Stalk Lodging Corn

 As Idaho’s corn growers prepare to harvest what will be an excellent crop – Mosaic Company Agronomist Dr. Dan Froehlich says there’s likely some concern about stalk lodging. Stalk lodging, by definition, is the breakage of the stalk below the ear. Severely lodged corn leads to increased harvest losses, increased harvest time, increased drying cost, and may result in volunteer corn the following year. Annual yield losses due to stalk lodging can range between 5 and 25%. In addition to outright yield losses, grain quality may also decline as a result of stalk lodging.

Here’s Dr. Froelich: “We had a perfect summer where it didn’t get very hot, we had a lot of vegetative growth, the corn plants are taller than normal, the yields appear like they’re going to be extremely high, nutrient imbalances and deficiencies that show up throughout the season pre-dispose the plants to stock rot and then ultimately stock lodging particularly if you have a case where we had high nitrogen fertility and if people cut back on their potassium applications this spring that can lead to more stalk lodging, the high nitrogen gives you good vegetative growth so you get a very tall plant and then not having enough potassium available to fill that big ear that’s being developed, the stalk prematurely dies.”