The final day of May 2023 took us to Scarborough, North Yorkshire to check up on the 3 different trials sites of our seed treatment Kick-Off. Fields of winter barley, spring barley and spring beans had been split into large trial areas, with a min. of 2 acres devoted to each product.
The spring barley plot treated with the phosphite-manganese biostimulant Kick-Off was showing brilliantly. The rooting depth and density was showing better than not only the untreated crop, but also the Mn treated crops and the unnamed seed treatment product. The significant root growth can be seen in the image below, laid out vs the other crops in the trial.
The root density of the Kick-Off treated crops can be seen clearer when side-by-side with the untreated spring barley, with biomass improved by >100%. The phosphite-manganese composition boosts establishment and root growth, aiding the root branching and density. Last summer, trials done at Boroughbridge returned yield improvements of +7% when using Kick-Off, a return on investment of 17:1 based on May’22 wheat price.
Furthermore, beneficial root growth can be seen in the spring bean trials, with the Kick-Off treated beans having thicker roots and nodules than the untreated. This again can be seen in the photo below.
The final trial site took us to look at the winter barley, where again Kick-Off treated crops showed well, with denser rooting. It should be noted the deeper roots and drier soil in this field broke off many of the roots when digging them up.
We will update here on the blog what the yield returns are at harvest time. With 3 months to go until then though, we were extremely pleased with Kick-Off’s performance on the root system so far.
