Find Out How One Innovative Fruit Grower Completely Changes the Internal Color of His Strawberries With One Simple Action!
I want to tell you the amazing, true story of my friend Duane Headings. Like many others in his generation, Duane is on a mission to grow and market the highest quality produce possible. In his first year of marketing strawberries, Duane consistently raised strawberries 3 to 4 brix points higher than commercially produced strawberries. Brix are measured by a refractometer which is a mechanical taste tester. How did Duane achieve this? His first step was submitting a soil sample for analysis and recommendation to International Ag Labs. In order to raise produce eagerly accepted by the market place, a systemic approach is required. An approach that addresses the deficiencies of your soil and the unique nutritional needs of the crop you are growing. This is why a soil analysis is so important in reaching maximum quality and yield potential.
What was Duane’s second step? One particular strawberry variety, Jewel, faced market rejection because of its pale internal color. By observation Duane discovered that by foliar feeding his strawberries with AMAZE, the center core of the Jewel strawberry turned deep red within 12 hours of application. After spraying AMAZE, Duane was able to harvest his strawberries and had no problem selling them. There was a catch of course—the strawberries had to be picked within 3 days of application or the cores would once again pale out to the lightest tint of pink. With that intriguing discovery, let me formally introduce you to AMAZE.
What is AMAZE?
AMAZE is a revolutionary foliar spray designed to feed the plant mineral nutrition through the leaves. It is revolutionary because it combines calcium with phosphorous in the phosphate form. This allows for excellent leaf penetration as well as calcium mobility within the plant. No other calcium foliar spray has such an effective mode of action. Since much of the produce quality hinges on calcium content, a systemic foliar program using AMAZE can pay big dividends as shown in the case studies with Duane Bowman which are included in this folder.
What is Foliar Feeding?
While this question seems simple enough most producers overlook how effective leaves are in providing nutrition to the plant. Everyone knows the bulk of earth elements in a crop enter through the roots. Leaves on the other hand can be up to 20 times more efficient in getting nutrients into the plant—if the nutrients are in the right form. For many top growers foliar feeding this their ‘ace in the hole’ helping them grow higher quality with increased yields. To neglect this form of plant nutrition could cause up to 1/3 loss in production in my estimation. Here are more reasons AMAZE should be an internal part of your foliar feeding program.
- AMAZE is fully water soluble so plants can use it immediately. This sudden influx of soluble nutrients increases plant metabolism which means greater productivity.
- AMAZE combines calcium with phosphorous in an acid solution. The acidity keeps both the calcium and phosphorous in a soluble form and greatly assists in leaf penetration. Once past the leaves, AMAZE provides mobile calcium throughout the entire plant.
- Mobile calcium in plants moves to the growing point of plants and to the sinks; i.e. produce. As calcium increases in concentration, the greater resistance the produce has to rotting (shelf life) and improved cellular fidelity (flavor). Improved flavor and shelf life means retailers can’t keep your produce on the shelves because it sells out in record time.
- AMAZE is as clear as water with zero suspended solids. This means you are buying 100% available plant food—the only kind that leaves can use.
- AMAZE provides broad spectrum fertility: nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, and a whole plethora of trace elements. These trace elements are like spark plugs in the combustion cycle and without them the enzymatic reaction is not ‘sparked’. The trace elements in AMAZE speed up enzymatic reactions in plants increasing plant metabolism and productivity.
- AMAZE works on all produce and forage crops. In forage crops it will increase energy and dry matter which results in improved animal performance—more milk yield or faster growth. Forges with high fiber and high energy even make race horses run faster.
- The systemic use of AMAZE not only provides nutrients to the growing fruit or vegetables directly. It also opens the throttle on nutrients coming into the plant from the roots and enhances the amount of captured solar energy.
Bold statements I know, but let’s look to plant physiology without getting too technical. AMAZE has an analysis of 5-16-4 for nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, and also has 5 units of calcium plus a broad spectrum of unlabeled trace elements. When AMAZE enters a plant it causes a significant increase in the percent of solids in the produce. This increase comes primarily from carbohydrates and calcium and secondarily from potassium and trace minerals. Very little of the enhanced mineral content comes from phosphorous. Yet when looking at the analysis of AMAZE the phosphorous content is by far the most prominent element.
Why and to What Purpose?
When Calcium is mobile in the plant it is bonded to phosphorous as phosphate of calcium. The phosphate escorts the calcium to the product, puts it into its molecular formation and then unhooks itself from the calcium. Once this happens the calcium is no longer mobile in the plant. Phosphate then recycles and is involved in the transport of other nutrients from the root to the produce. This is the secret of why AMAZE so effectively ramps up plant metabolism. The increased phosphorous content within the plant functions as a catalyst. This means it transports nutrients in plants without becoming part of the produce and why the phosphorous content in produce remains relatively even in spite of systematic spraying of AMAZE.
Not only do phosphates transport nutrients they also are part of the production of plant sugars and the transport of plant sugars to the produce and roots of plants. When phosphates are abundantly supplied in the plants, the metabolic work of producing sugars, as well as transporting sugars and nutrients occurs automatically. When phosphates are inadequately supplied, not enough sugars are manufactured and the transportation system for nutrients and sugars is substantially reduced. As a result, produce is short on minerals and carbohydrates; i.e. poor nutrient density. The amount of sugars produced is linked to how much plant root exudates are given off by the roots into the rhizosphere. In other words, the more carbohydrates the leaves make, the more exudates given off by the plant. The more exudates the more bacteria are supported in the rizoshpere. The more rizospheric support the more insoluble minerals in the soil are made soluble by the bacteria and given to the plant for uptake.
AMAZE to the Rescue
All of this fascinating cycle goes back to having adequate available phosphate in the plant—less than optimum foliar applications of AMAZE can jump start this cycle. The reality today is that most fruit trees and plants are growing in soil with only 10-40% enough available phosphorous in the soil. This makes it nearly impossible for the plant to have enough phosphates for proper metabolic activity. It also explains why seemingly low application rates of AMAZE (1-2 quarts per acre) can make such a dramatic difference in plant metabolism. Since a discussion in plant physiology can get a little deep, lets lighten things up a bit by looking at what previous AMAZE users have to say about this product:
