SPEAKER_01 0:08

Welcome back to the Bill Notes Podcast. I'm very excited to talk about micronutrients with y'all today. I'm your host, Abigail Waller. I'm on the Ag Technology team in South Alabama. So today with us, we have, of course, Will Howard Winlan, and we also have Corey Vineyard. So guys, if y'all will introduce yourselves, Will Howard, we can start out with you.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

But I'm the soil fertility specialist on the agronomy team covering Alabama, the Florida panhandle, and South Georgia. Just you know, trials, any kind of troubleshooting related to soil fertility and plant nutrition. That's kind of what I do.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

And uh I'm Corey Vineyard. I'm the uh Greenpoint agronomist for Middle and East Tennessee, uh covering uh the member co-ops in that area and uh mainly dealing with trials and uh and education and uh just providing opportunities uh for our guys to go out there and and talk about uh products that are gonna help them and their farmers.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Awesome. Well, today we're gonna be talking about micronutrients, so the hidden fertility factor, um, one that I feel like is not talked about as much, but is a great topic just to discuss and really get a good knowledge base on. So um let's talk beyond. I know in the past we've talked about nitrogen, um, posh and potassium. Let's talk beyond that. Let's let's go. How do we trace elements? So zinc, boron, sulfur, and so many more. Um, they're often overlooked and critical. So I guess guys, let's start off with a question. What which micronutrient deficiencies occur in certain soil sush crops?

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Lori, do you want to go first for for your area? Well, I would I would just say, you know, in my area, we we get a lot colder uh than I guess farther down south, obviously. Uh so we see a lot of deficiencies uh during that springtime uh cold front, uh where we're just you know wet and nasty and everything's kind of just in limbo and and not growing well uh is really when we start to see most of them. And then on into the year, um they start creeping in when we have drought conditions uh because everything is not allowed or to be to get into uh the plant during during those conditions. So it's either when it's no rain, no water, or too much water uh combined with uh some colder temps and everything just slows down.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

I don't I don't know that I have one that is more common than others, but one that I do see a lot specifically uh in the black belt soils of Alabama, and I know that stretches over to Mississippi too, but uh iron deficiency chlorosis or iron chlorosis and soybeans. Um you're getting those really high pH soils and issues with iron availability to the plant start to show up. And because it's so involved in the production of chlorophyll, you know, plant can't turn green, you're gonna see that deficiency. And so that's probably one of the more common ones that you know we see, or at least that I see in the footprint that I cover. Um but yeah, like Corey said, it's very, very dependent on conditions cool, wet, early season, or dry, late in the season. It just depends on what's gonna show up.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

And how how what are practical ways we can test uh to see what we are deficient in?

unknown 3:40

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Uh-huh. I hope. Yeah. And Corey, you chime in too. But tissue samples are pretty common. Uh, and depending on the nutrient, some of them are not very mobile in the plant. So you may have them, but they may not show up on the tissue sample because they're not in that part of the plant. But uh the soil samples can show that too, and and specifically, um malic three extractants are are better at showing soil micronutrient levels. So if if you want a soil sample to see what's what's available as far as micros go, Malik 3 would be your best bet.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

And you mentioned tissue sampling, kind of go into the best way to pull it. Um, I've I've been told that you want to pull it weekly. Is that right?

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Yeah, it if if you want to keep a close eye on it, that's probably you know the best bet. If it's if it's like a trend you've been seeing over time, that might help you, you know, see when it actually starts showing up, or you may you know, give you more time to react to to correct that, you know, with the foliar type product. Um but yeah, it's a lot of work.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Yeah, yeah, I would say, you know, it kind of ramps up right there, right before grain production. Um, you know, a lot of people start paying attention more to uh to what isn't going to be needed because most of the time what they have applied up until then uh has been just kind of standard uh applications that can be done uh quite relatively easily. Um but then once getting into grain production, they start looking, okay, what do we actually need uh to get us through the reproductive stages and and make sure we're getting the most out of it?

SPEAKER_01 5:31

So what do y'all say the best practice recommendations are if you do find out you are deficient in a certain micronutrient? Are foliars the best fix for it? Or what else do y'all like?

SPEAKER_00 5:48

You look like you're thinking, Corey, you want to go ahead? Well, I I would say that that depending on on what is deficient, uh foliars can be um the easiest way to to help fix a deficiency. Um because most of the time, I mean, whether you're dealing with with corn or soybeans, you know, really it's it's zinc, manganese, boron. Um those are probably my my top three in corn. Um, you know, zinc most of the time, you're you're going to be applying stuff early in the season. So whether that's through um, you know, some type of seed treatment or some type of in furrow, um, you're you're trying to to get that zinc to phosphorus ratio right so that the zinc can help the phosphorus to uh build roots. Where manganese, you're more concerned about photosynthesis. So that's going to be more of a foliar type uh situation there because just because of the timing of when you're usually going to see that deficiency. Um boron, you know, that's that's really all about um pollen germination and and seed development. Uh so you want to make sure that you are not deficient right before you get into those reproductive stages. So, yes, at that time, a a foliar application would be the the correct uh way to fix that. But it also is all about availability of um the source of the fertilizer and and how those uh can get into a plant the easiest. And and most of the time, foliar that that is the easiest way to get it there the quickest so that it has the timing to affect what you're trying to fix in the first place with that that seed development.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Yep. And you hit on some some important stuff right there too, especially like zinc and phosphorus. You know, we we kind of did it on purpose one time, but put out a bunch of phosphorus in a trial that we were doing and induced the zinc deficiency real quick. And so you like Corey said, you know, uh you have too much phosphorus out there, not enough zinc, you can start causing issues with that. And it's kind of a it's almost like you get on a loop that you can't get off of because if you have too much phosphorus, you induce zinc deficiency. When you don't have enough zinc, your plant can't regulate its phosphorus needs like it needs to. And so it's kind of like you get get on there and get stuck and can't get off and cause problems all season long. Uh also with the boron, I think that's one that's uh at least in some areas I cover it's a pretty common practice the at least with cotton I would say, and it's not so much as corn, but uh putting boron in the tank multiple times a season as you're going across a field. Um like you said, really important pollination and germinating the pollen tube and getting those you know kernels on a corn plant or seeds on a cotton plant uh fertilized. Um but yeah, just some some real important stuff to hit on. And and I feel like boron uh sometimes can get overlooked, but like Corey said, it's it's as close to to pollination and tasseling in corn as you can get it. Yeah, I think you're gonna see a benefit from that nine times out of ten.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

I think Will Howard, you had a a chart that you found from Mississippi State, right? That had some really good information information on micronutrients. Do you want to kind of discuss that a little bit?

SPEAKER_02 9:23

Yeah, and I I guess part of it, uh a big part of it, I don't know how this podcast will come out in regards to past ones, but the big kicker on almost all of them, just as far as soil availability of these micros goes, ties back to pH. And so, you know, we we shoot for six to six five in most cases, and that's gonna give you um uh uh ideal availability for most of them. It's not gonna be perfect for all of them. But uh for example, from this this uh article from Mississippi State, uh zinc, iron, uh, manganese, copper, and boron uh will not be as soluble or available at pHs once you start getting below acidics. Um and especially uh uh aluminum in in a really acidic soil. You know, you get bel a five or below it's not a essential plant nutrient and it can cause toxicity because as the pH gets lower, it's highly available and it can actually you know burn the tips of the roots, they can't keep growing, they can't keep taking up nutrients and they kind of hit on it already, like with iron in a high pH soil, it becomes insoluble and unavailable to the plant when the pH levels get really high. And so a lot of this all goes back to having your pH right, you know, kind of uh we've talked about in regards to your MP and K. You know, before you fool with getting those right, get your pH right. But the tr the same is true kind of with micronutrients. But yeah, just a lot of them are greatly influenced by that pH factor.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Yeah, I would I would echo that.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

Yeah. Yes. Yeah, I would echo that. That uh yeah, pH is is paramount. You know, none of this really, I mean, you're you're you're wasting money, you're wasting time, you're wasting effort if your pH is not in the correct range because it is it is paramount for everything else to work correctly. So that is the first thing that when you soil sample and you see that you were out of whack on your pH, you need to correct that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Awesome. Well, um, what other thoughts do y'all have around micronutrients? Are there well howard are there any trials that y'all have done specifically um centered around micronutrients? Or Corey, have you seen anything?

SPEAKER_02 11:51

Oh the one the one that comes to mind, um you know, boron specifically per this publication, uh is is big in the translocation of nutrients within the plant. You know, it helps other nutrients move around. And a couple of years ago at the agronomy summit, we had a speaker who he kind of hit on nutrient reactions, interactions, you know, whatever you want to call it, how they depend on each other in the plant. And so from that, we decided we were going to kind of look at that in a trial format on corn. And so we had the uh the grower standard application practices on nitrogen and potassium and boron. We added on top of that additional nitrogen, and I want to say that was about 50 units. Then we did additional nitrogen and additional potassium, and I want to say the potassium was about 90 units, uh, and then we did additional nitrogen, additional potassium, and additional boron. And I want to say it was like a a one-time one-quart application of 10% boron. Um and when we added only nitrogen, we actually saw a decrease in yield. It wasn't big, but it was a slight decrease. When we added nitrogen and potassium, it came up. And once again, it was small, it was maybe a bushel or two increase with that additional nitrogen and potassium, which you wouldn't expect with those kind of rates being added. You know, you typically expect something more to happen. But you do those two, and we added in, like I said, just one application of boron pre-tassel in corn, and it was a 15-bushel increase when you get all three of them combined together. And it's not saying, you know, boron is some silver bullet that's going to give you uh, you know, 15 extra bushels every time you put it out. It's more so that you know all these nutrients depend on each other in some way inside the plant. And sometimes that could be your missing link, you know, keeping you from higher yields is having those micros that uh you know, they're they're called micros because you only need them in a small amount, but a small amount can make a big difference on how the plant is uh able to use other nutrients. So that's the first one that comes to mind. You know, typically you see a a slight benefit anytime you use something like boron just because it is it's needed in the plant. Um Corey, I don't know if you've seen anything else specific, but that that's the one that sticks out to me that I have done over the last couple years.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Yeah, yeah, no, you're you're spot on, and and I guess that's a a good way to bring about, you know, the the the training or the teaching tool for micronutrients that has been around for a long time in uh in agriculture and agronomy. And I don't know if I'm saying his name right or not, but Liebig, uh Liebig's barrel or uh the law of the minimum. And so if if you've never seen that, it's basically basically a barrel with the staves of the barrel um you know being vertical, and then each stave represents a a nutrient. And so if one of those staves is is lower, meaning that it's not, you know, in a in a plant, it's not as available or there's not as much, you have a deficiency, well then your yield is the water that the barrel is holding, and so it's going to leak out at the the smallest stave. So whichever one you're missing, uh that's where your yield is going to be limited at because everything works together. And I think that's something that that um we're we're finding out more and more about how all of these interconnect. And and each one of them, um, you know, if one thing goes wrong, then then the whole system comes crashing down. And so that makes each one of them just as important as the other. Uh, you know, MP and K, they they get all the fanfare because, you know, that's the that's the the macros that um we are putting a lot of pounds out on, so that's the one that gets the most attention. You know, these micros, you're looking at probably, you know, half a pound to two pounds an acre of these products. Um, but it's just as important because it they play a vital role in making sure that those macros uh are are able to get where they need to be within a plant.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

Yeah. That was an excellent call out, too. That's a a great illustration of of how everything works together, too. I'm glad you mentioned that.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Well, guys, this is great. Um hopefully this will kind of spur along conversations with store managers or salesmen, um, and in turn kind of trickle down to their growers. Um, but I just want to thank you all for being on today. Um, I guess if there are there any other kind of closing thoughts you'll have or don't overlook the micros, just keep them in mind.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Yeah, yep.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

It's uh it's a it's uh micros are a way uh for you to be able that you are getting the most efficiency out of that plant, um, the way that it it is intended uh to work. So like Will said, make sure you're you're paying attention to them.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Yep. Don't overlook the micros. Maybe we shouldn't make that the title, but um, thank you all again for coming.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

We should make that a shirt.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Yeah, exactly. We'll sell it with green point, but um that's perfect. Well, thank y'all again. Um, hopefully y'all learned a lot from this podcast. And if y'all do have any questions, as always, feel free to reach out to us. Um, but this will come to the end of the Phil Notes podcast for this episode. Um, so look forward to being with y'all next time.