NITROGEN REPLACEMENT PRODUCTS have been generating more and more buzz over the past few seasons…
Many of these products can be applied foliar and even be mixed with your herbicide pass. However, since they’re relatively new to the marketplace, questions abound as to how best to take advantage of this new technology.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Can these products help make plant use of nitrogen more efficient? Can they be used as a tool to increase productivity? Do they deliver enough of a return on investment to make them pay?
One big reason why nitrogen has garnered so much attention is because of two important timings – WHEN IT IS APPLIED AND WHEN IT IS MOST NEEDED IN PLANTS. See the chart to the right. By the time corn begins to tassel, more than 60 percent of nitrogen has already been taken in by the plant. What about the remaining 40 percent? An ample and available supply of nitrogen is essential as the plant enters reproductive stages and begins putting all its energy into making a viable ear.
What happens if you can use a biological product to feed nitrogen, or make nitrogen more efficient as the season progresses?
SOURCE CORN, UTRISHA-N, AND PHOTO-N ARE ALL PRODUCTS THAT CAN POTENTIALLY ANSWER THOSE NEEDS, PROVIDED THEY ARE USED IN THE PROPER FIELD SITUATIONS.
Chart describing cumulative nitrogen use in corn and which parts of the crop use nitrogen as development continues through the vegetative and reproductive stages.
Source: Iowa State University Extension and Outreach
SOURCE CORN
Source Corn from Sound Agriculture is a biochemistry that’s applied foliar in corn from V4 to V8.
When Source is applied, the plant translocates the active ingredient to the root system to be released into the soil to feed beneficial bacteria that fix atmospheric nitrogen. By having a food source generated from within the plant, naturally-occurring bacteria within your soil profile can colonize near the roots to capture more nitrogen in an ideal placement for the plant to continually take it in as an additional source of fertility. Essentially, Source creates a symbiotic relationship between the root system and the native bacteria in the profile.
This product has a low use rate of just 0.7 oz per acre and is not a living organism, allowing it to be mixed with nearly any herbicide.
UTRISHA-N
Utrisha-N from Corteva is nitrogen-fixing bacteria that lives within the cellular walls of the leaf structure of corn.
Applying these bacteria during the V4 to V8 timing ensures they will be present within the plant when nitrogen demand is high. Since these nitrogen-fixing bacteria live within the leaves of the corn plant, they are well-placed to provide additional nitrogen supply throughout the season.
Remember, approximately 78 percent of the air people and plants breathe in consists of nitrogen. As the plant takes in air through its stomata during respiration, it can capture some of this nitrogen directly from the air by using these bacteria that reside within the leaves. Utrisha-N is a dry product that can be mixed with some herbicides, but check their website to see their most current list of tankmix partners.
Standard use rate of this product is 5 oz per acre.
PHOTO-N
Finally, Photo-N is the newest technology to enter the nitrogen efficiency space.
Photo-N helps the plant find more applied nitrogen in the soil profile, as well as improve its efficiency in using what it has brought in. When corn plants find a food source, they can become lazy and slow down vegetative development. The technology within Photo-N encourages the plant to continually look for nitrogen in the profile, making it more of a scavenger.
This product has a rate of 16 oz per acre and is also applied in the V4 to V8 timing. Photo-N can be mixed with nearly any herbicide package for corn in the market.
With the rise of several new products that enhance how your crops can interact with nitrogen, you’re being inundated with claims that you can cut nitrogen or reduce how much you need to apply throughout the season. What we have seen over the past few years of testing is that when trying out these products, it’s best to start slow. The return on investment applying a 100 percent rate of nitrogen along with these products remains the most consistent, but renewed investment continues to improve the performance of newer products. In 2022, we saw a win rate of around 70 percent when using nitrogen replacement or efficiency-improving products. That isn’t the best ROI we have seen, but it’s an improvement over previous years. In our reduced nitrogen study in 2022, we also saw decent returns when using these products, so we’ve demonstrated an active influence on plant health and development.
All plots had just over 100 pounds of nitrogen applied except the 100% N rate plot, which had approximately 190 pounds applied. While this trial proves these biological products can’t replace 80 pounds of nitrogen, they all create additional nitrogen for the plant. The main thing to remember is that anytime we can help plants become more efficient with the nutrients they need to survive, we all win. Although these products hold a lot of promise, more research still needs to be undertaken to determine best placement and what type of acres will most benefit from these products before we see more widespread adoption onto broader acres.
