Third time is the charm??

[Daver]

Dbltree, anyone...

I had two plots disked up in May and then planted to soybeans...with essentially no rain on them there was little germination so I redisked them and replanted in mid-June. Again, no rain and I mostly have bare dirt to show for my efforts so far. So I am planning on planting brassicas in these two spots this weekend. Also, both times we spread fertilizer prior to planting and then disked it in.

As I prepare to replant these two areas for a third time this weekend, planting brassicas this time, I have a couple of questions. Since I have applied nitrogen twice and essentially nothing has grown, is there any chance that I have some residual nitrogen left?

Should I disc in more fertilizer, also tearing up what minimal growth is there now, prior to broadcasting the brassica seed?

My thought now is to spread fertilizer, disc it in, run the cultipacker over it, broadcast the seed and cultipack one last time. Is there a better idea or different sequence that I should follow? TIA.

 

[dbltree]

Because of the severity of the drought and the likelihood it will continue, I would recommend skipping brassicas and using the cereal rye mix in late August Dave.

If you wish to give it a shot anyway, at least some of the nitrogen you applied is probably still there since we have had no rain to leach it from the soil. More is better when it comes to brassicas (another reason to go with the cereals at this point) so for best performance, assuming you do get some rain, more urea should probably be disced in.

Based on the weather I fear you may be wasting your time and money planting anything right now but...I sure hope I'm wrong.

 

[Daver]

Thanks Paul, I think I will take a stab with the brassicas anyway since I already have the seed and it is 2 years old now. If we get no rain in the next month I will reseed with rye/clover in early Sept.