Response of corn to manganese application on Atlantic coastal plain soils

Although corn plants are tolerant of low levels of available soil Mn, Mn deficiencies in corn were suspected on soils where Mn applications had previously increased soybean seed yields. Five experiments were conducted in farmer's fields to evaluate the response of corn to Mn applications. Three band Mn and two broadcast Mn studies were conducted in five field experiments on Atlantic Coastal Plain soils. The mean increase in corn grain yield in the band studies on three soils was

960 kg ha⁻¹. Corn grain yields were not increased in the broadcast Mn studies on Slagle and Dragston fine sandy loams. Manganese uptake from the Slagle soil was so high that Mn deficiency did not occur; whereas, Mn uptake from the Dragston soil was so low that the deficiency was not completely corrected by up to 24 kg Mn hha⁻¹ as broadcast MnSO₄.