We are also determined the relationship between corn borer damage and fruit development in order to develop a damage Potential index that growers can use to eliminate insecticide maximum benefit from remaining applications. Nitrogen Managemnent for Sweet Corn Grown with Plastic Mulch Dr. TieQuan Zhang. Dr. Craig Drury. Earliness of sweet corn is a key component for fresh market production due to the high market price. Plastic mulch increases soil temperature and modifies soil moisture, and thus increases germination rate and enhances earliness of maturity.
Inadequate nitrogen decreases sweet corn yield.
Excessive nitrogen may delay maturity, be a detriment to quality, and cause environmental damage. Changes in soil moisture and temperature with plastic mulch can alter soil nitrogen supply capacity through increase in mineralization of soil organic matter and decrease in nitrogen leaching loss, and thus the recommendation of fertilizer nitrogen. No information is available on nitrogen fertilization for sweet corn with plastic mulch in Ontario. Current research Our current study is investigating whether plastic mulch affects the availability of soil nitrogen to sweet corn in comparison with bare soil, and determining the optimum nitrogen fertilizer rate for improving yield, quality and maturity of sweet corn grown with plastic mulch. We are also investigating the potential leaching losses of nitrogen from sweet corn production.