Foliar Nitrogen Course - Joel Williams

Tickets to Foliar Nitrogen include

• Perennial access to the 10 lecture online course (detailed outline below)
• Factsheets and articles summarising key take home learnings from the course
• Case studies of farmers around the world implementing foliar nitrogen strategies
• Further reading - a compiled reading list of lay articles and academic papers relevant to and referenced in the course
• A pdf of powerpoint slides

Course Outline

The course is a mix of pre-recorded and live lectures with Q&A discussions. Lectures 1 and 10 (which bookend the core content of the course) are pre-recorded, while lectures 2-9 will be live, with each lecture running for approximately 40 mins with an accompanying 20 mins of question/discussion time.

Lecture 1 - Introduction & Overview

• Why Foliar Nitrogen? 
• Foliar Nitrogen as a transition tool
• The nitrogen cycle
• Nitrogen losses and ecosystem enrichment of nitrogen
• Outline of the Foliar Nitrogen course

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Lecture 2 - Nitrogen Metabolism

• Uptake and utilisation of different forms of N
• Nitrogen synergists: essential nutrients that support N metabolism
• Optimising protein synthesis
• Harnessing the synergistic effects of multiple N forms
• Efficiencies of inorganic vs organic nitrogen

Lecture 3 - Nitrogen: Friend or Foe?​

• Impacts of excess or imbalanced N on plant health
• Plant stress and protein breakdown: does plant immunity/pest and disease resistance suffer?
• Nutritional drivers of plant immunity
• Nitrogen in the soil: build or burn soil organic matter?

Lecture 4 - Foliar Uptake Uncovered

• Foliar fertilisation: what are the benefits for plant and soil?
• Making the most of foliar feeding - limitations and opportunities
• Latest on foliar uptake pathways and nutrient utilisation
• Plant leaf surface interactions 
• Understanding the key factors that influence nutrient uptake

Lecture 5 - The FACE of Foliars

• Using the FACE framework to understand and design successful foliar applications
• Formulation: optimising the mix of the spray solution
• Application: ensuring the spray reaches the target canopy
• Crop: navigating the variation among species, varieties or leaf traits
• Environment: timing field conditions to achieve peak uptake

Lecture 6 - Melting, Mixing, Maximising Response

• Practical tips for solubilising and mixing urea based foliars
• Chelating and stabilising N in the spray tank
• DIY carbon-based inputs
• Examples of nutrient synergists, additives and what not to mix
• Water quality and spray solution modification
  

Lecture 7 - Crop Specific Insights

• Using plant analysis to formulate foliar recipes
• Example foliar N recipes
• Reviewing the timings of foliar N from research papers
• Summary of crop specific optimum timings for foliar nitrogen applications in cereals, oilseeds, pulses, pastures, horticultural examples etc

Lecture 8 - The Foliar Frontier: Nitrogen Use Efficiency​

• Intro to nutrient use efficiency concepts
• History on foliar efficiencies and review of efficiency studies
• Are foliars more efficient than soil applied and can they improve nutrient use efficiencies?
• Exploring research on soil vs foliar applied inputs
• How far could we go with foliar N?
  

Lecture 9 - Foliar Nitrogen from the Field

• Guest farmers will share their experiences of using foliar nitrogen​
• Launch of farmer case studies

Lecture 10 - Beyond Foliar Nitrogen

• Designing integrated strategies to manage N
• Nitrogen Inhibitors 
• Precision fertilisation
• C-based stabilisers
• Organic amendments
• Biofertilisers - N fixers, endophytes etc
• Cover crops, catch crops and green manures
• Companion and intercropping with legumes
• Plant breeding for NUE
• Livestock integration​

Who is this course for?​

Farmers seeking to increase efficiency of applied N inputs will benefit the most from this course. The content has high applicability for arable/cash crop farmers as well as intensive pasture-based and crop-livestock integrated systems. This said, there will be content still relevant to any type of producer who has a keen interest in understanding plant health and metabolism of essential nutrients, foliar technologies and integrated nutrient management. Example foliar recipes for horticultural crops, turf/amenity and organically approved options will also be included.