|
|
Member
Posts: 16
Location: Stanton County, Kansas 14" Av.Yrly. rainfall | My soil test phos levels are high, I was just wondering if I still needed any starter fertilizer for my dryland corn. I'm planning on putting my N down via coulter side-dress. |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 8
| Matt,
A couple of questions I have to give you a better answer are how high are your soil test levels and when will you be planting the corn? |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 16
Location: Stanton County, Kansas 14" Av.Yrly. rainfall | Well, my tests range from 20 to 70 ppm Mehlich3 (lots of manure over the years), I'll start planting after I'm finished planting irrrigated corn (May 10-30).
Edited by Cannister 3/6/2010 11:52 AM
|
|
| |
|
Regular
Posts: 51
| Cannister,
There has been a lot of starter fertilizer work done in no-till corn systems over the past 30 years, including a fair amount in Kansas. Most people think that the most important nutrient impacting starter response is P, and that's true in conventional tilled sytems. But is no-till systems nitrogen is equally important since the slower residue decomposition rates tend to reduce the amount of avaialble N in the soil early in the growing season.
Starter N is especially important where all the N is knifed in preplant as ammonia or UAN, or, and perhaps even more so where sidedressing is used. It just takes seedlings too long to grow to the bands, especially when you don't apply it for 4-5 weeks after planting. Note that I said all the N. Broadcasting 20-30 pounds of N as DAP, or as UAN with burndown chemicals, will reduce the starter response. In fact, there has been research that shows that broadcasting 30-40 pounds of N is a good alternative when folks don't have good starter equipment.
In very early planting of no-till corn, in your area that would be in April or early May, P also comes into play. Generally at 20-70 ppm soil tests we would not expect a big response. But in early planting, like your irrigated corn, you can expect a modest response to modest rates occasionally. a nice way to address this is a blend of UAN and 10-34-0. An application of roughly 100 pounds of a 1:1 blend gives you around a 19-17-0 nutrients, and placed 2x2 or surface banded of the the side 2 inches should work well.
On your later planted dryland corn at 20-70 ppm P Soil Test, you probably won't see much response to the P. But 6-8 gallons of UAN placed 2x2 or surface banded off the the side a couple inches should give you a kick.
Dave Mengel,
KSU Agronomy |
|
| |
Starter Fertilizer
