OUR BLOG

Maize growing contractor Bernard Cranswick, of Cranswick Farming, Gisborne, was one of NZ's first users of BSN seed primer on maize. Bernard reports" We recognised that early phosphorous application at germination was the key to great crop establishment and higher yield set. We had tried some powder based options but have found the BSN to provide the most available and effective high P treatment. Early results were so good we have applied a much larger area this season of BSN. Main points we noted were:

Germination was faster - 5-7 days vs 6-9 days untreated.

Germination (by visual assessment) was the same between BSN and untreated.

Significant dev.t of shallow "feeder" roots in BSN treated seedlings which were totally absent in untreated - this really intrigued us as they are very active roots".

Longer primary roots, and a lot more fine root mass - in the untreated plant on left you can see the primary roots, not so in the BSN treated seedling.(See main photo).

We look forward to seeing the final yield result advantages of BSN Seed Priming when we harvest in late March 2015.

 29.1.2015 Update, Bernard advises:

"Latest visual observation , we have been really dry here with no significant rain since October I have been surprised with the lack of moisture stress showing in the plants, now I cant attribute this to my seed preparation but normally I would have seen more stress particularly in the light volcanic pumice soil, harvest just 3 months away I cant wait to see some numbers"