Influence of mineral fertilizers on the formation of corn grain on chestnut soils of the Volgograd region

The article presents materials on the effect of mineral fertilizers on the formation of corn grain when cultivated on chestnut soils in the Volgograd region. When corn is grown for grain, on the southern chernozems of the Volgograd region under irrigation, the limiting factor is the content of nutrients in the soil. This is evidenced by the high responsiveness of corn to the applied mineral fertilizers. Corn differs from most annual cereals in its thick stalk, tall growth and powerful large leaves. In the dynamics of nutrients, under corn crops, the following pattern was observed: the content of nitrates in the soil increased until the corn flowering phase, then it decreased due to their consumption during flowering and filling; the content of easily hydrolysable nitrogen increased in the soil before the isolation of the corn grain. The results of our research showed that corn is a very demanding crop for nitrogen. The daily need for nitrogen in the heading-flowering phase is about 1.6 kg. Half of the amount of nitrogen required was absorbed during the fundamental phase of corn growth and development. There were no distinctive features in the presence of available phosphorus in hybrid crops in the initial stages. The content of potassium in the soil in the post-harvest period in the variants without fertilization decreased by 2 times compared to its content before sowing, while in the variants with the use of specified doses of mineral fertilizers, this decrease was 24% on average for the variants. The purpose of the research was to substantiate the influence of agricultural practices, under conditions of regular irrigation against the background of the calculated background of mineral fertilizers, on the cultivation of domestic corn hybrids.