These three charts of corn and soybean yields show again that excellent mineral nutrition equips corn and soybeans to cope with fungal diseases. Often, yields with mineral nutrition exceed benefits of fungicide.
November 15, 2021 Iowa State University microbiologist and plant pathologist Dr. Alison Roberts conducted these three random-rep trials. The nutritional products are from Spraytec, based in Brazil — where farmers have fought with fungal diseases for years.
This data reconfirms research published by Dr. Don M. Huber and other scientists in the 2007 book, Mineral Nutrition and Plant Disease. Research summarized in that book documents why healthy, well-mineralized crops can effectively fight off pathogens.
Update November 17: One of our clients who uses Spraytec nutrients asked about the efficiency of Y-dropping Impulse for Corn at V5 to V6. We checked with Drew Ewing, our Spraytec rep. His comment: “Yes, Y-dropping Impulse for Corn at V5-V6 is excellent timing and a focused application near the roots.”
It also contains some copper. “You can see little blue flecks in it; that’s the copper,” Drew says. Rate of Boron Max is a half-pound of dry granular per acre, cost about $4.50. Impulse for corn is about $8.50 foliar; maybe less if Y-dropped at a slightly lower rate because it’s so focused.
More on the Iowa State trials by Alison Roberts: The fungicide used was Veltyma from BASF at $18/acre. Seed treatment, Ilevo from BASF at $14/acre. Per-acre cost of Spraytec products:
Spraytec Cube $7.86
Spraytec Impulse $8.20
Spraytec seed treatment $6
So the Spraytec nutrients cost less and delivered more yield.
Disclosure: Renewable Farming is a distributor of Spraytec products. One of our goals is to locate more field trials where Spraytec foliars and in-furrow products are teamed with WakeUP, to enhance absorption and translocation.
Fulltec Cube foliar-sprayed on corn at V12 resulted in a 9.3 bu. yield gain over a fungicide spray at the same stage of growth. Tank-mixing Fulltec Cube with fungicide added another 5.8 bushel gain, indicating synergy between improved nutrition and a fungal treatment.Treating soybean seed with Fulltec Plus bumped soybean yield an average 2.7 bu. per acre over fungicide alone, and 4.4 bu. over the untreated control. A 4 or 5 bu. gain in soybean yields is hard to detect with a yield monitor, but it’s profitable.Foliar-feeding Fulltec Impulse on corn at V12 outyielded fungicide alone by 10 bu. of corn. Tank-mixing fungicide with Impulse at V12 tacked on another 5.2 bushels. For several years, we’ve encourage the combination of Fulltec Impulse early at V5, then following up with Fulltec Cube at V12. In this trial, that mix generated a 16.8 bu. increase over fungicide alone.
