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Coldwater, Michigan | Thanks Brian,
First of all you heard correctly, when you were told that Boron will fry a crop. However, most fertilizer people are scared to death of Boron so don't even research, or recommend it where appropriate. I think you will find us using more boron as the years continue to pass, because we will need it more, and we will understand more how to use it.
The work I am doing with boron is in the foliar feeding of soybeans. It is certainly no science! However, I find in my foliar soybean trials that they are almost always short on Moly (Indiana, Ohio, Michigan). It doesn't seem to matter what the soil type. Moly is a micronutrient that is important in the fixation of nitrogen. So we have innoculation, Moly, and Manganese (Mn), that all affect nitrogen fixation. That ultimately affects yield. Shortage of any one of these will affect you ability to fix nitrogen, so it just seems a good thing to eliminate those as a possibility in yield limitation.
Boron and Magnesium are reproductive in nature (that was Mg, not Mn). I generally use 1 pint of 10% Boron foliar/acre. If I make a second trip (I do), I would use 1 pint/acre a second time. Bo and Mg affect how many flowers you have, how many are retained, and ultimately, how many pods you have on the plant. It seems that if we don't use the Moly, we just never get our seed count as high. When we eliminate the Moly we only get about 1/2 the increase in seed count.
Did I give you enough to be dangerous? Or did I answer your question?
Edited by Bill Moyer 1/11/2009 20:54
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Bill Moyer
