Nutrient deficiencies can easily be confused with symptoms of diseases or physical factors. A keen eye on your crops will enable you to identify these common deficiencies and address them before losses are incurred.
- Maize
Maize has a high requirement for nutrients especially nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K).
Nitrogen deficiency in maize presents as pale green leaves, stunting and sparse growth.
To correct a nitrogen deficiency, consider planting nitrogen-rich plants like beans and peas nearby. Also practice crop rotation with legumes. Another solution is to do green manuring where you grow a succulent and leafy legume crop and plough the plants into the same field before they form seeds. Such green manure legumes include groundnuts, pigeon peas, sunn hemp, desmodium, soya bean, lima beans, green grams e.t.c.
Phosphorous deficiency presents as dwarfing of the plant with occasional purpling of the stem and leaf surface. Manure from a poultry house has high phosphorous and is a ready remedy.
Potassium deficiency presents as narrowing of the cobs which hardly have grains at the tips. Wood ash and burnt cucumber skins are a good source of potassium.
Calcium deficiency presents as light green spots with characteristic hooking back of the leaf. Add egg shells to your compost to increase calcium content of the soil.
Magnesium deficiency presents as loss of cholorophyl between veins with yellowing along the veins. Adding compost replenishes magnesium in the soil.
Consider using vermicompost for your maize farming. Vermicomposting is where you use earthworms to convert organic wastes into valuable nutrients for crops. This compost is an odorless, clean, organic material containing adequate quantities of Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium and several micronutrients essential for plant growth.
- Bananas
Like many other plants, the main nutrient requirements for banana plants include nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
Nitrogen deficiency presents as pale green leaves. You can correct nitrogen deficiency by adding compost enriched with manures, tea and coffee grounds, feathers, garden wastes, and kitchen wastes as an excellent long-term source of nitrogen. You can also give the plants a foliar feeding of fish emulsion and a root feeding of rabbit manure and cottonseed meal.
Phosphorous deficiency presents as stunted growth, breaking of the leaf stalks/petioles. Farm yard manure is an adequate source of potassium. Another effective method to raise potassium levels is burying banana peels an inch below the soil’s surface.
Potassium deficiency presents as orange yellow colour of old leaves, reduction of leaf size and scorching like appearance on the leaf margins. Correct phosphorous deficiency by adding farm yard manure.
Calcium deficiency presents as sharp edged leaves and splitting of ripe fruits. Crushed eggshells are primarily composed of calcium carbonate and are a good way of adding calcium back to the soil.
- Leafy Vegetables
The three basic essential macronutrients for leafy vegetables are nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. Other essential macronutrients include calcium and magnesium.
Nitrogen deficiency in leafy vegetables presents as changing of lower leaves to pale green or bluish then yellow. Good sources for nitrogen include farm yard manure, bone meal, blood meal (dried blood), fish meal, fish emulsion, cotton seed meal, coffee grounds, soybean meal, composted legumes (peas, beans, peanuts).
Phosphorous deficiency presents as turning of lower leaves and stem to reddish or purple. Bone meal is an excellent source of phosphorous. Another good source of phosphorous for your vegetable farm is Coco peat. Coco peat is made of coco pith that is produced from the husk that grows around the hard coconut.
Potassium deficiency presents as curling of leaves while leaf tips turn yellow then brown. A reliable source of potassium for vegetables is wood ash.
Calcium deficiency presents as die back of the growing tip while the tips of new leaves and buds appear yellow, scorched then die. Stems are weakly. A good source of calcium for your vegetables includes addition of eggshells, oyster shells and fish meal to the soil.
Magnesium deficiency presents as yellow patches between green veins of leaves. Brownish or purplish patches may form on leaves, premature leaf fall and stunting of growth.