Diagnosing a Nutrient Problem

Last week I got an email from a customer who was doing some pot trials on different soil applied phosphate products on wheat. He had several in his trial including our FREE pHOS 24 and he noticed that the leaf tips were turning yellow and brown. The leaves on the FREE pHOS 24 were worse and the leaves were shorter than the other plants. I had him send me photos of the leaves and I determined that the problem was a copper deficiency.

Why was it worse in the FREE pHOS treated plants? If you look at a Mulder’s Chart, the answer is pretty evident. Phosphate will block the uptake of copper and since there was more phosphate getting into the plants with the FREE pHOS, more copper was being blocked. Always remember that if you over apply one nutrient, you will either block, or need to have more of another. This is always a balancing act.

Sometimes things are not always as they appear at first glance. Your first assumption might have been that the FREE pHOS was not a very good phosphate product, but it actually was BETTER than the other products and was really blocking the copper uptake more because of a higher phosphate uptake.

Try it for yourself on your farm and SEE the difference for yourself!!

View a copy of a Mulder’s Chart.

It is not MAGIC, it is just good sound SCIENCE!!