Helping Lazy Plants Help Themselves

Growing the biggest, baddest corn plants possible requires better utilization of nitrogen

I’m a better scientist than salesman, and I’m much more interested in the former. But every now and then, the scientist in me loves a product.

Farmers and agronomists spend a lot of time and effort to perfect placement, timing and rate of nitrogen (N) applications, but corn plants can be lazy and inefficient when it comes to utilizing N. And that’s what has me so jazzed about Take Off® technology, a plant growth assimilator that provides corn plants with the motivational boost to go get more N and increase uptake of N in the plant, helping that plant help itself.

The plant growth assimilator boosts the glutamate cycle, which is part of the photosynthetic cycle in a corn plant, which makes the plant hungrier for N. This allows the plant to take up more N, getting it into the plant sooner, resulting in greener plants with more photosynthetic activity, and ultimately making more N available to the plant for grain fill. More N available during grail fill helps boost yield.

Take Off works in conjunction with other practices we recommend at CVA, such as starter fertilizer and plant growth regulators, and provides both a yield boost and a return on investment to the farmer. This product is also flexible and can be used in any yield determining phase to give your plants a boost, even near the end of the season to help the plant get N to their ears.

Of course, I have the yield data to back this up. My money is always where my mouth is. I have a few growers in mind already to help me fire this off, but if I’ve piqued your interest here, call me. I’ll pick up.

This post originally appeared on the Central Valley Ag blog. Visit our site for more agronomic insight this growing season.