As a wet spell was cast on the north Delta region in late May, the early stages of crop emergence can be observed. Now is the time for producers to consider what foliar nutrients to apply to crops for growth and survival throughout the growing season. With gas prices at record highs, farmers should think about trying to optimize trips across the field by improving the nutritional content of their existing crop plan.
ENC® Formulation Technology is Helena’s complete foliar nutrition package. It enhances nutrient uptake with an easy to handle formula that has increased tank mix capabilities with a wide range of products. This nutritional package helps plants recover through encouraging quicker metabolism of the herbicide that has been applied to the crop.
Ele-Max Nutritional Concentrate® (ENC) was first brought to Helena in the form of a product called Bayfolan by Bayer in 1974. It was the first foliar fertilizer to be used in the United States in a commercial way and the first labeled for row crop applications. That formulation would, over a short time period, develop formulation stability issues. This made the product unable to be sprayed. Johnnie Roberts, retired Director of Formulation Development and Technical Support for Helena, then reformulated Bayfolan, creating the advent of ENC Formulation Technology.
The technology has many notable features that assist in enhancing the absorption and availability of nutrients, while mitigating the number of trips across the field. ENC Formulation Technology has zero chloride and a low salt index with a water hardness compatibility. Its nutrients are in a plant-available form to enhance nutrient uptake and help correct plant nutrient deficiencies. ENC Formulation Technology creates stronger, more productive plants with a higher yield potential and crop recovery time. It has stabilizers and/or buffers for improved stability in spray mixes and enhanced tank mix capability. These capabilities allow farmers to have confidence in mixing nutrition and crop protection products because of its compatability with herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, and other foliar nutrition and bioscience products.
Without ENC Formulation Technology, chemical and physical incompatibilities in tank mixing may arise. For example, you may see different antagonisms if nutrients aren’t chelated, or made to ensure the nutrient does not precipitate when it is being dissolved into the fertilizer solution.
ENC Formulation Technology yields results. Helena’s foliar fertilizer Coron® was enhanced with ENC Formulation Technology to become Coron Metra. Coron Metra routinely creates a 2-3 bushel increase in corn, 1-2 bushel increase in soybeans and 50-100 pounds of lint increase in cotton above the standard yield increases realized with Coron products, said Josh Byford, Brand Manager of Coron and Nutritionals for Helena.
Looking to the future, ENC Formulation will continue to be a staple in foliar nutrition applications for its adaptability, flexibility, credibility and value. With the implementation of ENC Formulation Technology in producers’ crop nutrition plan, farmers can ensure they are maximizing their yield and trips across the field this season. Contact your local Helena representative to add ENC Formulation Technology into your foliar nutrition plan.