By Darren Hefty
On our soybeans and across the country, we’ve seen a good return on investment (ROI) using QuickRoots, ROOTastic inoculant, and Dominance (insecticide plus fungicides). The biggest challenge with putting three different things together is compatibility. Plus, inoculant is always better when applied immediately before planting, whether it has an extender with it or not. On top of that, you want to make sure you have no seed bridging in your seed tender or especially in your planter. How can you address all these concerns?
One thing you can do is to utilize the dry forms of seed treatments. For example, QuickRoots comes in a dry formulation that actually contains higher counts of the active ingredients of beneficial fungi and beneficial bacteria. Dry forms of inoculants like ROOTastic often have tremendously high rhizobia bacteria counts and better survival on the seed compared to liquid forms because they are delivered on a dry peat carrier (soil) so the bacteria have a home and a food source. Add to that the fact that you could avoid the potential of bridging that you get using multiple liquid seed treatments at the same time, and you have some compelling reasons to consider using dry seed treatments.
Then the challenge becomes how do you apply the dry products and get them spread evenly on the seed? You can dump them in the top of a bulk bag or box. You can try to dump them in your bulk seed compartment on the planter, but chances are you won’t like either option very well. Unfortunately many of the dry seed treaters on the market have had issues with lumpy or uneven application, and because they often utilize poly tanks, they also have a challenge with static electricity building up and causing the dry treatment to stick to the inside of the tank.
So what are we doing on our farm?
The best solution we’ve found has been a stainless steel tank system with a sifter to break up any lumps and even out the application to the seed. CT Applicators makes the best dry seed treater we can find. We’ve added one to the tender on our farm and a number of other tenders, as well. They do require an investment, but when you consider the $1/unit fee a commercial seed treater may charge you PLUS the risk of bridging when you apply multiple liquid products PLUS the fact that these products will work better when applied closer to planting, it is an investment that could pay you a nice return on your investment.
There are some great benefits to using dry seed treatments in place of or in addition to the liquids you currently use. I talked about soybeans here, but this definitely pertains to other crops, as well.