Benefits of Micronutrients in an Organic Cropping System
Posted on October 11, 2023
Organic farmers face challenges in providing essential micronutrients to their crops efficiently which are vital for plant health. However, there are tools available to help face this challenge.
One of the tools available to growers is the use of granular micronutrients for organic crop production. These granular micronutrients can be applied to fields to help reduce crop stresses and prevent nutrient deficiencies. Micronutrients such as iron, manganese, copper, boron, and humic acid play key roles in impacting plant health.
Micronutrient Benefits
Incorporating granular micronutrients into organic crop production improves soil fertility, increases nutrient uptake, and leads to higher yields at harvest. Here are a few ways that micronutrients play a key role in the crop production process.
- Improved soil fertility: Micronutrients help to correct nutrient deficiencies in the soil and alleviate plant stress by increasing nutrient availability in the soil for plant uptake, improving overall plant health.
- Increased nutrient uptake ability: Granular micronutrients can increase a crop’s nutrient uptake ability. Boron is a micronutrient that helps with the uptake of calcium and without sufficient calcium uptake and movement within a plant, symptoms of calcium deficiency such as cell wall abnormalities and poor structural development can appear.
- Higher yields at harvest: Providing the soil and plants with proper nutrition throughout the growing season helps to reduce stress on plants and allows for crops to focus energy on grain fill or fruit production, leading to higher yields.
Value of Humic Acid
Humic acid is an important component of soil and plant health, especially for organic crop production. Humic acid aids in nutrient availability for the crop and delivery of nutrients to plants from the soil.
Humic acid chelates nutrients in the soil such as iron, copper, zinc, and manganese. Chelates work by putting a protective “claw” around the nutrient, allowing it to be brought into the plant without risk of tie-up.
Humic Acids and Micronutrients Work Together
Humic acid and micronutrients make a major impact on soil and plant health individually. However, when they are used together, they create an even bigger impact on your crops. Humic acid and Micronutrients play a very vital role in proper plant nutrition here are just a few of those benefits.
- Reduce nutrient loss: Humic acid holds onto micronutrients in the soil and keeps them available in the soil until the plant takes them up. This reduces the loss of nutrients through leeching, helping to mitigate nutrient deficiencies and provide nutrition throughout the growing season.
- Improve stress tolerance: With the help of humic acid, micronutrients are more available to the crop throughout the growing season and help crops tolerate stress.
- Enhance overall plant health: With the increased nutrient availability to crops with the use of humic acid this leads to healthier and more resilient crops that will have higher yields and better return on investment at the end of the growing season.
The Andersons Granular Products
The Andersons offer MicroMark DG Humic, an OMRI-Listed granular micronutrient package that is created to optimize plant health and maximize yields at harvest. MicroMark DG Humic can be used for all crops including organic row and organic specialty crops.
If you have any questions about the MicroMark DG products, please fill out our contact form and our sales team will reach out to you directly.
