Plant Health Insights

Wheat and lupins have been showing a strong response to Basis XC-treated granular fertiliser in these Cooke Plains, South Australia trials.

In the photos below (taken in mid-August), wheat from the treated side of the paddock shows more vigour and darker colour compared to wheat from the untreated side. 

A South Australian cropping farmer has been using Foundation LM to help unlock nutrients in his heavy clay soils and improve soil nutrition and structure.

After injecting Foundation LM in furrow on his farm using a Liquid Systems unit last year, farmer Peter Hannaford and Nutrien Ag Solutions agronomist Craig Hole noticed a more strongly developed root system and greener stalks in Peter's barley crops. The greener stalk colour indicates better phosphorus uptake, compared to purple stalks where Foundation LM had not been injected.

In two recent Farm Weekly articles (part 1, part 2), farmers Andrea and Carl Moltoni describe their success using Basis on their Yathroo, WA farm.  The father and son point out the dividing line in their paddock caused by the shadow of taller canola where they applied Basis-treated granular fertiliser.

Carl notes that both their canola yield and oil content are higher than average this season, with seed also bigger. His father, Andrea, who has farmed for over 50 years, says that this is the best season he has ever seen. 

In this paddock trial in South Australia, adding Basis to the grower's granular fertiliser application improved the performance of Scepter wheat during the growing season. In early September when photos were taken (below), wheat in the untreated block had drooping flag leaves and showed signs of magnesium deficiency, while wheat plants in the Basis-treated blocks had more erect leaves and no signs of nutrient deficiency.