Prepping for an Unusual Growing Season in Canada
We are inching closer to the first days of seeding, and anxiety is building as producers across Western Canada continue to wrestle with the decisions that could make or break the growing season.
As I write this, the Jets are in the playoffs and, in some areas, yet another foot of snow has arrived along with temperatures taking us back to January, eliminating the need for a fridge to keep the barley beverages cool. All signs are pointing towards a challenging growing season and, more than ever, having a well thought out nutrient management plan is of the utmost importance.
Plant nutrition is one of the single largest factors in the success of developing plants, and The First 30 Days® of a crop’s growth are crucial for attaining its full yield potential. Missed opportunities due to lack of nutrition in these early stages can lead to delayed maturity and reduced yields.
The Solution
Applying readily available high-performance plant nutrition at the right time, in the right form and at the right place, can take what would have been a good crop and turn it into a great crop, under a range of growing conditions.
Young seedlings rely on nutrients harbored by the seed for their early feeding, but seeds often have a lower seed nutrient density from growing in deficient soils or under stress conditions. You can give crops an additional kick of nutrients to balance its nutrient density and maximize yields by dressing the seed coat with a Primer. Priming a seed with nutrients before seeding helps with germination and early root development, giving the crop the best chance to grow to its full potential despite early season challenges due cold and/or wet soil conditions that Canada often experiences almost every year.
OMEX offers seven Primers (Primer Zn, Primer Mn, Primer Cu, Pulse Primer, Primer Canola, Pulse Pak, Primer Soybeans), each specifically designed to meet the needs of the crop it is used on, to optimize micronutrient uptake and maximize seedling emergence and vigour. Robust roots and earlier plant maturity are just two of the numerous advantages recorded in response to use of a Primer.
Another boost of nutrition to the seed in those First 30 Days® can also be supplied with Starter P fertilizer. One of the advantages of choosing a liquid Starter fertilizer is to strategically place the phosphorus, potassium and key micronutrients close to seed, improving emergence and compensating for the lack of availability of these nutrients due to cold and wet soil conditions.
If you’re using a granular fertilizer, OMEX offers a new line of products called Perfuze, which allow an ag dealer to coat every granule of a dry blend with essential micronutrients, to address crop removal and replenish soil levels for subsequent crops. With variable liters per metric ton, depending on yield targets and fertilizer rate, OMEX has developed a calculator to guide dealers and farmers in their endeavor to address Zn, Cu, Mn, Fe, B, Mg independently or together.
The three-leaf stage is when crops are ready to receive herbicide application and often when indicators of stress start to become visible. To help combat both biotic and abiotic stressors with a nutritional boost that’s immediately available to the crop, we prescribe a high performance foliar with Stress Reliever Technology™ (C3, Nutri-Boost, P3, Zintake w/SRT).
Foliars can also be applied alone to correct nutrient deficiencies or bridge the gaps caused by the inability of soil to transfer nutrients under a variety of conditions, and after many years of use in the field and in our test plots, we have seen a marked difference in the recovery of crops sprayed with a foliar fertilizer tank-mixed with pesticides.
Talk to your OMEX representative today for more information about choosing the OMEX Primer, Starter and Foliar to achieve your growing goals.
In our next post: We take a closer look at how to overcome the challenges presented by cold, wet soils.