Invest in Crops Whilst They Look Good

With a lot of growth comes depletion of nutrients held in the soil, this is ok when the crops are small, before winter, because there might be enough to sustain them, but when they start to regrow in the spring, they will no doubt need a helping hand.

If thinking, in particular about micronutrients, the bigger the crop the more micronutrients it will require to keep the growth rate going when regrowth starts. If you weren’t able to get any micronutrients on in the autumn, then it is key to apply some early-on in spring. With the promising potential that a lot of these forward crops have, we don’t want to have limiting factors affecting the building of yield. Therefore, once growth begins, we need to reduce the risk of decreasing yield potential by ensuring nutrient sufficiency.

Nutrients that are important to support regrowth in the spring are: phosphorus (P) for building root mass and crop energy, magnesium (Mg) for chlorophyll production, potassium (K) for crop development and water regulation and zinc (Zn) for protein synthesis.

P in particular, which I have mentioned several times over the years, is difficult for crops to access from cold or wet (or both!) soils. Therefore, an application of foliar P gives immediate access to the nutrient, boosting crop growth before it can access soil-P. A suitable product that contains all these nutrients (Mg, P, K, Zn) is YaraVita Crop Boost. A foliar application that can be used on a range of crops, it works well at 3.0l/ha at T0 on cereals for example, at this you only need 100kg/ha additional yield to cover the cost of application.