Potassium accumulation, partitioning, and remobilization in high-yield spring maize in Northeast China

Abstract

Potassium (K) plays an important role in maize yield, but K accumulation characteristics in high yielding maize is still not well documented. A two-year field experiment was conducted to investigate the K accumulation characteristics of high yield (HY)（>15 t ha⁻¹）spring maize compared with medium yield (MY)（10–15 t ha⁻¹), and low yield (LY)（<10 t ha⁻¹). The maximum K accumulation stage in maize appeared between V6 and V12 stage (LY, MY, and HY was 125.46, 138.05, and 146.22 kg ha⁻¹, respectively). Most of the K (94.27–97.13%) was accumulated during vegetative stages. HY exhibited a significantly higher K accumulation than either MY or LY. For different organs, the K remobilization amount of leaf was the highest, and the remobilization amount of stalk was the lowest, the K remobilization amount of leaf and stalk showed as HY < MY < LY, same as the total K remobilization amount, but the K remobilization amount of sheath and husk plus cob showed the opposite order. These results indicated that sufficient nutrient supply for maize can not only accumulate more K but also delay leaf senescence and maintain high photosynthetic activity, resulting in reduced K remobilization from vegetative organs, and reduced K loss in whole plant.

Keywords:

• high yield
• K accumulation
• potassium
• remobilized K
• spring maize

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant No. 2017YFD0300604; and National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant No. 2017YFD0201505.