Crop Health Management Techniques

Crop health management starts with improving root health. Some factors to consider are your reliance upon heavy agricultural equipment that results in compaction and your use or not of biostimulants.

How Does Compaction Influence Root Growth?

Compaction graphic

Start increasing your crop health management by reducing your use of heavy farm equipment.  Compaction, most often caused by overuse of agricultural equipment, will reduce your crop’s ability to thrive and produce high crop yields.

To reduce compaction, look for ways to reduce tillage such as adding Pro-Soil agricultural products to your farm input regimen. When use of heavy farm equipment is reduced, soil porosity increases allowing for deeper, healthier root structure formation. This is a must if you expect your crop to produce adequate yields.

What Are Biostimulants?

One particularly promising approach to improving plant root health involves the development and use of naturally occurring, organic materials, or “Biostimulants.”

These materials influence the growth and development of plants by affecting control mechanisms within the plants or that act synergistically with nutrients to improve uptake and availability. While metabolism provides the power and building blocks necessary to sustain plant life, it is the endogenous Biostimulants (those produced within the plant itself), that regulate the speed of growth and orchestrate the various parts to produce the form we recognize as a plant. Such materials, which have also been termed plant hormones, phytohormones, or plant growth regulators, have the potential to mediate a wide range of processes including seed germination, root and shoot growth, vegetative growth, flowering, fruit set, growth and development, in such a way as to improve overall production.

Remember, a healthy root system is necessary for a productive crop! Using Pro-Soil agricultural products and reducing usage of heavy farm equipment can be the difference between an average soybean yield and a new record crop. To learn more about Pro-Soil biostimulants, please contact us today.