Zinc in Different Soils and Foliar Content in Commercial Corn Planted on Calcareous Soils of Quintana Roo, Mexico

Corn is a highly demanding Zinc (Zn) crop, so it is very likely that deficiencies are present in the calcareous soils of the Yucatan Peninsula where alkalinity limits the availability of this element. High concentrations of Carbonates (CO3=) and Hydroxides (OH-) can form Low-Zinc solubility complexes, not available to plants when Zinc Hydroxide [Zn(OH)2] or ZnCO3 are induced. Field experience shows that commercial corn suffers from Zinc deficiencies, but this is not properly quantified. Therefore, this work aimed to asses the degree of Zn deficiencies in soil and plants of commercial corn considering eight agricultural locations of ten hectares each with different types of soils such as Vertisols (V), rhodic Luvisols (ro LV), chromic Luvisol (cr LV), rendzic Luvisol (rz LV), rendzic Leptosol (rz LP). Nine soil samples were taken on each ten hectares using a Systematic Random Model. The soil samples were analysed for available cationic Zinc (Zn ) reported in parts per million (ppm) and, during the reproductive stage of corn, one composite leaves sample, per each location, was taken for Foliar-Zinc analysis. The results were compared with the sufficiency ranges reported by the literature. 87.5% of the locations, with their related soils, showed Zn deficiencies in both soil and foliage. Although there is a good qualitative relationship between Soil-Zn and Foliar-Zn the quantitative relation was very low with a Determination Coefficient (r2) of 0.044. Other soil attributes such as pH did not show any good correlation with foliar Zn nor with Soil Zinc.