Potassium is one of the most used crop inputs. Redox Lead Agronomist John Kelly says it also represents a key opportunity for growers to improve their bottom line.

“I often feel like of all of the macronutrients, potassium is the one nutrient that represents opportunities in crops,” he said. “In other words, better potassium nutrition can enhance yield and quality.”

Potassium regulates water and nutrient uptake, and movement within the plant. It also plays a key role in plant charge balance. The plant must balance itself electrically, with an equal amount of negatively and positively charged elements. Potassium is responsible for about 80 percent of the positive charge. When it’s out of balance, the plant must allocate excessive resources, excessive energy in getting back into balance. In the process of doing that, yield and quality potential are diminished.

Kelly said applying more potassium isn’t always the best solution in growing crops.

Early season crop growth, during the cell wall formation stage, an oversupply of potassium can effectively block other positively charged elements, from being taken up in the plant, harming crop quality.

Kelly said improving soil health is a crucial ingredient in crop performance, and inputs and practices can improve it very quickly.

He said more growers are taking positive steps in this direction.

“We’re seeing less about just throwing pounds out without any regard for timing or input, and targeting input and performance,” Kelly said. “When it comes to potassium, you can really up the performance potential of those crops.”

N, P and K are standard inputs on farms across the U.S., but new scientific understandings can make a huge difference their efficient use.

Phosphorus is fundamental to everything in the plant. It facilitates the transfer of sunlight energy to chemical energy that leads to plant growth.

A lot of phosphorus applied in fields gets tied up and never makes it to the plant. This inefficiency is a growing concern on efficiency and environmental fronts.

Redox Lead Agronomist John Kelly said Rootex™ provides an excellent source of phosphorus with biostimulants. The combination stimulates lateral root branching and increases specialized proteins in the root system, which promote drought stress tolerance.

Kelly said Redox technology brings efficiency and helps farm profitability.

“While it’s great to understand the technology, the thing that gets me most excited is the consistency of these benefits across crops and professional turf grass,” he said. “The efficiency is there, and the consistency of performance is there.”

Many growers seeking success for the long term continually look for the best technology, including plant nutrition. Bio-stimulants are a promising frontier for many, and greater scientific understanding of what they can do is helping the process.

Distinguished professor Dr. Patrick Brown of UC Davis is one of the world’s foremost bio-stimulant experts. He’s the chair of this year’s Biostimulants World Congress, and said greater understanding of specific biostimulant benefits is crucial to their adoption. He said many bio-stimulant products have been sold with broad statements, which won’t be sufficient moving forward.

“I think there’s an innate recognition and interest amongst farmers that a more biological approach would be useful, and at least a hope, if not yet a belief, that bio-stimulants might be part of that solution,” Brown said.

Used advanced data for agronomic decisions continues to gain ground, especially as margins tighten for many crops.

Vice President of Product Trials for Total Acre, Brian Mattix, facilitates trials with participating growers to determine the best path to increasing their return on investment.

He said analytics can be a huge component to maximizing a grower’s returns.

“Data is invaluable if it is accurate and it focuses on fixing the right problems,” Mattix said. “You’re not going to fix all of the problems, so you’ve just got to work on fixing the right problems and having a good plan to address those problems.”

Redox has more than a dozen trials with Midwest growers with our pathway sequential program, including Mainstay Si™, RDX-N™ and Banx™.

Mattix said too much data analysis may lead to fixing the symptoms, instead of trying to put plans together by studying good trend analysis and getting in front of the problem moving forward.

Agriculture will play a fundamental role to help ensure good health for future generations. Scientific advancements are key to more nutritious food that is grown in an environmentally and economically sustainable way.

Dr. Debatosh Das recently joined the Redox team, and he is diving deeper into helping unlock the full potential of our premium plant nutrition and carefully sourced biostimulants. He said plant charge balance, or Redox Homeostasis, is at the very foundation of productive farms.

“Balancing the charge in plants helps them avoid expending energy on maintaining charge homeostasis,” Das stated. “When nutrients are supplied in the correct ratios, the plant doesn’t need to divert energy to correct charge imbalances. Instead, that energy can be used more efficiently for growth, development, and ultimately increasing yield.”

Redox products are specially formulated to help with plant charge balance.

Das said new, more exciting discoveries appear on the horizon, as he continues to help Redox Bio-Nutrients fulfill its vision of being the catalyst for change, by redefining agronomic standards with the best verified solutions.

As harvest season largely winds down, it’s time to give strong consideration to steps that will aid your crops next year.

Proper nutrition is a great way to add carbohydrates to your trees and vines, which provide many benefits.

"A lot of the reproductive growth for next year occurred during those stressful months,” remarked Redox lead agronomist John Kelly. “There’s a high probability that many of the orchards did not have the energy necessary for adequate bud differentiation. What that means is that many of the orchards did not have the energy necessary for adequate bud differentiation. What that means is it’s all that much more important that we give that plant a lot of stored energy for next spring to protect what it will produce, because there’s a probability that the heat from this summer means lower set next spring. We need as much energy as possible to maintain that crop.”

Kelly and Redox Sales Manager Jared Sanner agree Banx™ is an excellent choice to boost trees and vines following harvest, as it provides an effective nutrition boost from potassium, phosphorus, zinc and boron, as well as excellent abiotic stress defense.

Potatoes are in the upper echelon in importance to the world’s diet, yet many have little idea of what it takes to get them from farm to French fry.

Dustin Begovich intends to change that.

The Idaho Studio filmmaker is nearly complete capturing two years’ worth of footage, and he soon shift to editing the interviews and activity. The documentary film, SPUDS, should have its first airings in 2025, and Redox is a sponsor.

“It is important that I’m reaching the consumer at their level and walking alongside them,” he said. “I want to bring them into agriculture and farming and help them understand it from more of a layperson’s perspective. … As much as this is a large project for the industry to make sure that their story is out there, it’s coming from a perspective of your average person that’s never thought ‘where the heck did that potato come from?’

Find out more about Dustin’s film and follow how it progresses at https://spudsmovie.com.

Farmers are the key link in keeping bountiful, affordable food to feed the world. There are many others that help growers do their work, including ag retailers.

“If you just look at the top 100 ag retailers, as far as the biggest ones in the country, the last couple of years, it has been over $40 billion worth of products and services that have been provided to farmers,” remarked Daren Coppock, CEO of the Agricultural Retailers Association. “It’s a significant contribution, and essential to raising the food that we need in the country and around the world.”

Coppock has led the ARA since 2009, and said every aspect of agriculture, including retailers, continues to evolve and become more complex. New areas include artificial intelligence and the rise of biological products, including biostimulants.

He said the ag retail industry has a lot of optimism for the future, although areas to watch incudes impacts the interest rate environment and a lack of sufficient labor.