Q: Should we foliar feed cover crops? And which nutrients will that help cycle into the next crop?
A: Yes, and all of them.
There is a compounding effect here. You can see this when you do a foliar application and then you do sap analysis. You can calculate the quantity of a nutrient in a crop on a dry-matter basis.
As a hypothetical example, it’s not uncommon to apply an ounce per acre of boron and have the crop represent a pound per acre of boron in total dry matter. This is because there is this amplification effect, where what you apply can improve plant health to such a degree that it withdraws a lot more from the soil and makes it much more bioavailable. This is a really big deal.
If there is significant economic value in having soil that has a large water holding capacity or having a lot of organic matter in it, or in growing a high-value crop, it is absolutely worthwhile to foliar feed your cover crops, because you can build soil faster with that mechanism — because you can build high-fat-content cover crops. The greatest effect is going to occur during the vegetative growth phase.
From John Kempf’s Eco Ag U session at the 2023 Acres U.S.A. conference. Learn more from John and many others at our 2024 conference: events.acresusa.com
