Watching AgDay and seeing ConAgra is now going to ruin the sweet potato by making french fries in N. LA... anyway.

Thanks to Bill, Bill and Jon to bring to light the real deal on pop-up, starters, row support etc. Other than N in the mix, the P and K in the amounts applied & forms used do not affect soil test improvements which would directly relate to these "nutrients" (I use this term lightly is these cases) have little, if any agronomic value.

The little zinc you add, which in the mixes is chelated, also has no agronomic value.

The math is as follows: 5% chelated zinc, 10# gallon, 1 pt/A = 1 oz zinc (chelated)/A!!  Even if you think this nutrient in this form has benefit on crop growth and development, which it does not, you are only talking about 2-3 ppm tops in the seeding area.

(Fact: 1 pound of actual available nutrient per acre evenly distributed in the top 3" of soil = 1 ppm !!)

A non-reactive nutrient solution is just that.  If it is non-reactive, non-corrosive on equipment then it is non-reactive, no agronomic value, in the soil.  Sorry to say for the uninformed grower this is the case that I have found in 99%+ of the broad-scoped list of products I've studied for the past 20+ years.

Think of it this way.  The goal is to build a "rechargeable battery" of nutrients in the soil to supply mineral nutrition through the mycorrhizal fungi into the roots up the plant to be utilized in metabolic activities for producing proteins and building plant tissue.  It's all about transfer of energy / electricity to make these processes work.

How can this be done with non-reactive nutrients?  It can't.  You will not find chelated minerals used in a battery used for storing and delivering electrical energy.

TTFN