Crop Scene Investigation - 54 Solved: What did bones have to do with the health of Sylvain's corn?

Saturday, January 31, 2015

The plants in the two small areas of Sylvain's new cornfield were thriving because of the higher levels of calcium made available to the plants from the decaying bones of deer carcasses.

DeKalb agronomist Sean Cochrane explains that calcium deficiency across the new 20-acre field prevented the plants in the field from taking up and using the available nutrients. Typically, purple corn is a symptom of phosphorus deficiency, but in the two small areas where the deer carcasses were decomposing, high levels of calcium were available to the plant which helped the plants access needed nutrients that produced much greener and larger plants.

"If you did a soil test, the key difference between the poor corn across the field and two spots of green plants would be the calcium from the bones," notes Cochrane.

"That's why I tell my customers it's important to lime their fields to ensure pH levels are in line and they have adequate calcium levels, especially in new fields," he adds. "Generally, calcium is not a concern because our soils are limestone-based, but we really have to understand that calcium plays a key role in crop growth and we have to make sure it's available to the plant."

There were many correct responses to this particular puzzle. Congratulations to Lee Barker, who owns a 300-acre mixed farm in Northumberland County. Lee notes in part: "Bone and tooth material is mainly composed of calcium phosphate which also occurs in nature as a mineral called Apatite and is used to make P rich fertilizers." BF