Nitrogen (N)

Symptoms

• Nitrogen is a highly mobile element in plant. So when the soil become deficient in available nitrogen, nitrogen from lower leaves will get transferred to growing points. Hence, deficiency symptoms will be first noticed in older and lower leaves.
• The initial symptoms will be pale green to light green colour change on leaves.
• The colour change normally starts from the leaf tip of older leaves.
• Depending on the severity of deficiency, the death and / or dropping of the older leaves happen. Early defoliation is also noticed.

Management

• Add sufficient quantity of organic matter to the soil every year. Add bio fertilizers like Azospirillum.
• Check whether the recommended quantity of fertilizers is applied in time.
• Go for soil analysis and understand the extent of deficiency.
• Apply quick release nitrogen fertilizers like urea as per soil test result in split doses.
• As an immediate solution applies urea as foliar spray (10 gram /liter of water) once in 15 days till the deficiency is over.
• Application of organic growth promoters at frequent interval is also advantageous.