Helena offers essential crop nutrition for every stage of growth in a variety of application methods. These high-quality brands range from starter fertilizers, micronutrients and foliar nutritionals to biologicals, enzymes and inputs designed to increase nutrient-use efficiency and provide stress relief.

Benefits of Common Nutrients

Using the Extractor® tissue analysis system, Helena has discovered consistent deficiencies in these nutrients across the country in all crops. Below is an explanation of how each nutrient benefits and impacts plant growth throughout the season.

  • Nitrogen: vital for plant growth and a structural component of chlorophyll. Nitrogen gives green color to plants and is directly involved in photosynthesis. It is also an integral component of proteins and nucleic acids.
  • Phosphorus: supports crop development throughout the life cycle. Phosphorus supports root development, flower formation and seed production, and uniformity and maturity. It is essential for stalk and stem strength and nitrogen fixing in legumes.
  • Potassium: required for various metabolic activities and physiological processes like photosynthesis, sugar and carbohydrate production. Potassium is responsible for disease, drought and lodging resistance. It also improves winter hardiness, water-use efficiency and the quality of seeds and fruits.
  • Zinc: essential to the production of growth hormones and chlorophyll formation. Zinc activates enzymes in photosynthesis, influences the rate of seed and stalk maturation, and enables plants to withstand lower air temperatures.
  • Sulfur: an integral part of amino acids. Sulfur promotes nodule formation in legumes. It is a catalyst in chlorophyll formation and a structural component of the compounds that give flavor and odor characteristics to certain crops.
  • Magnesium: central element of the chlorophyll molecule and aids in photosynthesis. Magnesium improves utilization and mobility of phosphorus. It is both an enzyme activator and a constituent of many enzymes. It also aids in nitrogen fixation in legume nodules, and it improves earliness and uniformity of maturation.
  • Boron: essential for pollination and seed reproduction. Boron aids the translocation of sugar and carbohydrates. It is also essential for seed and cell wall formation.
  • Copper: required for chlorophyll and seed production. Copper is crucial for several metabolic processes such as photosynthesis and respiration. Deficiency can increase disease susceptibility, which can cause significant yield loss in small grains.