Foliar nutrition

[AKA]

There appears to be a lot of talk about foliar nutrition at present. Having never applied such products before what are people's thoughts, is there a best timing e.g. T1 or to add a little with each sprayer pass rather than one big hit? Do people tissue test before to see what is required or isn't? What products are available, have seen yara pushing a product called 'gramitrel'. Have heard of others use amino acid products, are these the same or completely different.
Interested to hear other people's thoughts/experiences tia

 

[Brisel]

NIAB TAG have no consistent yield responses to micronutrients. I'm sceptical of some of the snake oils sold as health boosters and await independent trials results showing a response.

I tissue test & react accordingly. Boron, copper & potassium consistently show as deficient on my chalk soils so I usually have a sniff of something in each pass, usually straights.

I would recommend lots of organic manures & livestock in your rotation. That seems to give the best return on investment.

 

[jack6480]

NIAB TAG have no consistent yield responses to micronutrients. I'm sceptical of some of the snake oils sold as health boosters and await independent trials results showing a response.

I tissue test & react accordingly. Boron, copper & potassium consistently show as deficient on my chalk soils so I usually have a sniff of something in each pass, usually straights.

I would recommend lots of organic manures & livestock in your rotation. That seems to give the best return on investment.

I agree with organic manures, I think unless there’s a big deficiency then apply the element that’s needed but how do we know whether a plant actually needs it at that stage even from a leaf test, my leaf tests compared to soil tests so far have been quite different. There are many variables to consider. Now for example it’s been so cold these last few days most things have stopped growing and gone purple when it warms up it will get going again.

 

[Brisel]

Leaf tests are merely a snapshot of what the plant was doing at the moment in time when you took the samples. Treat with suspicion until you have several results & can build a picture up. Don't sample within 2 weeks of a fertiliser application or you can skew the results.

 

[BFSfertilisers]

Certain crops / soils / weather conditions dictate what trace elements a crop requires.
Cereals on high pH, very light and puffy seedbed soils require manganese every season, sometimes multiple applications. Very light land barley will respond to copper. Oilseed rape to boron and molybdenum, sugar beet to boron and sodium. Maize and sweet corn always respond to zinc.
Very dry and hot springs will limit the roots ability to absorb trace elements from the soils at a rate they require it. In these circumstances magnesium, zinc and copper can be limiting to cereal yield formation.
So its best to tailor your crops requirement to what is actually needed and I would suggest independent advice.
We sell a lot of straight manganese, magnesium is increasing and mixtures of these two on cereals is common.
BfS can make a mix to suit, so long as you need 1000 litres or multiples thereof.

 

[4course]

foliar potash seems to have a positive effect here around flag leaf seems to lift bushel weight by a few points , just our own experiments

 

[CORK]

foliar potash seems to have a positive effect here around flag leaf seems to lift bushel weight by a few points , just our own experiments

Do you see a yield increase too? If bushel goes up then yield should also I’d imagine.

 

[willy]

Thanks

 

[4course]

Do you see a yield increase too? If bushel goes up then yield should also I’d imagine.

yes im convinced we are getting a positive and more importantly a cost effective return

 

[clemmo]

foliar potash seems to have a positive effect here around flag leaf seems to lift bushel weight by a few points , just our own experiments

What potash product are you using ?

 

[Del Boy]

What potash product are you using ?

Can I bump this please? Just wondering what foliar potash products people are using and at what rates? thanks in advance

 

[PSQ]

I use sulphate of potash (SoP) solution as part of T1. A single 600kg bag dissolved in the liquid fertiliser plant to make 12,400L applied at 100L/ha, so 4.8kg/ha of SoP.
The big bagged SoP has kaolin clay in it as an anti caking agent, which forms a horrible greasy layer on the top of the tank which needs skimmed off.
No idea if a foliar SoP application of 4.8kg is worthwhile or not (in addition to the usual spun on MoP) but it doesn't hurt, especially with the wetting effect of the fungicide to get it through the leaf wax.
At T2 I use another bulk mix of Bittersaltz (MgSO4), and another couple of kg/ha of better quality Yara SoP from 25kg bags dissolved straight into the induction hopper.
I'm also a sucker for adding in a bit of cheap generic powdered ZnSO4, and a couple of litres of 15% liquid MnSO4.
Mn deficiency was causing a bit of an issue in a 1st wheat earlier, sorted now.

Edit: can't find any advice to say that foliar applications of SoP at higher rates are either recommended or safe. Apply it at your own risk.

 

[Clive]

tramline trials here in the past have proven value of foliar magnesium and manganese

the value of such products is very soil / farm specific imo

 

[Clive]

Can I bump this please? Just wondering what foliar potash products people are using and at what rates? thanks in advance

Yara Krista for potash

 

[Brisel]

I use sulphate of potash (SoP) solution as part of T1. A single 600kg bag dissolved in the liquid fertiliser plant to make 12,400L applied at 100L/ha, so 4.8kg/ha of SoP.
The big bagged SoP has kaolin clay in it as an anti caking agent, which forms a horrible greasy layer on the top of the tank which needs skimmed off.
No idea if a foliar SoP application of 4.8kg is worthwhile or not (in addition to the usual spun on MoP) but it doesn't hurt, especially with the wetting effect of the fungicide to get it through the leaf wax.
At T2 I use another bulk mix of Bittersaltz (MgSO4), and another couple of kg/ha of better quality Yara SoP from 25kg bags dissolved straight into the induction hopper.
I'm also a sucker for adding in a bit of cheap generic powdered ZnSO4, and a couple of litres of 15% liquid MnSO4.
Mn deficiency was causing a bit of an issue in a 1st wheat earlier, sorted now. pH 6.5; Mg, P and K all index 2's. High sulphate is from liquid UAS.
Soil test:

View attachment 956068

Do you take any tissue tests? I’ve seen adequate soil reserves and foliar deficiency in some nutrients. Taken with a pinch of salt, so to speak!

 

[Still Farming]

4 yield use to be good not certain if available still?

 

[PSQ]

Do you take any tissue tests? I’ve seen adequate soil reserves and foliar deficiency in some nutrients. Taken with a pinch of salt, so to speak!

Occasionally. Last tissue test in that field was 2019, and it shows that every thing low in the soil test was high in the tissue test. i.e. it was measuring the foliar micronutrients from the previous spray pass.

 

[Brisel]

Occasionally. Last tissue test in that field was 2019, and it shows that every thing low in the soil test was high in the tissue test. i.e. it was measuring the foliar micronutrients from the previous spray pass.

Any tests before applying nutrients?

 

[deleted user 837354]

I've never advised someone to apply micronutrients or foliar type products to a crop and promised them more yield as a result. I have advised people to use such products because I believed the crop was deficient and/or clearly suffering from a deficiency at a particular time because of a combination of the conditions, weather, seed bed or similar factors. It is not a course of treatment I would advise routinely on every crop and certainly not every field every year unless I had a known issue in particular fields/areas or individual farms. I can understand people on the chalks putting copper in the tank etc but I never looked after any land like that.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Occasionally. Last tissue test in that field was 2019, and it shows that every thing low in the soil test was high in the tissue test. i.e. it was measuring the foliar micronutrients from the previous spray pass.

Soil tests and tissue tests are likely to vary from each other hugely due to the availability of the elements in question, what form they are in, what else may be present in the soil acting as an antagonist or other factors acting on the crop- i.e compacted seed bed or very puffy seed beds leading to very poor rooting giving transient phosphate deficiency etc.

I used to routinely do broad spectrum soil tests but would never look at one and tell myself 'there is no way I will get X deficiency here' because it would be an odds on bet something would occur that caused one.

I've used manganese and phosphate type products on crops that I am convinced would be near dead had I not applied it. Likewise, the use of foliar nutrient products in potatoes, beet and maize convinced me that they do have a place in the tool box but they do carry a cost and they should not be applied for the hell of it.