Corn In-Furrow Additive Trials While applying starter fertilizer in-furrow, it can be a good time to add additional products to the fertility. Some products might be root and shoot promoters, seaweed extracts, additional micronutrients, microbial products, chelating agents, humic or fulvic acids, fish oils, sugars or about anything that anyone might think about adding to the starter fertilizer. Many of these products have a positive effect on yield and some can even add to plant health and most cause increased root and shoot growth. As with foliar products growers usually purchase these products and apply them to every acre or whole fields. This trial was designed to test a few in furrow products to evaluate their effect on yield and the ROI that could be realized. Corn In-Furrow Additive Results and Discussion While there are many products out there to choose from we only had room to test 3 on the Orthman research farm in 2022. We chose to look at a humic acid product, a microbial product and adding a seaweed extract to a microbial. The growing interest in microbial products drives us to learn more of how microbial products work and what products work on a variety of acres. Populations of many microbial products in one jug have a better chance of working because surely a few species could survive and thrive conversely if only on or two species are introduced can they survive in an environment that they may not be native to. We need to understand the microbial system in the soil like we do the microbial systems of the human or animal gut. We feel that we are still a little way off from this but as a whole agriculture is working that way and when we reach that level of understanding we will see a new level of yields. Humic acids have many benefits to crops some of which are improved root mass and growth, improved nutrient availability, and improved yields. However, many growers and agronomists have avoided them because they are dark colored products that can make it difficult to monitor flow sensors, furthermore humic products are mined from organic matter and tend to have a lot of particles that can clog equipment. Today we have flow sensors but do not always have to rely on flow sensors such as red ball to monitor flow and manufactures are realizing that the particles in humic acids are not where the benefit is coming from and are creating a cleaner product that clogs less. With these enhancements growers are now beginning to realize the benefits of humic acids. Are microbial additives and humic acids the answer for all fields and all locations? Absolutely not is the quick and easy answer. These products are not the cure all but are additives to help a well-managed system become better or more efficient. All three products that we tested in 2022 improved yields over the check and had positive ROI. The Environoc 401 product from BW Fusion produced 7.7 bpa over the check matching what we observed in season with more root mass and larger leaf surface area. The 401 product contains 24 different microbes that are chosen to help solubilize nutrients and promote growth in order to enhance
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