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Little River, TX | I consider foliar fertilization to be an emergency and costly option. There are a few plants that can not find all the elements in the soil, iron in calcareous soils for fruit trees and zinc also in calcareous soils for pecan trees.
For 3 years I used copper chelated on alfalfa until I got a good dose of copper sulfate plowed in, prior to planting fresh stands. As it was it was not until the second year of foliar fertilization of alfalfa before any changes were noted. I have heard of a true believer who applied micro nutrients through 5 years of no response. The sixth year was the charm.
Something I have always tried to do with alfalfa is apply enough micro nutrients before planting for the expected life of the stand.
Something that has worked here on my high pH, heavy clay soils, is apply at least half of the expected P, K, & Mg fertilizer required for the life of the stand. This can be more than a ton of fertilizer, prior to planting. Then if all goes well no fertilizer is applied during the life of the stand. The calcium ties up the phosphate, & the clay ties up the cations, resulting in slow release fertilizers! After the inital shock it is a cost savings. I plant one new field into alfalfa each year and plow out one old stand each year. This way my fertilizer cost remains fairly constant but with only one application expense.
I pull soil samples and tissue samples during the last year in alfalfa, and again the first year back into alfalfa. One to plan my fertility program, the other for quality control of my program. If I think a stand will last longer than 6 years then I also pull soil & tissue samples around the 4th or 5th year.
BTW I do not soil test for minor or micro nutrients. Soil test results can be questionable for P, K, Ca, pH, & OM. The rest are really prone to large deviations.
Edited by Hay Wilson in TX 6/26/2006 11:43
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Foliar Feeding Alfalfa
