ratio (banded K/broadcast K) represents the relative efficiency of broadcast K in terms of banded K, with respect to corn yield. Four or 5 rates of broadcast K and 4 rates of banded K, in factorial arrangement, constituted the fertilizer treatments.
Multiple regression equations of the quadratic form were calculated to express yield as a function of broadcast and of banded K. The regression equations account for 77, 81, and 62% of the variation in yield for the Cisne, Bluford, and Belknap soils, respectively. The largest yield increases from added K were 83, 33, and 13% for the three soils.
Less K was required to obtain a given yield when the K was banded than when broadcast. The relative efficiency of broadcast K, as compared to banded K, ranged from 0.33 to 0.88. In some cases, no rate of broadcast K equaled the yield produced by a given rate of banded K.
Synopsis
Two crops a year or a single crop of highpopulation corn (200,000 plants per acre) provided more pounds of dry forage and protein than conventional population corn, but had poor silage characteristics. High population corn crops incorporated in the soil as green manure afforded high yields of corn grain the succeeding two years, but did not surpass the conventional practice of interseeding spring oats with a legume.
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