Even if you’ve wrapped up corn planting, there’s still a way to amp up biological life to enhance root development: Aim a stream of nutrients and Biodyne’s Environoc 401 near the row.
May 28, 2020 — We’ve long favored applying live beneficial biologicals in-furrow. But many growers emphasize just seed and speed when planting, not stopping to refill with in-furrow solutions. Now, refinements in Y-drop attachments for sprayers enable rapid application of biologicals near the row — and you can piggyback this trip with NPK and trace elements as prescribed by tissue tests.
Biodyne has conducted multiple field tests over the past five years, showing an average $18 increase in profit per acre, assuming corn at $3.36 per bushel.
Our recommendation for streaming Environoc 401 near the row: 14 ounces per acre at a cost of $7.50, plus 3 ounces of WakeUP Spring at a cost of $1.05. Total around $8.55 for those two products. A little NPK at the same time can also help light-green or yellowish corn snap into rich green leaves. The extra chlorophyll will pump more sugars to roots to feed the bloom of beneficial microbes colonizing the roots. Biodyne’s labeled in-furrow rate is 16 ounces per acre; we reason that WakeUP improves performance enough that we can shave the 401 rate a bit.
Adding WakeUP Spring to the streamed solution aids in soil penetration and enhances nutrient uptake by roots.
Biodyne also uses Environoc 401 in another product, BD-Biocast, which contains additional ingredients to nourish microbial life. It’s meant for surface application, as many farmers don’t have in-furrow equipment.
We have a stock of Environoc 401 ready for the field. Just call any member of our Renewable Farming team.
For a colorful and descriptive 3-minute video on how Biodyne’s Environoc 401 works in your soil, visit this link.
We also have another long-proven biological product, AgriEnergy Resources’ SP-1. It’s also something we’ve tested and recommended for in-furrow application, but Penn State field research on corn in 2017 showed an 8-bu. yield response when SP-1 was sprayed on the surface. The researcher notes, “Rain carries it in.” Here’s a link to the story on that research project.