Establish The Roots, Build In Resilience - Autumn Blends 2024
Put down the strongest roots this autumn using Bartholomews specialised blends containing Polysulphate and Potash Plus.
The autumn sowing campaign is underway and after all the usual attention to detail in seed rate calculation, soil preparation, planting, and herbicide applications the focus then shifts to maximising establishment.
Every seed sown has a theoretical yield potential which can be reduced over the growing season by a host of factors; including poor seedbeds, adverse weather, pest and disease, and poor crop nutrition. Healthy establishment is the foundation on which we can build resilience into the crops in the critical construction phase.
Root mass is key to success with just one extra centimetre of root on each plant will touch an extra 130 tonnes of soil over a hectare. This larger root mass increases the plant’s ability to access more soil-bound nutrients and moisture leading to a stronger, healthier plant going into the winter and increase resilience to any extremes over the rest of the growing season.
Essential nutrients for autumn-sown crops
Pictured above are the key nutrients for root mass building in the early stages of life and the wider role of other nutrients through the Autumn.
Phosphate is essential for crop establishment. A deficiency leads to reduced movement of all nutrients around the plant. Both phosphate and potassium levels need to be at Index 2 to insure against stress and to give crops the best chance against unpredictable weather conditions.
Potassium is required with sulphur for the plant to take advantage of available nitrogen in the soil, resulting in improved nutrient efficiency. Potassium is involved in every single process within the plant, including health, water management etc.
Calcium and magnesium are critical for root development and seed establishment.
Sulphur applied in autumn improves retention of other nutrients as well as helping to capture and retain soil nitrogen reserves for or enable plants to utilise residual and mineralised nitrogen in the soil, small amounts of both potassium and sulphur are necessary.
A visual inspection of the growing seedlings can indicate any early problems, pictured below from one of our trials are Cereal plants treated in the Autumn with 100 kgs Ha Polysulphate, containing Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium and Sulphur, on the left and untreated on the right. Increased fibrous root growth was observed and these plants went on to perform well in the following harvest.
Even on the chalkiest of soils plants still respond to fresh calcium.
Please don’t forget the tissue testing in Autumn as well, we have a wide range of foliar applied nutrition products that mix easily with Autumn spray applications that help correct any deficiency identified by analysis.