The Importance of Early Nutrition
To first give some understanding towards the importance of the early nutrition on these crops, I will direct you first to the very commonly overlooked Biochemical Sequence of Nutrition in Plants that gets us from point A to point B and is the basis for plant growth. Although extremely important within the sequence, forget large doses of Nitrogen for the time being. Sadly, this alone isn’t going to be our first limiting factor of the season to come.
The Biochemical Sequence of Nutrition in Plants
The biochemical sequence of nutrition (oversimplified) for the plant kicks off at 1) with Boron, which then activates 2) Silicon, which carries all other nutrients including 3) Calcium, which binds 4) Nitrogen, to form necessary amino acids, DNA and cell division. Amino Acids form proteins such as Chlorophyll and tag trace elements, especially 5) Magnesium, which transfers energy via 6) Phosphorous, to 7) Carbon, to form sugars which go where 8) Potassium carries them.
Sulphur’s Role in Plant Nutrition
Sulphur should also be included in this list at the front as it is also key for activating soil biochemistry and should not be overlooked. Yes, this is over simplified but allows for some basic understanding to nutrient interaction and the importance of balancing nutrition availability for plant health and physiology.
Beyond N-P-K: Kickstarting the Season
You may have also noticed, N-P-K are further down the list, this will be key to understand to kickstart the season if we want to maximise crop development and reduce following inputs in the wake of the recent adverse conditions. The N-P-K approach will usually grow crops that are highly susceptible to pests and diseases.
Key Early Inputs for Crop Development
The key inputs at this time, ahead of nitrogen doses will be utilising phosphorous to give the plant energy as ATP, stimulating root and tiller development (this will be unavailable due to the poor conditions and rooting), Boron to stimulate the nutrient flow of uptake into the plant (unavailable due to it being a highly leachable mineral), Manganese to help cold resistance, retain tillers and its role in the structure of photosynthetic proteins and enzymes, Sulphur to kickstart soil microbiology and for its role in protein production within the plant, Amide-N to promote plant growth and provide an available source that can be utilised straight away as a building block, and to finish off with the foliar application, it would be recommended to utilise a chelating agent like Fulvic and Humic acid which would hold onto nutrition that does go onto the soil to improve the efficiency of uptake through the roots and also act as a microbial stimulant and food source.
