In most situations the best strategy to avoid k deficiency is to 1 soil test 2 apply the recommended k fertilizer at planting and 3 consider foliar feeding k during peak bloom.
Best foliar fertilizer for cotton.
With foliar feeding you either love it or hate it.
And if the soil is saturated cotton will need to recover somewhat before it can effectively take up foliar applications.
Editor s note michael j.
In areas where you think the cotton is not severely stunted you may want to apply some foliar fertilizer to replace some leaching and de nitrification losses.
Currently there are a number of commercially available fertilizer additives that are designed to improve the uptake efficiency of p and k fertilizers.
Supplement to a good soil applied program.
Foliar feeding general guidelines.
Response to foliar k is unlikely if soil test k is adequate or greater than 125 ppm k.
The amount of water applied by pivot essentially washes the fertilizer off the leaves making this essentially a soil applied fertilizer.
Don t feed when.
A valuable feature of petiole testing programs is that weekly sampling tracks nutrient level trends and allows the detection of deficiencies or excesses up to two weeks in advance.
Recent work in central and gulf coast areas of texas has demonstrated the importance of cotton k nutrition spiegelhauer et al 2014.
Preplant applications of k fertilizer and in some cases mid season foliar applications are effective in correcting deficiencies.
Mulvaney is a uf ifas cropping system specialist and glen harris is a uga soil specialist.
Foliar kno 3 applied at 5 to 7 day intervals resulted in significant yield increase over the untreated plots in 1995.
Below are some general guidelines and rules of thumb to follow as you use foliar fertilizer to help you finish the season.
Can i apply foliar fertilizer by pivot.
If you re managing 1 bale ac cotton the extra expense of foliar fertilization won t be worth it.
I have received questions about a lot of different foliar fertilizers.
Low volume not pivots.
Not all nutrients feed well.
Petiole testing is the best way to tell whether you need to foliar feed cotton.