Farmers needn’t wait for yellow leaves or twisted stems to discover diseases or nutrient deficiencies in their crops.
A tissue test, once carried out to discover what was causing problems in sick-looking plants, can also be done before problems become visible; while it is still possible to find solutions.
Early plant tissue tests indicate levels of nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium, iron, aluminum, manganese, boron, copper and zinc.
Agronomists recommend tissue tests as part of a crop nutrition plan that also includes calculating nutrients used by the crop just harvested and soil sampling to determine a fertilizer prescription.
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Collecting proper samples for tissue tests is the key to getting meaningful results, said Rigas Karamanos of Westco Fertilizer in Calgary.
He said collecting the right amount of sample at the right time from the right place on the plant is important.
Avoid contamination
Laboratories suggest farmers collect the samples in clean paper bags or plastic pails. Metal containers contaminate the sample and plastic bags can cause condensation and other problems.
Samples should be at least 500 millilitres of loosely packed material from several plants and contain no roots.
Cereal and flax can be sampled as seedlings and include the entire above-ground portion of the plant. At least 60 plants should be sampled. Before heading, the four top leaves should be taken for cereals. For flax the youngest mature leaves are sampled.
Sample mature canola leaves before seed set, sampling at least 60 plants.
Peas should be sampled before or during the first wave of flowering. Take samples from at least 40 plants from leaves from the third node from the top of the plant.
By doing early tissue tests, farmers have time to top dress granular fertilizer or spray to provide needed nutrients. Foliar applications can often be combined with post emergent herbicide applications.
“Three million acres of Alberta crops suffered from a shortage of copper last year. It could have been applied when those farmers sprayed for weed control, ” said Robert Saik, of Agri-Trend Agrology in Red Deer, Alta.
