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Building Your Pre-Planting Strategy

As you start the planting season, your goal is to grow healthy plants for high yields and hope limiting factors won’t adversely impact that crop. For plants to have the best start, they should have what they need from the very beginning.

"When you start thinking about what you can do to help your crop get started, think about placement," said Bryce Geisel, senior agronomist for Koch Agronomic Services (KAS). "We’re not discussing placement in the field, but the placement of nutrients. Think about a germinating seedling’s access to nutrients. That seed is living off its reserves for the first couple weeks of life. It doesn’t have the root system to locate immobile nutrients in the soil. If it doesn’t have the essential nutrition it needs for early growth, you will be suffering from limiting factors before the plant has become established."

Geisel, who has worked in agronomy for more than 15 years, says the early vegetative growth of the seed is dependent upon the embryo utilizing the starches and stored nutrients in the seed until it can access soil nutrition. But what’s stored there is a very small amount, so adding key nutrients directly to the seed for early access before planting is a huge advantage to the crop.

Growers who want their crop to have that initial advantage are turning to solutions like ROCKET SEEDS^™ nutritional seed enhancer from KAS.

"ROCKET SEEDS provide young plants the critical nutrients they need for optimal crop establishment," Geisel said. "ROCKET SEEDS is applied directly to the seed, which ensures those critical nutrients are available near the root zone and delivered in the early growth stage."

Geisel stated that this is important because even with starter fertilizers, the seed does not yet have roots to access the vital nutrition it needs to thrive. Having these nutrients applied directly on the seed allows growers to produce stronger and faster-growing plants from establishment.

Early Spring Weather Challenges

In many regions, the spring season can begin with cold and wet soils. Spring showers can sometimes keep conditions cooler, becoming a limiting factor for plant growth and nutrient mobility, creating the potential for nutrient deficiencies.

With ROCKET SEEDS, you get seed nutrition that can positively impact your crop from day one.

"Having the right nutrients earlier on can help the crop thrive in the early growth stages." said Geisel. "The faster your crop can get established, the better off it will be."

Located in Saskatchewan, Geisel sees growers trying to get out into their fields earlier to give their crop as much time as they can to reach maximum growth potential.

"Oftentimes early spring can bring cool and wet soil conditions, which are not ideal in promoting strong plant growth," Geisel said. "With the highly concentrated nutrients in ROCKET SEEDS covering the seed, growers get the confidence their crops are being set up for success with a more robust root system."

Along with critical nutrients, ROCKET SEEDS provides operational efficiencies as the seed enhancement also acts as a talc replacement. Even in high humidity conditions, ROCKET SEEDS works as a seed-drying solution, improving seed singulation and flowability during planting.

To learn more about ROCKET SEEDS and the full line of KAS agronomic products, contact your local KAS sales representative.

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