Unium Bioscience is urging growers impacted by flooding to consider biostimulants as a cost-effective method to support root growth and nutrient uptake.
“Supporting roots in the early spring months will be crucial to mitigate the flood damage and encourage phosphorus and nitrogen uptake,” said John Haywood, Unium Bioscience.
He added that maximising root growth after waterlogging will aid crop recovery, as well as supplying critical nutrients to the plant, including phosphorus.
“The most important aspect to consider with nutrients such as phosphorus, is availability. For phosphate, it exists in three pools in the soil but only the inorganic form dissolved in soil water is readily available to the plant,” he explained.
The product Calife Extra is said to be a scavenging stimulant for the plant, improving rooting and boosting nutrient uptake, while Luxor provides phosphate by improving availability and reducing soil absorption.
“The pidolic acid found in the biostimulant, Luxor (L-GPA) helps a crop to make the most of this availability while increasing nitrogen assimilation. Combining this with the calcium phosphate found in Calfite Extra tricks the plant into thinking it’s phosphorus deficient, so it increases its uptake,” John said.
“Following the recent high flooding pressure, it’s unlikely growers will want to compromise on cultural controls and IPM best practice, so an application of Calfite Extra and Luxor could help to provide the support that roots will need.
“You can’t make a poor crop into a fantastic crop, but you can make a substantial difference with judicious and cost-appropriate inputs.”
John Murrie, technical manager for Scotland at Agrovista, added: “We’ve had a very wet autumn and crops are struggling for rooting. It will be very important to get these crops going in the spring.”
He added that interest in both products from Unium Bioscience is growing for a variety of crops. “It will encourage extra rooting, and extra root mass, so it’s better able to extract phosphate from the soil.
“It can easily be added to tank mixes and compared to the cost of phosphate in fertiliser, it makes sense to use Luxor and Calfite.”
Russ McKenzie, who runs an arable system in Cambridge, has been using Luxor to improve phosphorus availability in the soil.
“Luxor provides phosphorus either through the soil or the foliage, with both forms complexed with humic and fulvic acid, ensuring the most accessible phosphorus source.
“When combined with Calfite Extra, it stimulates plants to enhance root development and root exudation, significantly increasing phosphorus uptake efficiency,” said Russ.
For more information go to www.uniumbioscience.com
