The 4Rs of Nutrient Stewardship teach the importance of Right Source, Right Rate, Right Time, and Right Place. As global population and demand rises, implementing those principles becomes increasingly important for long-term productivity and sustainability. But in the 2021 growing season, market conditions made nutrient stewardship especially vital. While commodity prices soared, the complexity of doing business also increased due to fluctuating crop input prices and supply chain challenges. As summer quickly approaches, you can still improve efficiencies and make the most of your valuable resources by tailoring your fertility program.
Helena recommends combining early-season, conventional fertilizer applications with in-season foliar fertilization. This approach allows you to provide timely nutrition throughout the season when demand is at its highest. It’s also a way to manage through the ups and downs of the fertilizer market. Foliar fertilizers provide more flexibility with application timing and tank-mix partners. By delivering nutrition directly to the plant, they are also more efficient at maximizing the benefits of your application.
For more than 20 years, Helena has been researching the benefits of adding controlled-release nitrogen to standard fertility programs in a wide variety of crops and regions. Helena’s controlled-release nitrogen improves productivity while cutting down on the amount of nitrogen that goes into the environment.
“Nitrogen sources, as a general rule, tend to be very water soluble, which means they are very subjective to wash-off from rainfall, irrigation or anything that would dissolve that material. They are also subject to being lost through issues with volatility or evaporation. Our controlled-release technology addresses those issues by putting nitrogen in the right place, holding it there, and making it available at the right time.”
Johnnie Roberts, Director of Formulation and Technical Development for Helena
Helena’s controlled-release nitrogen fertilizers provide unique adhesive properties, keeping the application on target to provide longer availability for plant uptake. Now, Helena has added ENC® Formulation Technology to create Coron® Metra.
“When we launched Metra, we wanted to create a fertilizer that provided more than just nitrogen,” says Josh Byford, Brand Manager of Nutritionals and Coron Brands at Helena. “We started with a foliar source of nutrition that was already highly efficient. By adding ENC Formulation Technology, we gave Metra an even greater ability to enhance nutrient uptake and fit into almost any program.”
ENC Formulation Technology enhances the plant’s ability to take up nutrients and to utilize those nutrients more efficiently. By doing this, it can create a stronger, more productive plant with higher yield potential. ENC Formulation Technology also makes tank mixing with Coron Metra easier and minimizes spray application problems. By taking tried and true products, and making them better, Helena’s goal is to maximize fertilizer investments no matter the season.
Photo: Equal parts nitrogen were applied to two sides of a leaf. On the left, Coron Metra doesn’t dry and crystallize like the urea solution on the right. The unique, resinous properties of Coron Metra combined with the absorption properties of ENC Formulation Technology ensure maximum uptake. The dried urea crystals on the right are incapable of entering the leaf and subject to wash off, volatility and potential leaf burn.