Growers should consider crop nutrition requirements when planning early-season winter bean disease control strategies, suggests fertiliser manufacturer Yara.
Due to the conditions, many winter bean crops are at risk of chocolate spot, due to moisture sitting on the leaf surface. Whilst nutrition won’t reduce the level of disease pressure on the crop or recover existing necrotic damage that has already occurred, it can be mixed with planned fungicide applications.
“Spring is a critical period for winter beans as the crop shifts from overwintering into rapid vegetative growth and early reproductive development. Micronutrient availability during this phase directly influences canopy development, photosynthetic efficiency, nodule performance, stress resilience and grain quality.
“Key nutrients for legumes at the early spring timing would be sulphur, magnesium and manganese but also molybdenum, boron and zinc have important roles in flowering later in the life cycle,” says Yara agronomist Natalie Wood.
Natalie advises all these nutrients are contained within YaraVita Photrel Pro. With higher concentrations, application rates should be reduced to 3kg/ha when applied at the early fungicide timing.
