As the world’s food demand grows, agricultural food production is also on the rise. This comes with the related challenges of poor yield, drought, pests and weeds that can negatively impact both productivity and the environment.

While fertilizers and pesticides play a significant role in attempting to overcome some of these obstacles, agricultural biologicals can make a crucial contribution toward the goal of making intensive agricultural production more successful and sustainable.

Safe for the environment, biologicals make crops healthier, with improved defenses against diseases and pests, and better able to withstand abiotic stress. The crop is well-prepared for early season growth and has a good vigor, with enriched root and shoot biomass and improved nutrient uptake and use.

Boron (B) plays a key role in a wide range of physiological processes that allow plants to germinate, grow, reproduce and remain healthy. No wonder it’s the first nutrient that plants seek! 

Boron is critical to the growth of pollen tubes, germination of pollen grains and fertilization, and helps to ensure good grain fill. A deficiency can cause reduced pollen tube growth and flowering, reduced seed set and in canola, which has higher boron requirements than cereal crops, aborted flowers and pod blanks or missing seeds in the pod.

The first step in proactively managing boron is to understand some of the key aspects that lead to boron deficiency, and how to identify and prevent a deficiency to mitigate stress and preserve yield. Read on to learn more about boron and why growers should be paying attention to this important nutrient throughout the growing season.