A Kick-Start For Corn: When to Use Plant Growth Regulators
Farm Journal’s Smart Farming Week is an annual week-long emphasis on innovation in agriculture. The goal is to encourage you to explore and prioritize the technology, tools and practices that will help you farm smarter. Innovation today ensures an efficient, productive and sustainable tomorrow.
If the weather stresses Mother Nature is delivering have you looking for ways to give your corn crop a stronger start this spring, consider whether a plant growth regulator (PGR) could be part of the solution.
PGRs have been around for 40-plus years and used extensively in cotton. In recent years PGRs have gained traction in corn, initially as foliar-applied products and more recently as part of seed-treatment packages and in-furrow applications.
The benefit of using a PGR before emergence is that seeds get an extra boost and a strong start when soil and environmental conditions might not be favorable, says Jon Zuk, crop protection product manager for WinField United, in an online article.
Because PGRs are hormone-based compounds designed to stimulate plant growth, they go through a rigorous registration process prescribed by EPA, much like traditional crop protection products, before reaching the marketplace and your fields.
Consider Your Goals
Jesse Uebelhor likes to recommend PGRs to farmers as a high-yield management tool. When used in a row starter with zinc, he says the combination can improve seedling vigor, contribute to earlier pollination and, ultimately, increase corn yield outcomes.
A good PGR helps “promote cell division, larger root growth and leaf expansion, allowing for increased nutrient and water uptake to help feed development of each corn plant,” explains Uebelhor, division agronomist for Superior Ag Cooperative based in Huntingburg, Ind.
Zinc’s contribution is it’s a “key component of metabolic reactions and an essential micronutrient during a plant’s growing cycle,” he adds.
Can You Capture Adequate ROI?
PGRs represent a $9 to $12 per acre investment, on average. Some can deliver a solid ROI on that investment while others can’t, and it can be challenging to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Start by identifying reputable PGR retailers for your area and ask questions, advises Caleb Coots, a plant physiologist with Teva Corporation, Benton, Mo. The company promotes farming practices that can reduce the use of some commercial fertilizers and chemicals.
Here are three questions Coots believes can help you in the process:
1.) Is the PGR developed from natural or synthetic hormones? This is important to know, Coots says, because PGRs derived from plant-based hormones can last up to twice as long as one synthetically made.
“PGRs function like managers in the corn plant, directing growth and development, so you want them to stay around as long as possible,” he told Farm Journal.
2.) What are the hormones present in the PGR and in what ratios? Coots says there are three key hormones that work in tandem to contribute to strong corn emergence and early-season growth: auxin, gibberellin and cytokinin.
3.) Is the PGR packaged with any type of stress-relieving agent? Coots says whenever a corn plant is stressed, its first tendency is to lock down the hormones or even start destroying them so the plant doesn't grow beyond what its food source can supply.
“Packaging the PGR with any kind of stress relief, such as jasmonates (a hormone) or even sugar, can help with that,” he says.
Winfield’s Zuk encourages farmers “to make sure you compare like products as you evaluate PGRs and evaluate whether the person positioning them to you can explain how they will work” in your fields, he writes. “Your trusted advisor can help you sort through the noise and find solutions that work.”
For more stories on innovation in agriculture:
Here's How to Bridge the Data Gap With Your Ag Retailer
Use Technology to Build the Perfect Furrow
6 Tech Tools and Trends To Watch In 2024
