27 May, 2017
Rapid growth and dry conditions in spring cereals causing nutrient deficiencies?
As spring cereals move towards rapid growth, deficiencies in micronutrients may soon start to appear and could affect both the yield and quality. This will also be more of an issue due to this spring’s dry weather, putting the crop under more stress as it searches for moisture.
Plants need a balance of micronutrients, with all of them playing important roles in various functions throughout a plant’s lifecycle. If one or more of these micronutrients is out of balance in the plant it then becomes the limiting factor on growth, therefore yield.
Also during this period of low soil moisture there is more chance of the plant becoming susceptible to diseases too as it is already compromised, therefore adding a micronutrient deficiency on top of that will really start to affect the yield and quality. Remember, if you start to see symptoms then the damage has already been done. Getting micronutrients on before this occurs means that you’re preventing this potential yield loss.
Tissue analysis will identify micronutrient deficiencies
In order to know what your crop’s micronutrient requirements are at a particular time then the only way is to take a tissue sample. The micronutrients you would expect to be deficient in a spring cereal would normally be manganese, copper, zinc and magnesium and more recently boron.
Once you have your results back you can see whether you need to concentrate on one particular micronutrient, such as manganese and apply a single nutrient product to combat this, such as YaraVita Mantrac Pro. Or another approach is to apply a multi-nutrient product, such as YaraVita Gramitrel, that contains all of the nutrients which are commonly deficient – manganese, copper, zinc and magnesium. This can then be supplemented with a single nutrient product if required.
Cereal agronomy advice
