Boron deff

buckhunter10

Well-Known Member
One of my plots looks fantastic other than few spots of the clover showing red coloring on the end of the leaves. I know this is typically a boron deff, Where/what can I add to help add boron to the soil?

thank you!
 
I used Borax detergent this yr. Google it to see if it's what you want to deal with. Just fair warning... it's fun to spread! :)

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It would seem like I've been a bucket of cold water here on this forum lately. I guess no use changing now! Native, you might be right about the boron deficiency, but those red tipped clover leaves could be a message about something else. We're talking about food plots here, right? I guess the importance of boron is different to different people. For me, it's a non-event - in food plots. Corn production is a different story. So, me, I think the clover will be OK. We typically see the problem this time of year when clover is supposed to be (semi?) dormant. Production of green chlorophyll stops. The other cells in the leaves are left to shine in their multitude of color. Think of a deciduous tree in the fall.

Or, some other seasonal stress like drought or excess moisture can do the same thing. Same with pH and other macro soil nutrient problems. Only way to really tell if its a boron deficiency is soil test for micronutrients and/or plant tissue testing and who wants to do that - for food plots.

Back to boron. Why not just get a little borax and spread it? We all do, but boron requires some micromanagement.
Read this:
http://www.cropnutrition.com/boron-a-micronutrient-that-requires-micromanagement
It refers to crop production, but it's got points to consider for the rest of us.

Goggle "Buy Boron Micronutrients." You'll see lots of options not 20-Mule-Team Borax which will maybe could provide the boost your looking for.
 
There was a thread somewhere about controlling Creeping Charlie with Borax because CC does well in boron low soils (if I remember correctly). What I didn't seem to read in that thread, or I missed it, was to be careful about the amount you apply. I just sprinkled borax powder into the heaviest areas of CC and I guess I over did it...the CC is dead but so is pretty much everything else in those spots. Last week, I overseeded some various brassicas into those dead spots...I'm curious to see if it will grow or be stunted.
Borax is a good way to add boron to your soil. I think I've since read that 1 pound per acre is sufficient. Dissolve it in hot water and put it in a pump sprayer. I could not get borax to dissolve in cold water, no matter how hard I tried. Hot water did the trick.
 
Alfalfa tends to like Boron. I'm like X-farmer, not sure if that is the stress in your clover. It can show a lot of funny leaf symptoms this hot time of year and can correct itself with cooler weather. Anyways per my soil test, I only get recommended to add B in my alfalfa. And couple ways to do I've done. One indeed is with 2-3 boxes of Borax mixed in with my 0-20-20 and spread with spreader. The other, which I have done, you can buy Fert with B in it. Can't remember the other nutrient numbers, but the Boron is .5 which obviously half pound /100# Fert. What I don't like about using it, is the N is high in the Fert and I don't want to add N to an established clover or alfalfa plot if not needed since it only helps weed growth. Cheapest place to buy Borax is Dollar General.
Tap, I'm not a chemist but I think the borax with moisture becomes and acid which in high concentration would kill anything it contacts including skin burns if concentrated enough I suppose. Odd it doesn't dissolve well in water as it is a laundry additive.
 
Tap, I'm not a chemist but I think the borax with moisture becomes and acid which in high concentration would kill anything it contacts including skin burns if concentrated enough I suppose. Odd it doesn't dissolve well in water as it is a laundry additive.
It dissolved easily in hot water. My 1st try was to dissolve it in cold water and it flat-out wouldn't dissolve. I was surprised at that. Could it be something about my well water that cause that? My water is very soft, in case that has an influence.
As an aside...Based on my experience with borax in cold water, I realize that if I use it as a laundry additive, I need to was in a warm water cycle.
 
Borax is basic with a PH of 9.3.
And thus my disclaimer in that comment that I'm not a chemist. LOL. I was just guessing as I know that Borax mixed with another acid can become an acid. And since water can be an acid , I made a guess that acidity might have caused an overkill in Taps issue. But in reality since it is a salt, I assume that was his real issue. At any rate, I find it interesting that Dollar General keeps it in better supply than most other stores. The things you have to go thru to feed a deer.
 
Gotta think outside the box to get such a small amount over such a large area...

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I just sprinkled borax powder into the heaviest areas of CC and I guess I over did it...the CC is dead but so is pretty much everything else in those spots.
https://extension.umn.edu/micro-and-secondary-macronutrients/boron-minnesota-soils

"For vegetable crops with a high demand for B like cauliflower or broccoli grown on sandy soils testing low in B, 2 to 4 lbs of B per acre should be broadcast and incorporated before planting.

Boron is mobile in soils and should be applied to annual crops each year when needed. This nutrient should not be applied directly to actively growing green tissue because serious plant injury could occur.

Boron fertilizers should never be applied directly in contact with the seed. Broadcast application of B is recommended over the use of an in-row treatment. Broadcast applications are safer when applied one to two weeks before seeding.

Boron applied to a perennial crop such as alfalfa will usually last for more than one year. A common practice, on known B-deficient soils, is to use a borated fertilizer mixture once every three years.

It is better to withhold B from a new seeding of alfalfa until after the first year of production, if oat is the companion crop. Oat is sensitive to rates of B needed for alfalfa."
 
https://extension.umn.edu/micro-and-secondary-macronutrients/boron-minnesota-soils

"For vegetable crops with a high demand for B like cauliflower or broccoli grown on sandy soils testing low in B, 2 to 4 lbs of B per acre should be broadcast and incorporated before planting.

Boron is mobile in soils and should be applied to annual crops each year when needed. This nutrient should not be applied directly to actively growing green tissue because serious plant injury could occur.

Boron fertilizers should never be applied directly in contact with the seed. Broadcast application of B is recommended over the use of an in-row treatment. Broadcast applications are safer when applied one to two weeks before seeding.

Boron applied to a perennial crop such as alfalfa will usually last for more than one year. A common practice, on known B-deficient soils, is to use a borated fertilizer mixture once every three years.

It is better to withhold B from a new seeding of alfalfa until after the first year of production, if oat is the companion crop. Oat is sensitive to rates of B needed for alfalfa."
Thanks for the link sag. I did read it when you posted it yesterday...should have said "thanks" then.
I'm sure I did some things wrong, but I didn't destroy any large areas. I was just spot spreading it on some Creeping Charlie as an experiment to see how it worked. Growth is returning to some of the spots. There's some clover expanding into the places that used to be CC.
In a few other spots of borax burn down, I pressed-in some brassica seed to see if it would germinate. I have some sprouts coming up but it's too soon to know how well it will grow.
 
Boron is toxic. Over applied accidents can contaminate soil for a while (years?) until the boron leaches down to safe levels.

I got a 50 lb bag of "solubor" maybe 8 years ago ... been slowly spraying it down on parts of about 4.5 acres .... still have about 1/3 of a bag left. ;)
 
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