Foliar

Dr. Charles Shapiro Author

01/07/2016 Added

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Foliar presented by Dr. Charles Shapiro

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[00:00:00.610]Well, there's Zach working,
[00:00:02.330]and I believe that that picture was taken by his wife.
[00:00:06.210]So, he doesn't always look cleaned up like that.
[00:00:09.250]But we do it the old-fashioned way, you know,
[00:00:10.950]we don't have any drones, anything like that.
[00:00:13.170]He's out there in whatever temperature it is.
[00:00:16.190]His study is,
[00:00:19.230]really is looking at a few practical questions.
[00:00:23.330]Back when corn was $7 a bushel, there was a lot of interest
[00:00:27.610]in bumping up our corn yields even a couple of bushels,
[00:00:31.370]because you could afford to buy
[00:00:35.090]a number of different things.
[00:00:36.450]There's a lot of products out there
[00:00:37.770]that have micronutrients in them.
[00:00:39.890]It would take everybody in this room to research
[00:00:42.731]every combination of materials that are out there.
[00:00:46.610]So, we had to focus down on some, of fewer
[00:00:52.780]elements, and we were lucky to get a grant
[00:00:55.160]from the Corn Board
[00:00:57.380]that has paid for research over the last four years.
[00:01:00.260]Zach's gonna graduate next May,
[00:01:03.200]so we're kinda wrapping it up,
[00:01:04.980]but you can see the different PI's on the grant.
[00:01:08.940]And we've also had a lot of help,
[00:01:11.701]at least in the beginning part of the study,
[00:01:14.580]from soil testing labs,
[00:01:16.420]as well as some of the suppliers and retailers
[00:01:20.000]in terms of focusing on which of the micronutrients
[00:01:23.020]that we'd be interested in working on.
[00:01:28.241]There are a lot of micronutrients.
[00:01:30.070]We basically focused on the ones
[00:01:31.790]we thought we might have the most success with.
[00:01:34.610]Zinc and iron are the two that we've known
[00:01:38.230]had deficiencies over time.
[00:01:40.930]Boron, there was a lot of interest
[00:01:42.430]when we'd go to farmer meetings
[00:01:43.790]and ask producers or consultants
[00:01:47.390]what they wanted us to study.
[00:01:49.231]Boron came up almost every time.
[00:01:52.790]And there really wasn't any recent information.
[00:01:55.970]So, we have these questions.
[00:01:58.930]Do we have deficiencies in Nebraska?
[00:02:02.371]If so, which ones?
[00:02:06.141]There's been a lot of research over the years
[00:02:08.521]on micronutrients.
[00:02:10.622]So, the other question is, now that we are getting yields
[00:02:13.781]that are 250 bushels, 300 bushels,
[00:02:16.481]is there a reason to re-look at the micronutrients?
[00:02:20.381]Is there something in terms of the timing
[00:02:22.161]of the release from the soils
[00:02:24.061]where we really need it, compared to in the past?
[00:02:28.082]And then, there was some basic questions
[00:02:30.101]of how much of what we apply gets into the plant,
[00:02:33.341]as well as
[00:02:36.141]just trying to enhance nutrition
[00:02:39.601]at a certain time of the season
[00:02:41.541]when the crop physiologically will be growing faster
[00:02:44.661]than what the roots may be able to take up.
[00:02:48.061]So, those are the questions we wanted to answer.
[00:02:50.701]And since they only gave me five minutes,
[00:02:52.941]I decided to dispense with any data
[00:02:55.501]and just answer the questions.
[00:02:57.581]So, the nutrients that we found are zinc and iron.
[00:03:02.201]Will high yielding corn make us change our recommendations?
[00:03:05.381]Well, we kind of punt on that one.
[00:03:08.002]We think that as we remove more nutrients over time,
[00:03:12.581]there's gonna be a quicker draw down.
[00:03:14.921]But these micronutrients are so low
[00:03:16.961]in terms of the quantity needed
[00:03:18.681]that it'll probably be a while
[00:03:19.901]before we get deficiencies here in Nebraska.
[00:03:24.881]Will foliar applications get into the plant?
[00:03:26.741]Zach has been able to show that he's increased
[00:03:30.441]the amount of zinc or iron in the leaves,
[00:03:34.221]even though he may not have increased yield.
[00:03:36.121]So, the answer to that is yes.
[00:03:38.001]And should we use micronutrients to bump up yields?
[00:03:41.761]The answer to that is no evidence yet.
[00:03:44.621]So, thank you.
[00:03:46.661](applause)
[00:03:47.881]I'm not done, I'm not done.
[00:03:49.521]That's my joke.
[00:03:50.901]I mean, I was thinking, well, five minutes.
[00:03:52.881]Well, that only took me three.
[00:03:54.041]So, I'm gonna keep going, Richard.
[00:03:55.901](laughter)
[00:03:58.021]I went to,
[00:03:59.921]my father used to tell me that Mark Twain said,
[00:04:02.681]"There's no such thing as a bad short speech."
[00:04:06.562]I tried to find that on the internet.
[00:04:08.101]I don't know if Mark Twain ever said that.
[00:04:09.961]But, I will keep this short.
[00:04:12.881]We do have a NebGuide that goes through all the basics.
[00:04:16.741]And really, I don't know if we will revise it very much.
[00:04:20.881]But our soils are just really well-supplied.
[00:04:24.661]The first year of Zach's field work,
[00:04:27.101]he went out and he took samples at random
[00:04:30.441]from 44 fields.
[00:04:32.341]He took soil samples, plant samples,
[00:04:35.561]and here we just have
[00:04:39.302]a graph of what's in the plant
[00:04:40.921]and what's in the soil.
[00:04:42.782]These red lines are the critical values.
[00:04:45.782]So, any sample below the red line on either side
[00:04:48.701]would be what the industry, the discipline says
[00:04:52.341]are too low, probably could be fertilized.
[00:04:55.061]Now, Zinc is one of the ones that we found
[00:04:57.641]the most deficiencies on.
[00:04:59.421]The other micronutrients, there was really nothing
[00:05:01.401]on either side of those red lines.
[00:05:03.961]So, this is just an example of the fact
[00:05:06.741]that Nebraska has really great soils.
[00:05:08.862]We wanna keep them that way.
[00:05:10.521]But, there's not very many deficiencies.
[00:05:13.041]The next year, he worked with the OnFarm Research Group.
[00:05:16.241]There were 17 strip trials.
[00:05:19.361]You can see up there, he had three significant sites.
[00:05:22.811]Two of them had significant decreases
[00:05:24.801]when they sprayed on the foliar material.
[00:05:27.402]And you can see the average yields up there.
[00:05:29.141]There really wasn't much improvement.
[00:05:32.421]He also, in that same year, he had four intensive sites
[00:05:37.261]where he looked at rates and timing.
[00:05:40.141]But I'm just gonna show you that he was able to increase
[00:05:44.242]his leaf-zinc content, compared to the controls.
[00:05:47.941]But that didn't carry out into the grain yield.
[00:05:50.642]He's also interested in something called biofortification,
[00:05:53.661]so he's also looking for more zinc in the grain
[00:05:57.181]that might be useful in human nutrition.
[00:05:59.122]But, we're not going to spend any time on that.
[00:06:01.361]His last project is a greenhouse study,
[00:06:04.162]looking at different materials to get iron and zinc
[00:06:08.662]in the plant.
[00:06:09.961]And if you go hydroponically, you know,
[00:06:11.581]you can control and have a good check
[00:06:13.961]with no zinc or iron.
[00:06:17.541]And he was able to produce a range of green corn plants.
[00:06:22.541]But at the end of the day,
[00:06:24.681]he wasn't able to increase the iron
[00:06:29.581]Iron was not able to increase the dry matter,
[00:06:32.641]once it was severely deficient,
[00:06:35.041]compared to where he had a fully fertilized plot,
[00:06:39.341]or actually, in this case, pot.
[00:06:42.781]So, basically what I said in the beginning is true.
[00:06:47.893]We don't have a lot of deficiencies,
[00:06:49.552]so we weren't able to increase yields too much.
[00:06:52.052]In his intensive plots, he was able to show
[00:06:56.252]that he can get these materials into the plant,
[00:06:59.452]even though he did not increase yields.
[00:07:02.812]And the greenhouse study with the different iron sources
[00:07:07.913]or carriers, he was not able to sufficiently improve
[00:07:12.012]those deficient plants.
[00:07:13.192]He was able to get some greening,
[00:07:14.672]a little bit of re-greening,
[00:07:16.052]but he did not increase the dry matter.
[00:07:21.174]Now, I'm really done.
[00:07:23.313](applause)

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