Do CORN plants need anything beside N ?

[gary350]

Online FFA says, corn is modified grass it only needs N. My 2 cousins that both plant 2000 acres of field corn in IL say they only give corn ammonia fertilizer.

I planted my 90 day sweet corn May 10 it should be harvested about Aug 10. Plants are 10 ft tall, ears are 1 ft long, kernels are small, no larger than 1 week ago.? I gave my plants N plus 5 gallons of wood ash. We have been getting record breaking rain every day. More rain 5 pm today.

I don't want to miss the boat and have small kernels Aug 10. ? I have 7 rows, 60 plants each row.

 

[Gemma]

I don't know at what ratio, but I'm pretty sure aside from Nitrogen, Corn also needs other minerals like: zinc, phosphorous , potassium etc.

 

[trents]

I agree with @Gemma. Like any other plant, corn needs a variety of nutrients. Of course, there are the macro nutrients of NPK but it also needs micro nutrients. But corn is a "heavy feeder", a term meaning it uses a lot of nitrogen as it develops. So, if the native soil supplies ample P,K and is sufficient in all the micro nutrients, it may only be necessary to supply plenty of nitrogen in order for corn to thrive. Micronutrients are easily sustained in the soil by regularly adding organic matter but heavy feeders like corn will need supplementation with nitrogen-biased chemical fertilizer to achieve optimum production.

But you mention unusually heavy rainfall this growing season. That could wash nutrients down and out of the root zone. Also, along with the heavy rainfall, are you getting enough sun or has the weather been consistently cloudy?