Best Foliar Fertilizer For Cotton

Can i apply foliar fertilizer by pivot.

Best foliar fertilizer for cotton.

Editor s note michael j. The amount of water applied by pivot essentially washes the fertilizer off the leaves making this essentially a soil applied fertilizer. Low volume not pivots. Recent work in central and gulf coast areas of texas has demonstrated the importance of cotton k nutrition spiegelhauer et al 2014.

Effect of method and time of potassium application on cotton lint yield better crops vol. And if the soil is saturated cotton will need to recover somewhat before it can effectively take up foliar applications. Those plants will not take up foliar fertilizer until they get some oxygen and start recovering. Below are some general guidelines and rules of thumb to follow as you use foliar fertilizer to help you finish the season.

Currently there are a number of commercially available fertilizer additives that are designed to improve the uptake efficiency of p and k fertilizers. With foliar feeding you either love it or hate it. Petiole testing is the best way to tell whether you need to foliar feed cotton. If you re managing 1 bale ac cotton the extra expense of foliar fertilization won t be worth it.

A valuable feature of petiole testing programs is that weekly sampling tracks nutrient level trends and allows the detection of deficiencies or excesses up to two weeks in advance. Foliar kno 3 applied at 5 to 7 day intervals resulted in significant yield increase over the untreated plots in 1995. In most situations the best strategy to avoid k deficiency is to 1 soil test 2 apply the recommended k fertilizer at planting and 3 consider foliar feeding k during peak bloom. Not all nutrients feed well.

Don t feed when. In areas where you think the cotton is not severely stunted you may want to apply some foliar fertilizer to replace some leaching and de nitrification losses. Foliar feeding general guidelines. Jennifer and i have been getting questions about foliar feeding cotton.

Mulvaney is a uf ifas cropping system specialist and glen harris is a uga soil specialist. Preplant applications of k fertilizer and in some cases mid season foliar applications are effective in correcting deficiencies.