Joel Williams - Advancing Plant Nutrition at Groundswell 2018

okay yeah it's been a good couple of days of a lot of talking I can feel it a bit in my voice so hopefully we all survived this last hour I'm probably I'm a bit tired I'm sure you guys are a bit tired so let's join forces and help each other over the finishing line okay so today I've got in a way a very much appreciative straightforward presentation I just want to keep it nice and simple and easy and formal just some kind of practical information and we're going to talk about folio spraying and basics of follow spraying a basis of plant nutrition how do we bring these two pieces of the puzzle together with understanding spray technologies etc understanding plant nutrition to then bring these two things together to actually get a good response from a foliar spray and achieve better mineral uptake and correction of deficiencies or optimization of plant health etc through the use of foliage so that's the topic for today the flow is we're going to kind of pretty much start with sprays and and principles of uptake and the spray technology side of things is analysis kind of run through some pretty quick plant nutrition we're gonna go through each element one-by-one again it's not it we're gonna got an hour it's not a super detail course so just you know a key message for each mineral kind of a good memory kind of jog for you all and then we'll kind of bring that all together at the end so I've managed to if you for those of you who were here yesterday my screen went all over the place so I made sure I corrected that today and I've got my photo my favorite photosynthesis slide which is also nicely laid out so this is what it was supposed to look like yesterday the ingredients for our photosynthesis driving the processes of plant growth energy air water minerals all driving photosynthesis and life and this is of course the focus what we're going to zoom in today talk about how do we manage plant nutrition having those minerals normally there's a big discussion to have about how do we manage up from the soil health perspective and the soil delivery of those minerals but today we're just going to kind of focus a little bit more on the the foliar side of things and hey there we go it's working today as well and so this is just in a little bit more detail exactly the same thing we're talking about photosynthesis bringing in carbon dioxide fixing that carbon producing that first product of photosynthesis that sugar glucose molecule and in the yellow the writing here this is this is our job as nutritionists it's to optimize the minerals the nutritional availability the mineral balances in the plant it's our job to optimize that so that they can be enzymes or catalysts to catalyze this process take carbon hydrogen oxygen stitch it together into sugars in the presence of those mineral drivers and then what does the plant do with that very simple sugar that first building block again it requires adequate supply of nutrition to drive and build complexity and diversity into the plant so we stitch those little cups sugars together to form bigger chain carbohydrates now checking on some nitrogen and sulfur forming some amino acids and some proteins building more and more complexity fats and oils waxes cue to very waxy layers lignans tannins all these kinds of other compounds hormones vitamins phytonutrients protect defense chemicals protective chemicals etc all of these kinds of things that all come from that very first building block that's simple sugar molecule but in that second stage we build complexity and diversity and this is for those of you that were sitting in with Dan's session just next door last this is also what he was so eloquently also talking about its building in this complexity that is the driver of inherent pests and disease resistance and I'll come return to the slide with linking that point this is quality this is shelf life this is flavor this is also pests and disease resistance these things are intertwined they are one of the same thing when we optimize plant nutrition for growth or yield for production for shelf-life we're also at the same time optimizing nutrition for health for quality for pests and disease resistance it's all the same thing because it is all about getting the right balance of minerals to catalyze this process and that slide there is the essence of plant health for me that is the definition of plant health we've had a lot of difficult discussions about defining soil health for the past few days for me this represents plant health that's it and our job is right here in gold in yellow and then when we optimize that full plant potential and production and health and quality and vitality stems from that yields from that and that means taking a balanced view of plant nutrition looking at the bigger picture not narrowing it down not not simplifying the process to ammonium nitrate with maybe a little bit of sulfur maybe some line here or there you know what is the actual limiting factor that is limiting your potential what happens if we put more ammonium nitrate on this soil this picture says yield but it could be anything potential if whatever your goal is are you trying to get more roots if you want more nitrogen fixation more nodules do you want more leaves throughout more branches do you want more protein don't more shelf-life storability it doesn't matter you name it flavor quality whatever it is you're trying to drive and the cases yield here you won't achieve it unless you address the limiting factor and that's why we have to widen the lens PK and mg and pH are important but there's also these other things that are also really important and they may in fact be the limiting factor and we won't pick up on that unless we are in some way looking for it monitoring you so then we have lovely images like this which of course represents everything that is wrong with how we view plant nutrition soil plant today this is the wrong way to be thinking about it Here I am saying that something is more important than the other that nitrogen phosphorus and potassium are of primary importance oh and then there's these secondary things oh and then there's these tertiary things down the bottom nothing is superior nothing is inferior they're all of equal importance sure nitrogen and potassium require a greater quantities but the trace elements much lower quantities but they can still have equal and significant impact over photosynthesis driving that slide we saw earlier this is the wrong way to be thinking about it we want to think something more like this no one is at the head of the table now that we're trying to understand more so these relationships between minerals it's not okay to look at just the one mineral we have to understand its relationship to other minerals it's the balances between them that becomes much more of a driving factor there and okay I'm not gonna we're not gonna talk about the slide and in detail at all today if we could for a long time talk about these various antagonisms and synergism I'm going to give a few examples of this as we go through each mineral by mineral but it's a useful chart that you can look at look at your soil tests identify where the excesses are use this chart to say okay I have an excess of whatever it may be phosphorus I can look at the chart and say what will that excess of phosphorus antagonize the availability and uptake off and that's based on whatever it's pointing to so high phosphorus will shut down zinc for example shut down iron for example okay so it is useful chart that's not the be-all and end-all has its critics some people are bored with this chart it's it's you know again it's useful guides I mean I think it has its merits in helping us just refine our nutrient management and balances so what is then the role of a folio I certainly I'm not here today to say that fault we can substitute the role of saw a good soil management with a folio and we can do everything we need to do with folios certainly not saying that but they can be a useful tool to complement to work with long term soil improvement strategies we can use folios to augment to to come together and support our soil strategies so why might we use a foliar spray for example okay and again I didn't have time to go through it in detail but there's all of these antagonisms and issues in soils minerals lock up with each other they antagonize we could talk about that for a long time but that's stuff I've done before if you've listened to me or there's misinformation out there on that but we can bypass some of those issues those antagonisms those lock ups and get the minerals directly straight into the plant so it has a certain real advantage there in terms of avoiding that those issues and that also brings with it when soil applied minerals of course they're more prone to leaching particularly our nitrates of course for lateralization our urea or ammonia of course so we hope to avoid some of those issues when we're going straight into the plant we know that soil applied nutrients are certainly nowhere near as efficient as foliar applied we do see a lot of nutrient losses from soil applied nutrients or soil applied fertilizers nitrogen being particularly notorious there so we can bypass these issues minimize some of these losses and that improves efficiencies and all of this means we can come together and also use less fertilizer so this is all helping to drive nutrient use efficiency here it's very small amounts of nutrients that we apply on the folio and sure that's one of its limitations and well I'm gonna come to some pros and cons at the end we heard there's a maximum there's a limit we can put out through the foliar sure but also in terms of it being more targeted using less improving efficiencies we don't need as much and so it can have a really good complement as I said to our soil based strategies so we target those directly onto the plant surfaces where they can then be absorbed so then we want to understand then that certain nutrients support each other and they are synergists and other nutrients can be more antagonistic towards each other and prevent utilizar uptake or utilization into the plant so a few little definitions there synergism this is where a nutrient interaction is synergistic where the yield due to the combined application of those two nutrients is more than unexpected if we were to ply them individually so an example I give you here is one plus one is three when those two things come together there's a synergy there that creates an overview of a greater response than the sum of those parts whereas okay obvious antagonism is the opposite it's where those nutrient and track interactions are antagonistic and the yield due to that combined application is then often driven down than what we'd expect from the individual application of the two individual nutrients so for example one plus one we might only get a 1.5 response ok so there's some kind of a lock up there some kind of an interference effect due to that antagonism or lastly we can have zero interaction again that would be one plus one equals two it's it's neither here nor there it's just fairly negligible neutral so then we can talk about breaking down into these agony antagonisms well why does certain nutrients antagonize each other what is the mechanisms what is the process that we see here and it's really due to the similarity in certain minerals they have certain similarities either in the size of the of the element or the size of its ionic radius or its chemical charge the chemistry of that mineral and it's these two factors whereby in nutrients can then begin to compete and antagonize with each other so there's kind of two things to think about here one is this competition this is where we have things like a cation and a cation a positive charge neutral and a positively charged nutrient that kind of looks similar to the plant if one is simply overcrowding the other it's a bit like a seesaw if one is overcrowding it's dominated there it will suppress the availability of the other due to this similarity this competition effect and then we have more of a lock ups where there we have cations and anions then coming together positive and a negative coming together forming insoluble unavailable compound so locking each other up reducing the availability of both of those so okay sodium and potassium is one example back there and calcium and phosphorus another example we were there locking up performing an unavailable compound calcium phosphate for example so competition due to similarity but then also these lockup effects and if we think about what in terms of optimizing this response that we get from a foliar spray there's a lot to actually consider to factor in when working towards a good response from our foliar sprays there's many steps in the process I guess I'm trying to say here it begins with formulation what is that we're going to spray then we have to atomize that solution so get it into a misting format that can be targeted towards the plant surfaces it has to be then transported to those plant surfaces the droplet has to reach the leaf surface what is the impact of that does it stick on the leaf does it bounce off does it fall off what is thus predator attention therefore a retention their borders the spreading capacity of that of the the spray solution over the leaf surface do we see any residues that can form and suppress uptake then we have to actually absorb those minerals into the Leafs of penetration in and then finally the plant has to actually utilize that mineral metabolize it and convert it into a form for plant processors so there's actually a lot of factors there that go into a simple foliar spray and all of these things can then begin to impact the effectiveness of that foliar spray so let's tease out just a couple of particular important aspects that can drive the efficacy of our spray again and some characteristics of the formulation that I want to talk to touch on application environment and the plant characteristics itself so formulation it's about what is it we're mixing up for example of course is it the right form what are the synergists what are the antagonists it's about making a good mixture so that formulation the size of the molecule is at a large compound that can't be absorbed by the leaf surfaces is it small that can be absorbed through the leaf surfaces so what is the size of the material we're trying to apply what is its solubility what is its availability what is the charge again this is through the cations and anions what is the electrical charge of us Ellucian what is the pH of that solution this can also have a big impact over the effectiveness of those sprays and again the surface tension how well does that spread over the leaf surface or does it bead and stick together do a good good spread ability across that leaf surface and then we have things like adjuvants that can help us optimize that formulation aspects so we have activator adjuvants and these are other substances we can add to the spray mix which which simply enhance the activity of the active ingredient they they work directly and changing the behavior of the activity of the of the actual active ingredient and that's different from our utility adjuvants these auxilary ones when more so we then are adding things to modify the overall other characteristics of the spray solution not necessarily changing the behavior or the activity of the active but other solution characteristics so adding for examples compatibility agents or buffering solutions pH modifiers these kinds of things okay so then there's the application of the product itself of that formulation so of course nozzle sizes and nozzle forms and types all of these things which influence therefore the droplet size and then the behavior of that droplet is it small is it easily to blow off in the wind is it a bit too big and coarse will it drop to the ground how do we find that happy medium to optimize the size of the droplet so that it reaches the target through that folia during that foliar application similarly does that droplet land on the leaf and stay there so does it get deflected does it stick on any runoff any drift these kinds of other environmental factors here evaporation I'll come to those in a little bit more detail surface area coverage what is the size of our canopy of the leaf surfaces what is the size the shape the orientation all of these characters the plant characteristics that can also drive how well the plant captures that foliar spray and so the environmental characteristics are also really really important humidity so when we have very low humidity of course we get rapid drying and particularly for our soluble solutions they can surely recrystallize I can unseal eyes they can recrystallize out of solution and form little crystals on the leaf surfaces so of course it's now not soluble it cannot be absorbed by the plant it's a little bit of extra humidity there helps to maintain the solubility of our spray solution when it's on that leaf surface temperature also so we know the plants grow and utilize nutrients more when it's warmer so I think everything just shuts down when it's colder so if we have an optimum temperature there where plants are growing and active then they will see better response from those forests raised up to a top end of course when it starts to get too hot again plant processes slow down photosynthesis shuts down if it's too hot and thereby limiting the potential of the efficacy of our foliar spray light also plays a role quality and quantity it seems to also have a role in improving uptake and of course other things like wind the environment the climate the rain all of these other things that are happening outside in the environment then so ok I was touching there on humidity therefore the message here is that we we know that plants will be able to absorb and utilize the minerals that we apply if if they are applied in the early morning or in that late afternoon that is certainly the better time particularly because stomata are open at that time of the day in the morning and they eat in the evenings they'll be more likely to be closed on a hot day and as I'll talk about in a second the stomata are one means of delivery to get those nutrients into the plant so when the stomata have closed of course we're limiting that potential for nutrient uptake through the stomata so time of day is important and then things again like environment in drought situations so actually under early drought stress when the plant is beginning to feel the effects of the dry soil and it's limiting having a limited nutrient uptake from the soil in those early stages of drought stress of moisture stress plants actually respond very well to folios part of the part of the stress that we're seeing part of the dehydration and the effects and the leaf caring and cetera that we see in the early stages is also a mineral deficiency it's the soil drying out and the plants not being able to get the minerals out of the soil water so what you see and what we consider as dry moisture stress is moisture stress plus nutrient stress because of the inability to scavenge those minerals and in that stage plants are foliar applications are very effective at helping the plant overcome that drought stress by of course getting the mineral directly into the plant avoiding that dry soil so there actually it's a very effective time during that early drought stress however again as that progresses and the plants become more and more stress really shutting down and they become very unresponsive to a foliar spray in the later stages of that drought stress so it can be a very effective tool to help certainly tie the plant oversee the plant over hoping that we may still get some rain and maybe rain could be another week away or a few days away it can really help the plant hold on for longer and potassium is a nutrient there that's particularly that's relevant for potassium really shuts down quickly as the soil begins to dry out and you get a good health recovery from the plant in the plant from folios flex braids of potassium and in those early drought stress situations so then we have some of those other characteristics of the plant surfaces themselves ok the leaf shape the leaf area index these kinds of things leaf chemistry I'm going to talk about in a second and these are the physical attributes what is the the size of the thickness of the cuticle the waxy layer on the outside of the leaf surface what is the characteristic of that cuticle of course it's waxy it has a water repellency so different plants are more or less than others as we all can appreciate with our brassicas they have those of course leaf surfaces that the water will especially bead together on those leaf surfaces so hence where the stickers to increase that spread ability are particularly relevant then so it's those cuticles those surfaces can have a role these surface waxes also then the leaf structures so leaf hairs the various kind of trichomes and these things can all impact on caps Elite on the folio spray and either improving or limiting its reaching the target of those leaf surfaces crop stage is also a factor young plants say around that kind of three to six leaf stage those young leaves very kind of young and tender leaves are very responsive to a foliar spray of course as that leaf gets more older a bit more mature it becomes a little bit less responsive the nutrients a little bit less penetrable into those slightly older leaves so the young leaves at that early stage are very very responsive to foliar sprays and ok I go through examples there are plant stresses as well the drought stress heat stress these kinds of things also have have a role so therefore we're thinking about the formulation getting it applied out reaching the target then having it understand how those nutrients are absorbed and utilized by the plant then becomes another factor so nutrients can get into the plant through these two means one as I just mentioned is the stomata so when the stomata are open nutrients can be absorbed and taken up directly through that stomata and that's also part of the reason that again early morning late afternoon is particularly responsive for follow sprays because those stomata are open but Lyon nutrients can also be taken up through kind of micro pores and the cuticles they can pass through those waxy layers and be absorbed into the leaf surfaces now contrary to route uptake of nutrients the root the plants the root the take-up of nutrients from the soil by the roots involves energy it's an active process the plant has specific ion transporters channels in the root cells which enables the certain minerals to pass through that specific ion channel and be absorbed and the plant is often using energy for that process to take up that mineral through that specific channel now the leaf uptake of nutrients is quite different it's more of a passive process it's simply due to a concentration gradient so the more concentration gradient we have on the outside of the leaf surface ie what we've just folios if that is very strong and concentrated and the concentration of that nutrient is weaker inside lower inside the tissue of the plant where we have a gradient there and therefore those nutrients will pass through the waxy cuticle into the plant due to that concentration gradient so that's why it can be very effective to get nutrients into the plant very easily not too much energy it's a very passive process for them to take up those nutrients and that also in highlights the importance of getting the spray formulation concentration correct because if your foliar spray is too weak to dilute you're going to have a lower concentration gradient so uptake will be slower you won't get as good a response because your concentration gradient is smaller so getting the right concentration of the foliar spray is is critical to then creating a bigger gradient and quicker uptake and quicker utilization it totally influences the speed of that response there and so that comes down to the EC the concentration of our nutrient mix we can use an EC meter to measure that off the spray solution you can see there around about one and a half to three millisiemens percent centimeter is considered a good nutrient concentration of that following a mix to then get a good absorption and uptake by the plant so as well as a concentration gradient for uptake we have another means which is to do with the electrical potential and this is to do with the charge of our mix and the charge of the plant this is with cation and iron bow cation and anion balances so whenever the plant takes up lots of beer either anions or cations depending on what we're applying whenever it takes up particularly one of those and if they are absorbed in different rates this leads to an electrical gradient if it's taking in lots of cations for example it's creating an electrical charge an electrical gradient there which then other nutrients can be absorbed to overcome that gradient as well so it's also to do with cations and anions in the mix as well as well as that concentration greatest not it's not purely that it's also this electrical charge because the plants always maintain a state of electroneutrality they're taking in cations they have to release other cations this is part of what they do with the roots when they take up acidifying mineral cations they will release a hydrogen ion when they take up anions they release a hydroxyl iron there's this electro neutrality within the plant and the same principle that charge potential is a gradient in which we can which drives nutrient uptake from our foliar spray and the plant surfaces themselves are negatively charged so those waxy layers that cuticle on the outside of the plant that is a negatively charged surface and so when we are applying certain nutrients particularly cations are positively charged nutrients well they can be highly attracted to those negatively charged surfaces there is an attraction there that positive and negative coming together and so when we apply cations particularly it's so we can often see a somewhat like a bottleneck we have this very negatively charged leaf surface we plow these cations as a strong attraction we get this bottleneck effect there and it can actually limit the uptake in the availability of the applied nutrient and so we can help to bypass that issue by using things like ki laters and this is why you I'm sure you've all come across chelated and mineral product and foliar products iron chelate for example etc for this very good reason is that when we chelate them which simply means combining them with a an agent and okay I'm gonna suggest we should be using carbon that it could be all sorts of things what that key later does is neutralize the charge of that element so it neutralizes it therefore it can be absorbed into the plant more effectively because there's not so much of that strong and take an antagonistic strong charge attraction then so this is a nice picture just to explain what I'm talking about here if we are applying the nutrient let's say here's our iron this cation here for example we're applying this on its own it's very strongly attracted to these negative surfaces that kind of bottlenecks and doesn't get taken up very well when we combine that with a key later there are some carbon sources that are particularly effective at this we that well that's what we're doing right there we're wrapping up that nutrient we're satisfying we're neutralizing that charge of the element it's now attached to other things we've neutralized that charge therefore it's not such a bottleneck it can more easily be actually taken up and absorbed by those leaf surfaces for utilization okay so that is one of the golden rules every input that you're going out with you should always be combining it with a source of carbon it helps to chelate it helps to stabilize it helps to buffer also helps improve uptake I mean you name it there's lots and lots of good reasons why we should be doing that so we can use it could be as simple as things as molasses cheap and easily two sources molasses it's a carbon chain it'll it'll do this it'll attach to things that's great we can do seaweeds we could use fish extracts we could use humic acids we could just fallback acids and fulvic acid is one that's particularly effective for foliar sprays that is one I particularly recommend because fulvic acid does exactly this as you can see as all of the other two do the other carbon key laters but fulvic acid also has another property about it it makes the plant cells more permeable so they actually become more receptive more permeable to whatever is applied with that fulvic acid and thereby you can improve nutrient uptake particularly so with 4-week it works very very good on as a foliar carbon source so I would particularly recommend that on in the instance of foliar sprays so then the plants have taken up those minerals well now they've got to utilize them metabolize them send them to where they're going where they're required etc so of course different minerals have greater or less mobility some are more mobile some are less mobile so what we see is that our immobile nutrients once absorbed into that leaf they can typically they'll only have fairly local benefits local effects to that leaf they can't be sent around to elsewhere to other parts of the plant unlike our mobile nutrients which can have more of a systemic effect they're taken up in certain leaves but then redistributed throughout the plant to other leaves or other root cell other plant cells to the roots etc so just two examples of that both urea and boron are known to be highly absorbable really easily to pass through that cuticle be taken up by the plant urea is particularly effective and particularly easily absorbed by the plant which also in a way makes urea also quite a good key later if you're looking for if you're doing any foliar sprays of trace elements and things for example it's a really good idea to put just a touch of urea with that may only be a couple of kilos a hectare but that urea then will bind to those trace minerals and because your reer passes through the cuticle so easily it helps to drag the other trace minerals in there with it particularly effectiveness for example with zinc but it works well with other traces as well anyway point being both of these two are taken up very easily that nitrogen in the area is highly mobile can be easily distributed elsewhere whereas the boron is highly immobile so it only can stick around in that leaf where it has more local local benefits so these things have a role have an influence and they can also be species specific so for example folder applications of zinc particularly nut trees that has been shown that the zinc is very in mobile once it's taken up whereas we know that zinc has reasonable mobility and other plants like wheat for example it can move around so they can be different behaviors and different plant species so nonetheless it's a good general rule of thumb and then we see that there's this sink source relationships between young and old leaves so as plants are growing and developing those young leaves are a sink for nutrition and for carbohydrates as the young leaves are developing they will receive sugars carbohydrates minerals from other leaves from other parts of the plant they will take those in and there will be a receiver there will be a sink for those sugars etc as that leaf is developing but once that leaf has fully developed and fully matured well then it becomes a source than it is now fully functional its received all of the building blocks and mineral catalysts that it requires then it just photosynthesizes photosynthesizers and sends products out to the newer now to the new leaves those younger leaves which are now that sink so leaves they transit from being this young and old sink sauce kind of relationship once a young leaf has become an old leaf it can't actually take the carbohydrates and things back in it can only be a sender of those so there are these kind of different dynamics within the plant within those different mineral transportations then so okay that's kind of segment part one that's like just some fundamentals there on foliar spraying just some points to kind of consider in terms of getting a good response let's kind of move that into some fundamentals and plant nutrition because then we can try and bring these two things together at the end to talk about how to use an understanding of plant nutrition and use an understanding of foliar techniques to optimize plant health so I mean in a nutshell we're going to go through each of these minerals just super quickly one quick slide on each one again we could do a whole nutrition plant nutrition course probably for an entire day if you guys wanna stick around on that we could keep going but no we won't do that but we could talk about this for whole day as fundamentals of plant nutrition that's a big topic so again I just want to touch other key points for today a few key take-home messages so in a super quick summary slide in a nutshell what the different minerals do in the plant this information helps us decide make better management decisions on when to apply certain nutrient what to apply when to apply them different crop stages understanding what they do in the plant helps us make better decisions around how to manage those minerals so in a whizzing through each of these and we'll go slide on each to come nitrogen it's involved in chlorophyll it's structurally part of the chlorophyll molecule where photosynthesis happens so we need nitrogen for good photosynthesis and of course for amino acids and proteins for DNA of course as well as another one phosphorus it's part of ATP this energy currency of the planets driving all energy or reactions or processes in plants they require energy just like we do phosphorus is the currency of that and it's particularly important for root development as we all know when you start a phosphorus for that reason potassium particularly plays a role in all sorts of catalyzing all also reactions in the plant it's one of these major ends and part of many many enzyme systems many many common kind of catalyst systems it also involves the movement of sugar so the carrying of sugars and carbohydrates to the seed to the fruit etc so it's really important for sizing up grain sizing up seed and also nitrogen utilization making protein calcium are important for cell wall strength magnesium it's that other key mineral in the chlorophyll along with nitrogen so we can't have good chlorophyll without magnesium it's the central element if we don't have good chlorophyll we can't have good photosynthesis we need the structural building blocks of that chlorophyll in order to photosynthesize and produce that those sugars carbohydrates hormones fats oils protective compounds etc etc sulfur also as we know very important as part of amino acids and therefore protein synthesis in nitrogen utilization also like phosphorus important for rooting development as well silicon I'm going to say brief mention on that one really important for cell wall strength boron anything to also to do a sugar moving around the plant but anything to do with reproductive processes copper disease protection zinc leaf size manganese also reproductive processes seed development etc iron is involved in these synthesis of chlorophyll it's not structurally part of chlorophyll like nitrogen and magnesium are but we need iron to bring that iron and magnesium together and form the chlorophyll iron is involved in the synthesis of that compound Molly really important for nitrogen utilization converting nitrates into proteins cobalt also for nitrogen fixation on legumes and nickel important for this particular enzyme urease which helps to utilize urea nickel is an essential plant nutrient essential plant nutrient the plants cannot complete their life cycles without nickel how many of us are managing nickel on a day-to-day basis oh I see your hand that's gone out impressive we have to chat later so in order to counteract the wrong way to think about plant nutritions I'm going to whiz through each of these elements in no specific order apart from not going to start with NPK we're going to do them last let's start with the trace minerals will move to the secondaries and then we'll come down here just at the very very end just to emphasize that important point that they are all of equal importance no one is more important than the other no particularly though boron okay as I mentioned it's a bit like calcium it's like kelp and silicon they all get deposited in the cell walls it's become structurally part of the plant that's why all three of them are highly in mobile once they get deposited in there they cannot be mobilized and utilized to elsewhere so it does have a role in increasing cell strength and that helps to make the plant tougher more rigid more resilient against invading attackers pests and disease for example it's also involved similarly in the synthesis of these structural compounds so things like lignans polyphenols these more complex carbon things which get again get deposited in the skin of the plant helping to be strengthened the barrier between the outside world and the plant itself it's a very emollient required in those growing tips and as I mentioned particularly important for reproductive processes any plants any flowering plants that flower produce pollen have two pollen viability and set that set those flowers fruit set seed set etc anything to do that whole reproductive crop stage boron is critical for almost under unless there's an extreme toxicity known toxicity of boron pretty much most plants will benefit from a foliar spray of boron just prior to flowering just that the onset of flowering a week or so moving into flowering they really love that boron it's really important for good flowering and reproductive processes a few mineral cata antagonists of boron so calcium boron and calcium are synergists they work together but if one is too high or than the other can also begin to antagonize so they kind of work both actually calcium and boron certainly nitrogen applications shut down boron as does potassium so these things if we're over applying these or we have too much of these in the soil in the system they can antagonize the utilization of boron for folia sprays we can use things like sodium borate borates standard soluble agricultural soluble boron is typically the best easy source to use boric acid like as always combine these with a source of carbon always put some carbon especially with boron boron is an ant aside otherwise when it's raw in that raw form as we all know we've used ant rid stuff in our kitchens its boric acid boron is is an ant aside if we combine it with a carbon source that buffers that negative effect on the ants so again it's actually very important practice generally copper also important for against synthesis of these structural compounds things like lignans important to toughen up that skin of the plant but also copper has a role in the synthesis of defense chemicals various antimicrobial type compounds these secondary metabolites that can have antifungal antibiotic type properties helping the immune system of the plant helping the plant to fight off pests and disease particularly diseases now of course we associate copper of being foliar sprayed on on the leaf surface and that's really to sterilize the leaf surface this is protection from disease from within the plant from building structural defense barriers and from synthesizing a these immune compounds very different from copper fungicides copper is also involved in the metabolism utilization of proteins of carbohydrates and involved in various respiration processes of the plant so phosphorus locks up calcium it's a big antagonist again nitrogen and of course we can use standard copper sulfate there as a is a perfectly good input to folio correct copper deficiencies again with the source of carbon what about zinc it plays a role in determining leaf size this is the solar panel of the plant the leaf size depends on how what surface area we can capture sunlight and the more of course then we need those building blocks had nitrogen magnesium and chlorophyll in there but zinc has important role over the size of that solar panel and the bigger the solar panel the more Sun and energy we can capture of course the more energy we have to drive photosynthesis it also plays a role in the synthesis of chlorophyll as well a bit like iron and taking us to zinc high phosphorus calcium and magnesium all three of these shut down the utilization of zinc we can also using sulfate and zinc we do see some zinc oxides in folio use but again your sulfate form is typically better it's more available more easily to absorb and utilized by the plant manganese important for germination it's also has a strong link with disease an immune mineral for the plant it really helps these disease fighting processes particularly because again similar process it has a role in synthesizing these primary defenses its structural barriers but also these immune compounds from within the plant a lot of diseases have a link with magnesium manganese deficiency and there we go it's involved in the produces of lignans these calluses and then these other more antimicrobial biotic type substances within the plant what antagonizes manganese calcium is one potassium seems to be a synergist it really helps manganese do its job and again manganese sulfate would be a typical option they're combined with carbon for manganese iron chlorophyll as we touched on that's it's really big claim to fame and that's really important for the synthesis of that chlorophyll manganese and zinc shut down the availability as well as celts calcium and phosphorus potassium is a synergist and here we have iron sulfate again iron chelate also it can be a good option but iron sulfate works very well again combine it with some fulvic acid it's a very easy DIY key later it really helps the utilization of those minerals that it's combined with then we have Mali important for protein synthesis protein is of course what's helping to drive quality we're all interested in protein molybdenum is involved with two critical enzymes that help to convert nitrates into nitrite and then into ammonia before it ultimately becomes amino acids so what I'm saying is that we cannot build protein we cannot convert nitrates into proteins without molybdenum it is impossible it is the key mineral it's part of that molybdenum enzyme nitrate reductase enzyme that converts that nitrate ultimately into protein it is an essential mineral for that process what is the main form of nitrogen fertilizer we use in this country ammonium nitrate that nitrates cannot be converted to proteins without Mali how many of us on managing Mali making sure we have enough Mali it's critically important ok many high pH soils Mali becomes very available so a lot of UK soils do certainly have adequate Mali availability in them but certainly not some of our acidic soils and not necessarily always just because your pH is high doesn't guarantee that Molly's coming up into the plant so it is really important if we want to build amino acids if we want to build protein which I know I'm sure all of you want to do but it's also really important for in fixing bacteria they require Molly to grab onto that nitrogen gas from the air we'd like to talk about nutrition in the context of plants and essential plant minerals and nutrition the sense of animals minerals for livestock and and minerals for our diet how often do we think about what minerals do the microbes need the bacteria need Molly in order to grab onto nitrogen gas pull that in from the air and deliver that to the plant the bacteria cannot do it without Molly dan was just talking about this also next door for those of you that were there the bacteria needed not just in our legumes also the free living make the nitrogen fixers as well they need that mineral how much how often do we think about nutrition for our microbes so okay we can use also sodium molybdate would be the most common foliar spray there that we can also use to correct Molly deficiencies cobalt another essential mineral for particularly for legumes so they need it for nodule formation so it's essential in our legumes and it's part of vitamin b12 it is the central element to this vitamin what does that do I should say vitamin shouldn't I I've just getting these things constantly mixed around now I'm just traveling too much I can never be aubergine or eggplant vitamin vitamin yogurt yogurt it just never ends I can as soon as I get used to one I'm somewhere else and then I forget okay so vitamin b12 it has a role in cell division for all cells microbes need cobalt to to divide their cells so - so the plants sewed of course set of animals so do we it's critically important so we can use cobalt sulfate then for that one okay nickel as I mentioned it is a part of this enzyme called urease what does that do it helps to break apart the urea molecule it helps with the utilization the hydrolysis the utilization of urea turning that ultimately into proteins amino acids and proteins so nickel is also an essential mineral I think there's a lot of scope there for utilization foliar spraying of urea with nickel bringing these two senators together applying that urea in a form directly into the plant which is basically like a pre amino acid it can very easily be converted into proteins particularly if it has the mineral sinner just like nickel there to support that process put that same urea down into the soil it's many of that much of that Conville Atta lies off some might get converted to nitrate sleech aways and the plants taking up those nitrates then it has to use a lot of energy to convert those nitrates into proteins whereas if we Foley a spray that urea it's a pre amino acid it's very easy very super energy efficient to go amino acid protein or we can put that your ear in the soil and then we start the chain down here has to start from nitrates work its way our back to get to amino acid to then become protein or we can just interject right here and that's what you really through the folia has great potential for that reason it really helps to enhance quality from a protein perspective okay that's trace minerals and then moving on to the secondary macro minerals calcium as I touched on really important in cell walls along with boron and silicon and that is a cell strengthener it helps to toughen up the rigidity of those plants and that helps to improve pest and disease resistance it is a highly in mobile mineral for that exact reason once the calcium gets deposited in these cell walls it is structurally part of the plant structurally locked in it cannot be remobilize dand reutilized it is therefore so we know some of the antagonists big ones mpk all three of those antagonize calcium availability and this is why we classic the see in a lot of early establishing crops which have have too much NPK down at the beginning of on the planting blend or three of those block calcium availability and uptake we will often see here great establishment fast quick spindle e growth but it's thin watery growth it's not strong structural rigid plant tissues and that's because calcium cannot keep up when we're pushing NPK too much the calcium is the big loser from that approach so if we optimize calcium in the tissues we can feel it it's more strategic tougher leathery ax plant so to speak okay and the other big one is magnesium as we know magnesium and calcium a classic antagonists boron does work with calcium as does silicon what can we use for inputs calcium nitrate calcium chloride and liquid lines liquid gypsum as these kinds of things can all be used to address calcium what about sulfur we've touched on sulfur a little bit earlier we on we appreciate its role in a mint to the critical amino central amino acids and therefore it's very important for that overall protein synthesis if you're interested in protein you've got to be interested in Mali you've got to be interested in sulfur we've got to have the synergist the nutrients that support nitrogen in doing what it does we're all interested in nitrogen but we should all be interested in the other minerals that support nitrogen in doing what it does in driving yield in building protein etc sulfur also really important for root development like phosphorus very important for nodule formation in our legumes and also sulfur has a role in disease resistance sulfur induced disease resistance sulfur rich plants typically have higher levels of inherent immunity against disease antagonist zinc and Mali both antagonized sulfur selenium seems to be quite a synergist there it's linked with selenium as a part of the Celino methionine one of those amino acids as well what can we use for sulfur we can use ammonium sulfate potassium sulfate and make sulfate all three of those are perfectly fine and as we've touched any of those trace mineral sulfates already they're going to be bringing some sulfur into the system magnesium as I mentioned part of that chlorophyll central chlorophyll central element in the chlorophyll molecule cannot have good photosynthesis without that chlorophyll but actually only about 15 to 20 percent of the total magnesium in the plant is actually structurally part of the chlorophyll molecule the root far majority is actually used as an enzyme as a catalyst to catalyze all sorts of processes particularly nitrogen sorry protein synthesis utilization of nitrogen as well much less than only these are quite focus on the importance of magnesium for chlorophyll and it is really important but actually it also plays a really important role in nitrogen utilization and it's also a phosphorus synergist calcium as you mentioned shuts it down potassium shuts it down potassium and magnesium have that classic relationship see soaring is once too high the other ones down the other ones too high the other ones down they are classic antagonists phosphorus and nitrogen help magnesium work better mag sulfate magnet rate more micronized magnesite there as well silicon as I've just quickly mentioned it's not an essential mineral but it is very beneficial it also deposits in the cell walls like calcium like boron so it helps with structurally protecting the plant against disease but it also has this other effect in terms of inducing resistance being a mineral that can enhance and support and drive immune responses within the plant helping the plant to fight off insects and disease a lot of very interesting research being done on silicon I encourage you to go do some googling on that whatever crop you grow whatever your crop of interests just go into google and type in silicon nutrition and whatever wheat canola etc there's a lot just so much really interesting information out there on that mineral okay potassium important for sizing translocation of sugars and carbohydrates as I mentioned sizing up those fruit therefore when we are carrying sugars and carbohydrates to fruit grain see but especially fruit that improves the taste flavor of the product improves the ripeness the size the flavor all those quality attributes it also has a role in protein synthesis it is a highly also highly highly mobile mineral that means we will typically see deficiency symptoms on those older leaves kelsa so all of the other major cations are antagonists of calcium magnesium and sodium nitrogen also silicon actually works very synergistically with potassium they form a compound that really helps the potassium be utilized into the plant and you have all sorts of options here put chloride potassium sulfate potassium nitrate potassium silicates you're getting those two senators there in one also a really good option phosphorus as I mentioned ATP energy currency of the plant phosphorus also has a role in accelerating tissue maturity so that's important for as we often hear all year these young plant tissues are more susceptible and since they're susceptible to pests and disease phosphorus has a role in hardening off those young tissues helping them to mature and making the plant was a bit more resistant and again root development as we mentioned very important for crop establishment antagonists of phosphorus calcium iron zinc aluminium so these particularly some of these guys of course lock up with that phosphorus forming these insoluble unavailable compounds magnesium helps to improve my phosphorus availability and then from a folio perspective have all sorts of various foz acids and KP mana and potassium phosphate that's a good one give me the potassium and phosphorus really helps to drive photosynthesis there that is a good folder a quick corrector of phosphorus deficiency in plants and some of these other micronized rock minerals and things as well can be used but they are better down in the soil okay then we have nitrogen big driver of yield big driver of protein structurally part of the plan in terms of the DNA part of that chlorophyll the site of photosynthesis etc and again the problem with nitrogen is that when we over apply it without those supporting minerals it's about bringing those other minerals with nitrogen in order to do its job thinking about potassium role molybdenum role sulfur's role bringing these minerals together magnesium to join up that nitrogen to form that core so it's about bringing those minerals together with our nitrogen is how we should be thinking about nitrogen management so those are some of those senators there Molly nickel sulfur we could use your ear is particularly my favorite as I mentioned through the foliar spray ammonium sulfate calcium nitrate okay amino acids fish these kinds of things also can help us supply nitrogen okay that was just super quick whizzing through them all and then a few quick summary slides now so this is what we're talking about it's about bringing all of those minerals together to understand this process to deliver the folios can be a quick and effective way to deliver those minerals into the plant to drive this process to drive plant health yield quality etc etc well what about plant immunity how does the plant fight off diseases can you recognize the similarity and this slide at all its exact same slide all I'm saying is however again we need minerals and catalysts to drive this process but the plant can also synthesize all of these other interesting secondary compounds anti microbials antibiotics these phytochemicals physical barriers protective compounds proteins all of these things help the plant be less attractive be less susceptible to to insect invading insect attack the plant has an immune system it can fight off disease but it requires the adequate delivery and supply of the mineral catalysts in order to drive its immune system and when we have any limitation here we will have a compromised immune system and this is the principle of plant health this is why when we optimize the nutritional balance in the plant plants will be inherently healthy what about insects same slide again what else can the plants synthesize from that original simple sugar that original building block are they're bitter compounds anti feed ins they have anti herbivory type properties again cell strengtheners deterrent chemicals these volatile compounds that attracting beneficials or deter the insect pests complex things proteins that the insects can't die just these protective compounds these defense chemicals the plant can synthesize a whole range of defense chemicals against insects as well but again they require the minerals to act as catalyst in order to fuel this inherent immune process it all comes down to good plant nutrition and there are some really fundamental basics that we're not getting right you know the standard practices today which work directly against this process it's simply a matter of saying well okay what is my leaf status ask the plant do some tissue tests do some visual observations do some sap tests try and diagnose dinh issues and then correct them and folios can be a very quick way of correcting those and then we link this to sort health and salt processes when we deliver minerals when plants have adequate minerals and this process all works this one here and we're developing more diversity and more complexity into the plant or what happens to all of these various compounds these sugars carbohydrates all of these kinds of things well a percentage of those gets sent down to the root system and exude it out of the root system to feed the soil microbes and we have a lovely picture of a route to exit a coming off some maize here and so the plant is leaking these products of photosynthesis these various things here it is leaking those out into the soil to deliver those to feed the soil community the sort of microbial community so that those microbes can cycle minerals make nutrients available and deliver those back to the plant now if we were to calculate back the amount of nutrients that we apply in a foliar spray it's actually very small if you calculate particularly trace minerals if we calculate that back per hectare we're talking an insignificant amount of nutrient time foliar spraying over over all of your canopy it's insignificant but what does the plant do with that it Prime's the plant it delivers that mineral it Prime's the plant to trigger this process and then those 30 or percent sometimes 50 odd percent of the products gets sent down the carbon is exude it out to feed soil biology when that happens and we feed those organisms in the soil food web well what do they do they of course so blows minerals from the soil and they make those minerals available back to the plant-based cycle nutrients and they deliver those nutrients back to the plants so when we foliar spray that tiny little bit of trace mineral all we've done is prime the pump prime the plant triggered the release of those root exudates woken up the biology stimulated nutrient cycling and nutrient release and nutrient delivery to the plant from the soil so that foliar spray was actually more about an indirect stimulation of the soil life than it was about the amount of nutrient that you actually put in the response that you see the greening up that you see for example has come from the fact that you woke up biology and cycled nutrients from the soil it wasn't the little amount that you put on the top that was just a primer and so the plant how long does this take this as why folios are so useful we can foliar spray those nutrients in they will catalyze this process the plant will start breathing in that carbon dioxide fixing that turning out into sugars carbohydrates how long does that take to send those down to the root system and exude those out as the root system it can be as quick as one hour in ride right in rye grass this has been shown one hour after we get those minerals into the plant we can start feeding soil biology through these root exudates cycling that nutrient and that's what it's all about it's about releasing those foods down here bringing carbon into the system driving this food web so that they eat carbon cycle nutrients eat each other cycle nutrients pip2 all of that around cycle then around and deliver that back to the plant and so that's what it is that's what good folio management and plant nutrition is all about optimizing plant health or plant health sake but also so that as we optimize this process we actually improve soil health through better plant nutrition plants Drive soil health to you so in summary pros and cons to foliar sprays on the pro side we have very rapid utilization ok the plants cannabis all of those minerals if they're in the right form and we apply them correctly and get them through those cuticles etc they can absorb that rapidly and utilize that rapidly much faster than soil applied nutrients so if we have a deficiency symptom we can also alleviate that symptom quicker through the foliar spray and if you can see if visual symptom you're already losing some productivity so we want to correct that as quickly as possible of course so we can do that quicker through a folio it can be more effective than soil applications particularly for certain nutrients that are often highly immobilized or those particularly reactive nutrients like nitrogen which can we can easily lose them from the system so we can be more effective and delivering those nutrients to the plant release runoff nutrient losses for example example I just gave you there nitrates so we can again more targeted losing less from the system through the soil we can also deliver minerals to the plant when its ability to draw nutrition from the soil has been impaired in those early drought examples that I gave you earlier early drought conditions we can actually deliver plants minerals to the plant effectively they're things like trace minerals where we're using such small amounts per hectare anyway you can actually get more even spread more even delivery of those trace minerals compared to soil applied so certainly has that advantage in a liquid form and we can use folios to top our plant growth top up plant health during key crop stages or certainly peak demand example boron prior to flowering for example using our knowledge of plant nutrition and crop stage and bringing that together on the negative side okay there is an upper limit to how many units per hectare we can apply through the foliar spray of course we can't get as much out there through the foliar as we can through the soil certainly the plants because it's so rapidly absorbed and utilized we typically see shorter term benefits then maybe you need to redeliver those minerals if the if there was quite a drastic deficiency and we didn't correct it in one hit the plants utilize it quickly maybe you need to repeat that some might say that would be a negative a bit of extra labor component there okay certainly people feel that they see very variable responses to foliar sprays and okay we've touched on some of the reasons why that may be some of the application to technologies tricks that we can use to optimize delivery and uptake of that plant so using some of the things we've discussed today that we can help to minimize that negative sure there's a possibility of burning if our solution is too concentrated and we are restricted by the weather of course if it's windy if it's where so we can't get out there and deliver those minerals so it certainly it has an environmental drawback as well so in summary folios cannot replace a good soil management good sore fertility strategy it should be designed to complement to go with it's a good short-term strategy whilst we focus on good long-term sort health improvement strategies they do work together in those different time frames thinking fast and thinking slow we can really enhance our nutrient use efficiency so there's small amounts of nutrients it's very targeted this is very effective this is very efficient okay as I say on the negative we're limited by how much we can get in but certainly it improves our efficiencies there particularly in relation to minimizing environment negative environmental Outback impacts in each leaching of nitrates for example loss of phosphorus eutrophication of waters etc these kinds of examples so if we can understand some of the basics of plant nutrition plant nutrition 101 what we're kind of touch through today this can help us make better management decisions better targeted decisions on what to apply and when what form these kinds of things use tissue tests use your eyes in the field do some plant health assessments try and diagnose the correct mineral deficiency to determine what is the best input to apply so top tips to get that response in summary make sure we get the correct identification it has to start with the right mineral that we require that's the key first step think about what the mixture the formulation that we're going to apply what is the concentration of that is particularly important but think about key letters carbon think about better stickers the spreadability the surface-tension sticking that solution all of that is also very important of course but certainly always combine it with the carbon source it can help to buffer improve uptake and chelate etc we talked about humidities early morning and late afternoon where possible and I know there's a practical hurdle there sometimes you can't do that but ideal circumstance that's what you're looking for and then long-term soil health improvement has to be part of the strategies folio sprays is not just about foliar sprays . it's about that as just a piece of the puzzle as a longer term there's a longer term and bigger picture strategy of improving plant and soil health because the more we improve plant health in the short term we can improve soil health in the long term through the delivery of those root exudates through stimulating soil biology and keeping them active and thriving fundamentals as to why keeping green plants keeping the soil covered is a fundamental soul health principle so they have to go together let's not separate them off bring them together in a combined strategy for soil and plant ok there we go okay few minutes over sorry Isaac yep well he's a complete hero I can't but I mean we've got the mic the best the gold fan are really the best way is to do a full tissue analysis and send it off to a lab that way you you know you get a different definitive answer it is the best way alternatively I mean if you want to some year of your own visual assessments Google is a great resource type in wheat or whatever your crop you grow and deficiency symptoms and you'll bring into in Google Images you know you'll bring up all sorts of images that can potentially help you there so that is a great resource to help with diagnosis and then there are also a range of kind of SAP I didn't really talk about them today the range of kind of supplier health SAP meters where you can you can extract some pull some leaves extract some SAP and do some direct measurements right there in field immediately so lookup kind of SAP meters plant nutrition centimeters they can also be a useful tool hello do you have much on applying some of these Foley feeds along with herbicides yeah so certainly you can mix certain minerals just to be efficient with your website and okay due to two things at once is there can be some antagonisms there I couldn't comment you'd have to really ask the chemical manufacturer there on that but but certainly it's commonplace to include a bit of extra nutrition kill two birds with one stone it can be very effective yes what I would also say is definitely include a source of carbon if you're putting herbicides out the fulvic acid that I mentioned definitely include some carbon buffering there to also help and also pH of the spray solution it depends on what chemical you're applying that every single chemical has an optimum pH spray pH in which the active ingredient is most effective it doesn't say that on the label it should if you're if you want to send me an email I have a chart which has a huge range of chemicals on there and what their ideal pH is so you can look that up and tweak the pH of your overall spray solution so that the active ingredient will be more effective when you do that and combine it with things like carbon and fulvic acid that I mentioned for example you can also improve efficiencies and potentially be winding down some of your application rates but but yet otherwise yeah trace minerals can we were certain nutrients minerals can certainly go with herbicides there's a lot of work that's looked at things like combining it with ammonium sulfate or urea there's certainly good evidence that shows that they can enhance the effectiveness of the herbicide as well hello I have two questions but one of which the first question if you're doing a tissue analysis you've got some micronutrients which in mobile surely it showed us mm-hmm okay yeah go for gear first [Music] yeah how come we were so just three apples I'll free us okay sure okay all right yeah so you you've hit the bull's eye there with your point about mobility and which leaf to sample it's a it is a bit of a bigger oversight with how we manage tissue tests certainly so the standard wisdom is to sound we do sample the kind of the youngest but fully mature leaf so that's not the growing tips but you know perhaps just a bit behind that youngest but still fully formed leaf that is the one that we sample and that is the one based on many years of research and database and cataloging and trial work we have a picture of what the ideal level in that leaf should be or a bit of a range at least now so that has value that has a lot of historical data set behind that and that's that's great but it does highlight a bit of an issue with some particularly mobile minerals whereby some of the particularly the mobile ones as I say potassium is a good example if the plant comes into a deficiency it can actually take in minerals from those older leave that mmm and send them up to the new growth areas and then you come along and sample that leaf so of course you may actually have a deficiency therefore of that mineral in the older leaf but you when you've sampled it on the new growth area it says that it's okay and that is certainly an oversight of the system so the tissue tests also have strengths and weaknesses like every test and that's about therefore being mindful of that so you know if that is an example where there's an issue but more generally the protocol of tissue testing based on the historical evidence of what that mineral should be is still very valuable so don't let that take down but it's weakness also take it away from it but it does have value so you just gotta factor that in or fortune and that comes with just a bit of knowledge on more plant nutrition etc then your other question is yeah I agree I think those kind of examples of high phosphorus and soil as I lock up of the soil these issues it makes no sense to put more of the mineral in the soil it's already probably there in sufficient quantities it's just locked up and that's where again Foley is can be a very useful and effective kind of short term remedy towards that and I would think that's a great strategy fully support that however you've got to combine without a long term strategy or look at how do I release what's there and really that then comes down to good soil health practices I mean it's got to be around centered around good organic matter organic carbon the more carbon we can get into the soils the more biological function we see what those various bacteria and fungi do they're great at solubilizing the minerals from the soil and delivering to them then to the plant so we've characterized a huge plethora actually of what's called phosphorus solubilizing microbes and there's many species of bacteria that do that there's many species of fungi that do that you can buy commercial products out there which are which have strains of those specialists solubilizing microbe species there are commercialized products for example because we that's one of the groups of markers that are very well characterized so there is lots of microbes that can cycle their mycorrhizae fungi would also be a particularly important one there so part of the long-term answer then to your question is increasing soil microbial activity and enabling those microbes to solubilize and liberate the nature of the nutrients there from the soil and the key to that is more plant diversity and more carbon coming into the system Jewell if may be possible answer this but in figure allergic to mechanization sprayers can you prove minerals through a water system or mob grazing cattle without what being ingested by cattle and you know the back end so to speak so do you mean Foley spraying the grass before the cattle graze it no I mean dropping the mineral short fall into a water tank or their drinking water yeah yeah you could do I mean that's the same as mineral lick blocks essentially you're just talking about it in a liquid form rather than a solid form yeah they're gonna eat those minerals process it with the grass that they eat and poop it back out and redistribute that mineral throughout the rest of the field so yes it can be an effective strategy to try and address limitations I'm not familiar with doing it in a liquid form but I guess there's no reason why not you just maybe you'd have to be mindful of whatever they don't the concentration is the dough so it's not maybe too much and causing some issues with their metabolism but in theory you're supplying the mineral in a liquid form or a lick block there's no difference really there so yeah haven't heard of it but yeah I could see the potential potentially there yeah Joel a few questions yes I would definitely I think I say as I mentioned the fulvic acid human core for gas but particularly fulvic is really good for the folia because of that term you bill its plant cell permeability function so i think it does work better and fulvic acid has more exchange sites higher CC more exchange nuts to grab onto chelate and wrap up and grab on to that mineral so you can use less of it you've got more exchange sites so it would be a bit more effective in that regard but in terms of something cheaper and easily accessible sure molasses can also work very well is there any compounds that can be used yeah well certainly for Geraud stress so I mean I mentioned potassium there was one mineral that really helps the plant to overcome drought stresses and potassium also has a direct role in the opening and closing of the stomata as well part of sodium potassium pumps so certainly potassium is a very good stress reliever mineral for those kinds of drought stress situations and it also helps the plant to open up stomata the other mineral that is excellent for the master stress reliever is silicon as I mentioned that one also helps the plant with you name the stress silicon works drought temperature frost cold salinity so disappea heavy metals microbe insect you name and silicon helps the plant with those stressful situations so that would definitely also be another one and then the other strategy is the idea of combining minerals nutrients with microbial products so one of the benefits there of applying microbes through the folio means is that those microbes breathe they respond so they're breathing in that oxygen aid releasing co2 so when you cut the leaf surfaces with beneficial bacteria and there are all sorts of kind of microbe type things you can brew up and culture and compost extracts teas these kinds of things would be one example but there would be many others what that microbe is doing when it coats that leaf surface and is applied it's respiring it's releasing co2 and the plant detects that and it makes the plant open its stomata to breathe in that co2 so when you combined nutrition with biology in the one mixture then the the microbes trigger co2 and stomata opening and then that also enables the nutrient to get into and be utilized and delivered to the plant more effectively as well so that would also be another strategy to trick the plant into opening in snow matter if it detects a swath of co2 and the the environment and sorry one friend pushed and you're certain period of speakers have spoken about we've seen at home do you partner up suffer and a plane sulfur and we have farmers our plane liquid as sulfur slurry unto underside of the Sun rich and modern is humans are interested in someone character Soros that will reduce a legion of sulfur inside yeah the answer there is carbon it has to be carbon so sulfur is an anion of course though it can't be held on the clay surfaces the sands and silts it can only be held by the organic fractions in the soil the houmous the carbon so the answer is you've got to build more organic matter in your soil build more houmous and again it would be things like humates or humic acids forms of carbon which can then hold onto those negatively charged nutrients and keep them in the root zone so yes that that would be the strategies there to use it's all about carbon to hold on to sulfur

Channel: Groundswell Agriculture

Views: 8,973

Rating: 4.8742137 out of 5

Keywords: Joel Williams, Advancing Plant Nutrition, Groundswell 2018

Id: MoeZsia507E

Length: 79min 20sec (4760 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 10 2018