Don't forget silicon and zinc when fertilizing rice.

In the optimized formula fertilization of rice, people often attach great importance to the combined application of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other elements, but ignore the application of silicon, zinc and other elements.

In fact, rice is a crop that absorbs more silicon. Generally, stems and leaves contain 10%-20% silicon dioxide. The content of silicic acid in rice is about 10 times that of nitrogen and 20 times that of phosphorus. Silicon deficiency in rice can easily lead to slender and weak stems, lodging and disease infection. Silicon deficiency in the early stage reduces the number of spikelets, while silicon deficiency in the later stage reduces the number of spikelets, so there is no guarantee for high quality and high yield of rice. The application of silicon fertilizer to rice can enhance the resistance to diseases and insect pests and lodging resistance, improve plant type, increase light energy use efficiency, reduce leaf transpiration water loss and improve water use efficiency. Generally, the yield can be increased by more than 10%, and the quality of rice can be improved. Especially in newly improved paddy field, cold soaked field and acid soil, the effect of applying silicon fertilizer to rice is more obvious.

Although zinc is only a trace element, it has a great effect on zinc-loving crops such as rice and corn, and has a good effect on increasing production. Rice is very sensitive to zinc, zinc deficiency will lead to slow leaf emergence, new leaves short and narrow, light leaves, especially near the basal midrib fade to yellow and white, serious plants obviously dwarf clump, few tillers, the field is often uneven, rice root system is old, brown, the emergence of "raising flowers but not harvesting" at heading stage, generally reduce the yield by 1-30%, serious fields or even destroy seedlings. The results of large area experiment showed that after reasonable application of zinc, the plant height, the number of effective tillers, the number of grains per panicle and 1000-grain weight increased, but the empty grain rate decreased, and the yield could be increased by more than 15%. Especially in acid soil, calcareous soil, cold soaking field and newly improved paddy field, the effect of applying zinc fertilizer is more obvious.

The specific application methods are as follows: (1) application of silicon fertilizer. Silicate containing calcium and magnesium is often used as silicon fertilizer, which is mixed with other fertilizers when applying base fertilizer. The amount of available silicon per mu is 1 kg. (2) Zinc was applied. It is generally recommended to apply 1 kg zinc sulfate per mu mixed with other chemical fertilizers, as well as extra-root fertilization, soil topdressing and seed treatment, etc. The common concentration of extra-root topdressing was 0.3% zinc sulfate, and the late topdressing was about 0.5 kg of zinc sulfate, all of which were carried out after the appearance of zinc deficiency symptoms or at the end of tillering, and the seed treatment could be soaked in 0.1% zinc sulfate for 24 hours.