Tag: know your nutrients

As seeding begins to wind down across the Prairies, producers are setting their sights on the next stages of crop production and keeping their collective eye out for factors that can cause stress to vulnerable emerging plants. Stress brought on by weather, soil conditions, moisture (excess or insufficient), insects, diseases and herbicide application can ultimately […]

Whether it is the result of water quality or the lack of rotation of pesticides on the farm, weeds and diseases are becoming more and more resistant to the active ingredients in pesticides.  Previously, we have examined the effect of water hardness on the efficacy of burn down and desiccation, but water quality can also […]

Photo credit: Chatterton et al., 2017 Root rot and clubroot are two serious diseases which can, at best, cause yield losses and, at worst, cause premature plant death. While clubroot is a disease solely affecting brassica crops, such as canola, root rot can take hold in cereals, pulses, canola and other field crops when conditions […]

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 […]

Soil pH is a key factor in farmland as it controls availability of nutrients, microbial activity and crop productivity. Before delving into what causes soils to become acid and the steps to take to treat and correct acidic soil, we must first establish what is considered an optimal pH for crop production. For most prairie […]

Soil salinity can occur naturally or be caused by human activity – continuously irrigating with water that has a high salt concentration, for example. While some crops are tolerant to saline soils, high concentrations of some salts can be toxic to others. Salinity can also affect a plant’s uptake of water and absorption of nutrients. […]

Calcium (Ca) is the backbone of every living organism, including plants. Although a plant’s needs for calcium can be as high as its needs for nitrogen and potassium, it is classified as a secondary nutrient. In this post, we examine the importance of calcium and the factors that can limit its availability to plants. As […]

It has been over a decade since the discovery of how plants take up and re-translocate silica (Si), one of the most abundant elements on earth. Further focus on the element has revealed that it plays an important role in alleviating the effects of biotic and abiotic stress; however, still much remains to be understood. […]

Plants require a total of 16 nutrients to grow, develop, reproduce and remain healthy. Three of these nutrients – nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) – are required in relatively large amounts. These are known as macronutrients. Existing in a delicate balance with each other, the macronutrients each have a big role to play […]

2019 marks the 350th anniversary of Henning Brand’s discovery of phosphorus, making this the perfect opportunity to reflect on our relationship with the element: what was our farming like without it, how did it change our current farming practices and how should we manage it to preserve its sustainability? Known as “the Devil’s element”, phosphorus […]