Jumpstart Plant Nutrition Programs
Take advantage of precious time before planting to nail down your nutrient management strategy for the year to ensure you’re nourishing plants from the start of the season through all critical growth stages. Following are some ways you can get plant nutrition programs off to a strong start in corn.
Keep in mind all of the tools available to you to make informed nutrient management decisions throughout the season, and work with your local agronomist to put similar practices to work for other crops in your operation.
- Ensure proper hybrid placement across your operation. The first step to setting plants up for success is getting hybrids placed right. For example, identifying the right soil type for the root structure a particular hybrid needs is critical to ensuring nutrients can get into the plant. I recommend using hybrid-specific data, available through the Answer Plot® program, including response to soil type (RTST) and response to population (RTP), and placing those hybrids accordingly.
- Give plants a pre-emergence nutrient boost. Once the hybrid is in the field, help get the plant out of the ground with an in-furrow application of phosphorus with zinc combined with a plant growth regulator. Ascend® plant growth regulator promotes larger roots, which helps more nutrients get into the plant quickly and efficiently, as well as faster emergence and stronger stalks to ensure the plant never has a bad day.
- Use hybrid-specific data and tissue sampling to plan in-season inputs. To be certain you’re getting needed nutrients into the plant from emergence throughout the vegetative growth stages, combine data on your particular hybrids with tissue samples. Response to nitrogen (RTN) and response to fungicide (RTF) can be used to determine how well that specific hybrid may respond to a nitrogen or fungicide application. If you have a hybrid that’s highly responsive to nitrogen and you’re planning to make a side-dress application, for instance, take a tissue sample to determine if there are other deficiencies like potassium, sulfur or zinc that you can address at that point. These nutrient components really make that nitrogen application become more efficient and help uncover the hidden hunger of your yield potential.
Keep in mind all of the tools available to you to make informed nutrient management decisions throughout the season, and work with your local agronomist to put similar practices to work for other crops in your operation.