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Nebraska | You can get cheap dry micronutrients in sulfate forms from a nearby feed mixing plant. And you should be also getting some water soluble feed grade dry urea too. You can get that in 50# lb bags. The urea will help get the elements into the leaf cells.
You can be making your own micro sprays for pennies/acre vs the $$/acre you are paying for the premix. The limiting factor is the fuel for your sprayer and time. I compared the label of one that someone was trying to sell me, bought all the ingredients, did the math. My homemade spray was less than 50 cents an acre, their premix would have been $12. I don't know if either one works,,,, but I can do a lot of experimentation for 50 cents, and if it doens't work I'm not out much.
That being said, I've experimented a LOT with micros, and have yet to see any benefit visually or in yield. And I was doing it "right" and going out and spraying a strip every week or growth stage.... like you actually NEED to with micros. You'll get nothing from a one time dose with your herbicide. The micros will only be able to penetrate the tender new growth, they won't get into mature leaves with thick cuticles.
Most of those feed grade micros are in the sulfate form. Many premix micros are in the nitrate form. You can have a higher concentration of these elements in water if they are nitrates before they start to precipitate out. Sulfates have to be at an extremely low concentration or they will precipitate out(which is why they make lousy premixes).
Fill the sprayer almost full before you start adding things, and you won't need much. Maybe only a few cups out of a 25 lb bag of element. A few bags will do 1000's of acres.
I don't know how any of that will work mixed with chemical, I don't have herbicides in when I spray micros. You also might want to look into citric acid to lower your solution pH, you need to try and match the solution pH with the plant pH.
This was all the advice I accumulated over the years, can't say that anything obviously worked and don't really do much if it anymore. | |
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Mixing micronutrients
