Warmer weather and drier conditions have led to a significant increase in maincrop potato planting in the past month, and Corteva Agriscience is now urging growers to consider the role biologicals could play in their 2024 nitrogen strategy.
Strong results last season demonstrated how BlueN – Corteva’s foliar-applied biostimulant – provides a sustainable, supplemental source of nitrogen for potato crops. The nutrient efficiency optimiser product captures nitrogen from the air and converts it into ammonium.
BlueN provides the equivalent of around 30kg/ha of supplemental nitrogen in a season and, depending on the crop and fertiliser strategy, farmers can use it in addition to their existing programme or to replace nitrogen when optimising rates.
After many field trials in the UK and across Europe, potato growers experienced their first full year using the biostimulant in 2023.
Cornish potato grower Andrew Thomas saw a 20% increase in yield after applying the product for the first time last year. Andrew grows vegetables at his 24-hectare farm in St Hilary, Cornwall, and admits he wasn’t sold on the idea of biological treatments initially.
“I’m probably a bit traditional and set in my ways but I couldn’t believe the results,” he said.
“I sprayed one field but I didn’t spray the other because I ran out of time – I wish I had now,” he said. “We could see the difference in the size of the tubers, the quality and the yield.
BlueN enters the plant through leaf stomata and moves throughout the plant to photosynthetic cells including the areas of new growth.
