Re: Applying Fert to corn ground

Posted by LarryT on January 10, 2011 at 23:08:13 from (68.35.57.27):

In Reply to: Applying Fert to corn ground posted by Erik Ks Farmer on January 10, 2011 at 16:36:46:

Here in New Mexico in the Rio Grande valley,there is no such thing as no till planting. I wish I could but the soil being so clay based and Alkaline, if we don't turn it you can't get a drill in it. But many of us are not plowing like we used to but are using what we call field rippers. You all most likely call them something else. They are a set of 4 teeth that we bury about 36 to 48 inches and are about a foot apart. They are about 1.5 inches wide and I guess you'd call it a sub soiler. What we do with it is try to bring some of the sandy sub strata up to try to break up the clay loam on top. We do this about once every two years, sometimes yearly depending on how much clay washes in, in the irrigation during the monsoons. But what we have learned is that the best way to apply the chemical fertilizers is to drill them in. We cut the corn rows and then come back with a 6 row mid mount planter on the Super C. We have a board behind the drill to level off the top of the rows. Then we bring in the 4 row tiller and work the fertilizer in and then plant with the seed with the air injection planter. Since we started ripping it with the subsoiler, we have cut way back on the gypsum. The problem we have here is the specific gravity of the soil components. Clay is so light it comes to the top and the other components settle below and the clay ends up so thick and heard it's like trying to grow a crop through a china plate.(slight exaggeration but not much)If you pull a core of about 30 inches and mix it up the soil is great. But if you check layer by layer everything looks out of balance. We also use a lot of sulfur. Not sulfates but bio-ready sulfur. When we started using the sulfur the production increased by almost 30%. Yea hard to believe but the soil lab at the university said that it would pay off to use it so I did. The other thing we are doing is dripping in a product called bio-chem. It is an algae that you grow and it produces an enzyme that helps the soil release the nutrients to the plants easier and so the plants don't expend near as much energy absorbing the nutrients they need. We also during the winter every other year we apply natural manure based fertilizers that we allow to compost for a year. We have plenty of that around with 30 horses and the 30 hear of beef.(My favorite cow is named Prime Rib)We grow one with that name every year) I know that a lot of you if not all of you have had a lot more experience with row crops, but if what I have learned in the last few years can be of any help I feel that I should pass it on.

I was also going to ask about how you all grow the corn that you all grow for biofuel. Is it a hybrid? Do you plant in rows? I saw some one down south using a regular seed drill and was wondering since it wasn't for nutritional use did you try to get as many stalks as you can and not worry about ear production? Just trying to learn. I appreciate learning all I can. Thanks, LarryT

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