That headline quote comes from Mike Williams, agronomist for Gold Eagle Co-op headquartered in Goldfield, Iowa. He’s talking about his own corn, which was primed at planting with in-furrow and over-the row nutrition and biologicals. Mike farms in Pocahontas County, Iowa.
Much of May was cool and cloudy in central Iowa. Even so, Mike’s corn is a vigorous green with lots of sugar-making chlorophyll.
June 1, 2020 — Here’s Mike’s nutritional and biological recipe delivered with the planter on April 23. This photo was taken May 31.
In-furrow:
4 gallons of 9-18-3 starter
1 pint per acre of Biodyne’s Environoc 401
1 quart of zinc
1 pint humic acid
1 pint per acre sugar with folic acid
4 ounces WakeUP Spring surfactant/penetrant/transporter
8 ounces Vitazyme biostimulant
Surface-applied with the planter in two streams (one on each side of the row) :
12 gallons 32% N
5 gallons 0-0-13
3 gallons ammonium thiosulfate
4 ounces Blitz soil penetrant for the 32% N
Generous spring rains carried the surface-applied liquid fertilizer into the root zone. Many of the days following planting were cloudy, limiting sun energy and leaving surrounding cornfields short of chlorophyll for maximum sugar production.
But Mike’s corn roots were quickly colonized with beneficial microbes in the Environoc 401, and stimulated with Vitazyme. Applying nutrients and biologicals in the root zone, or strip-applied over the row, concentrates the benefits of early fertility.
When WakeUP Spring is mixed with in-furrow nutrients and biologicals, it enhances uptake of applied products and has a residual effect of making dissolved nutrients more readily absorbed by roots. We didn’t discover this effect — farmers did. Four ounces of WakeUP Spring costs only $1.41 per acre.
Below is a broader look across mike’s cornfield:
