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Introduction

There decision tools to determine micro-nutrient use or not are much more informative than they used to be:

• Grain analysis is a useful retrospective tool to determine if the strategy followed the previous season was appropriate and more importantly if any of the elements assessed restricted yield.
• Soil analysis, including organic matter, CEC, helps pre-determine which elements may help increase yield.
• Tissue analysis provides a very good in-season guide as to crop need, more so with format from the Agrii/Lancrop which is more informative as to crop need by growth stage and crop potential .

Once any need for micro-nutrient has been established, the choice is then the formulation type, which is summarised in the following slides. Each formulation has its benefits and drawbacks, but across all types of  product, quality and provenance of raw material is critical in ensuring delivery of the micro-nutrient which has been identified as needed by the crop

Not all formulations are equal

Nitrate and Sulphate mixes

Nitrate and sulphate formulations were designed to help “carry” the micro element into the plant. Carbonates were successfully designed to overcome the tank mixing challenges that nitrate and sulphate formulations presented, but with caveat that uptake is very poor

Other Formulations to Maximise Nutrient Uptake

Other formulation options include lignosulphates, humics and fulvics, all of which act as mild, but sufficient chelating agents and which plants readily absorb and translocate within the plant. Fulvics are particularly adept at this, as this group are the active parts of the humic complex in terms of chelation and promoting micro-nutrient uptake and translocation

Boron Delivery Optimisation

Boron is a relatively immobile micro-nutrient i.e. broadly speaking it stays where it is applied when foliar applied. Polyol formulations have been demonstrated to be much more mobile within the plant, so are more reliable in delivering boron to where it is needed

Managing Copper in the Tank

Whilst not immobile, copper can be problematic in terms of tank mixing, through a combinations of e.g. water temperature/pH, tank mix partners, spray eater volume etc. The Polyol Cu formulation (PolyCu) has a built in adjuvant system which goes a long way to mitigate such challenges. But still follow tank mix guidelines.

We trust you find this information useful, which will be updated as needed.

If further details are required on any particular subject please ask your Agrii contact.