Manganese-deficient soils could support sizeable improvements in both wheat yield and its quality, if growers reconsider application timing and the method of nutrient delivery, says a top agronomist - and break free from the idea that applying it outside the traditional spring timing is a ‘niche’ operation.

Many growers will be aware that they’re farming on soils low in the essential micronutrient, says Agrovista’s Nick Mudd, and for them, spring application will probably be the norm.

“Manganese is one of the most commonly tank-mixed micronutrients in many spring spraying operations,” he says.  “Yet severely-deficient farms often also require an autumn application in order to aid plant health and see the crop through winter,” he points out.  “Even without showing deficiency, many crops have sub-optimal manganese levels.

Historically, autumn applications have been problematic; the crop must absorb the applied nutrient quickly to boost its health and vigour before shutting down for the winter.

“That’s limited product choice to sulphates or nitrates, because traditional manganese carbonate formulations do not have sufficiently quick uptake; their solubility is too low,” Mr Mudd explains.  “Sulphates and nitrates have a major disadvantage: their benefit to the plant is quickly exhausted.”

But a new manganese formulation, which Mr Mudd put through its paces last year, has changed his views about early season applications.  Manganese Aloy manages to combine the best of both worlds: rapid uptake and long-term effect, making autumn applications a realistic - and effective - prospect.

“We’ve been impressed with the results.  The special formulation allows the product to ‘wet-out’ efficiently to maximise the area in contact with the leaf surface and allows instantaneous uptake of the soluble component, resulting in a rapid greening effect,” Mr Mudd notes.

“Meanwhile, the small particle size in the SC formulation ensures an on-going benefit, as the gradual breakdown allows long-term uptake through the leaf.  The crops on which we used it stayed green throughout winter and we were able to wait until T1 before it needed ‘topping up’  - so we saved an application.”

Manganese is involved in two key plant processes: photosynthesis (the mechanism by which plants use   sunlight energy to create sugars) and protein synthesis (in which nitrogen that has been taken up as nitrate is put to good use).  It’s well-known that greener crops show yield benefits; equally, crops that can make ‘instant’ use of nitrogen top-dressings will show a quicker response and earlier growth.

Safagrow’s Andrew Low says the Aloy range demonstrates the advantages of the company’s ‘engineered nutrition’ approach.  “Nutrient technology’s been static for some time - and it’s no co-incidence that the upward trend in wheat yield has also stagnated because crop nutrition is a key part of the answer.  Modern crops are demanding better tools; plant protection products are delivering more precise, more calculated results but crop nutrition has fallen behind.

“Aloy’s demonstrated a 24% better performance over its competitors in wet-out tests, something that growers’ experience from the field has confirmed: they’ve been impressed with how well the product’s controlled a deficiency, at a time when they wouldn’t have considered making applications.”