How often do you check the soil for iron & manganese? Any tips?

[Nix_25]

Hi everyone

I hope I haven't missed the forum.

I've recently become part of a project that's trying to develop innovative micronutrient testing in agriculture, particularly focusing on iron and manganese. Our main goal is to enhance soil analysis and overall crop health.

So, I'm super curious about your own experiences. How often are you testing your soil for these nutrients? What makes you decide on that schedule? I'd also love to know about the methods you're using and what kind of costs we're looking at.

And about the crops – have you noticed any in particular that are really sensitive to iron or manganese levels?

Really appreciate any advice you've got to share. Thanks a bunch!

 

[Flatlander]

For fe and mn your far better tissue testing, usually enough in the soil but locked up due to other chemical in balances

 

[ollie989898]

Used to do broad spectrum soil testing which would include iron and manganese levels.

As above though, these issues are best addressed by tissue testing and/or prophylactic trace element application to the crop. Where necessary, liming would bring soil pH into a region more conductive to crop health.

Given the relative cost (i.e. not much) of foliar crop feeds, I wouldn't ever recommend people tried to address the problem at a soil level. I'm not even sure it can be practically done.

 

[teslacoils]

One year in five, as part of normal soil testing. Never seen either at "difficult" level.

 

[ollie989898]

One year in five, as part of normal soil testing. Never seen either at "difficult" level.

A lot of soil in the promised lands will not suffer with excessive or adversely low levels of them. My guess is that a lot of land in the East isn't old enough compared to the West of the country which is more hill/mountain and hasn't been a beach or sea bed any time recently so their geology plays a bigger part.

 

[Luke Cropwalker]

Total waste of time testing soil manganese levels, a crop will either be deficient or it won't, soil tests will not help with this. Most of the time all that is required for manganese is a Mark1 Eyeball Test, possibly backed up with a bit of field history. I realise some of the large agronomy firms like to send tissue test to the lab to diagnose deficiencies, don't know what happened to a bit of skill and knowledge, maybe they can't charge enough for that.

 

[PSQ]

Total waste of time testing soil manganese levels, a crop will either be deficient or it won't, soil tests will not help with this. Most of the time all that is required for manganese is a Mark1 Eyeball Test, possibly backed up with a bit of field history. I realise some of the large agronomy firms like to send tissue test to the lab to diagnose deficiencies, don't know what happened to a bit of skill and knowledge, maybe they can't charge enough for that.

By the same token the soil will either be warm enough for Mn uptake by plant roots, or it won't be.
No amount of Mn soil testing will resolve this, whereas 2L/ha of MnSO4 from an IBC at an early sprayer pass will.

@Nix_25 I'd suggest you're backing the wrong horse.

 

[ollie989898]

By the same token the soil will either be warm enough for Mn uptake by plant roots, or it won't be.
No amount of Mn soil testing will resolve this, whereas 2L/ha of MnSO4 from an IBC at an early sprayer pass will.

@Nix_25 I'd suggest you're backing the wrong horse.

Land that historically has a manganese problem likely will have it at various times. It is exacerbated by cold and stress and puffy seed beds. For the low cost of trace element sprays there is no real need to fudge with it. I would preferentially put it on in autumn and the first go around in spring, too, travel permitting. Crops that looked particularly iffy come T0 or T1 may warrant a dose with something on top, gramitrel etc whatever your chosen product is.

 

[Steevo]

It seems very strange to pick two specific elements and see if they are needed, rather than starting with a blank sheet and working to find out what is actually needed/useful and then providing that.

Makes me wonder if the company in question have an iron/manganese rich product to dispose of and are looking for a cheap method involving farmers as a quick way to make money.

 

[ollie989898]

It seems very strange to pick two specific elements and see if they are needed, rather than starting with a blank sheet and working to find out what is actually needed/useful and then providing that.

Makes me wonder if the company in question have an iron/manganese rich product to dispose of and are looking for a cheap method involving farmers as a quick way to make money.

Yes, we just happen to have this massive pile of fly ash full of heavy metals, wonder if we can dump it on farmers and avoid having to pay to dispose of it legally...likely involving a lot of £££'s.

 

[Steevo]

Yes, we just happen to have this massive pile of fly ash full of heavy metals, wonder if we can dump it on farmers and avoid having to pay to dispose of it legally...likely involving a lot of £££'s.

Precisely. If we can persuade farmers to test their soil and see that these elements may be low….then we might even be able to get them to pay us for this waste and still convince them we are doing them a favour in the process.

 

[Luke Cropwalker]

Precisely. If we can persuade farmers to test their soil and see that these elements may be low….then we might even be able to get them to pay us for this waste and still convince them we are doing them a favour in the process.

Such a cynical attitude, I like it. I like it a lot.

 

[ollie989898]

Such a cynical attitude, I like it. I like it a lot.

Are you sure though, we can grind the fly ash down very finely and mix it with water, then sell it by the IBC- how can you lose?

 

[Spencer]

Are you sure though, we can grind the fly ash down very finely and mix it with water, then sell it by the IBC- how can you lose?

But he doesn’t say that’s his “main goal”

 

[Brisel]

Hi everyone

I hope I haven't missed the forum.

I've recently become part of a project that's trying to develop innovative micronutrient testing in agriculture, particularly focusing on iron and manganese. Our main goal is to enhance soil analysis and overall crop health.

So, I'm super curious about your own experiences. How often are you testing your soil for these nutrients? What makes you decide on that schedule? I'd also love to know about the methods you're using and what kind of costs we're looking at.

And about the crops – have you noticed any in particular that are really sensitive to iron or manganese levels?

Really appreciate any advice you've got to share. Thanks a bunch!

A curious choice of micronutrients. I've never seen iron deficiency and manganese is easily corrected very cheaply with chelated manganese sulphate.

When doing more detailed soil samples using Lancrop's Soil Health suite, iron and manganese were never deficient on my soils. That doesn't mean that we didn't get transient deficiency particularly from manganese. Plant tissue tests rarely showed deficiencies of either.

The use of a lot of glyphosate is supposed to exacerbate manganese deficiency.