Corn Foliar Trials Foliar applications can have benefits to corn yields and plant health. For many years this market has been called “snake oils” because many products in the past were sold with unrealistic promises and unimpressive results. More recently replicated trials and research have shown the industry’s improvement in the foliar market. Responses to foliar applications are very dependent on timing of application, typically corn responds best to foliar applications made between V3 and V7. This timing matches very well with post herbicide applications therefore not requiring an additional trip through the field. There are many types of foliar treatments ranging from nutritional to hormone to seaweed extract and all do different things in the plant to protect yield. Some products feed the plant, while others enhance photosynthesis, and some trigger growth or stress responders. Do these products really do anything or are they modern day snake oils? The reason that we ask this is that generally these products are added as tank mix partners to previous herbicide applications and are applied to the entire field therefore the grower does not know if they have done anything or not. The purpose of this trial was to help the grower understand what these products do to improve corn yields and evaluate each products ROI. Foliar treatments were applied individually to 8 rows for the length of 1,243 feet at the V5 growth stage. Typical responses to foliar applications are generally from 2.5 to 7.5 bpa.
36
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online