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nitrogen question

bjkpharmd

New Member
Last year I had a couple plots of corn & beans- both did well, I had rotated the corn on to the plot beans were the previous year. Beans never made much height as they were grazed on really hard- only made a few small pods a couple inches off the ground. Anyway the question is- would it be too late to apply some fertilizer heavy in the nitrogen to the egyptian wheat (sorghum species) I have planted this year? Even though the beans didn't make much- they must have been fixing nitrogen- that plot looks great but the plot that grew corn last year looks like it needs some Geritol or something. I'd still be able to get through there & broadcast something but I didn't want to burn it up if it is too late. Otherwise I'll just turn that one under this fall and plant rye. Thoughts?
 
Pharmer,
All I can do is parrot what the guy at the CoOp tells me. The best way to get nitrogen down is incorporate it. This means knifing it at this point. If you spread urea now and it lays on top, you will lose the majority of it as it volatilizes. Maybe you could go with some other more stable granular mix, but you would still pray for rain to get it into the ground (and hopefully not too much rain to have it run off). Is there a local hog confinement looking for land to inject manure on? Sometimes these guys have more manure than land. Plus, now they can't access alot of the land as there is corn/beans on it. Just a thought.
 
I would plow it under add some nitrogen in the form of urea and plant oats. I have had good luck with this. Maybe try some rape I am not sure how much growth you would get at this time of the year,but try both. I sounds like anything would be better than what you have going right now.
 
I am one of those "COOP" guys so here it goes. As for this year my opinion is you are really too late to get much good out of it. As was mentioned it would be a waste of time and $$$ to spread out urea and not get a rain. Best time is in the spring. If the corn looks bad enough that you dont think it will produce anything, your best bet may just be to plow it under to get rid of the weeds and plant something like oats.
 
Last years corn plot- this years sorghum (egyptian wheat) is the problem. Sounds like it will make a better rye plot this fall. The stuff that went into the bean plot looks great & I'll probably do beans everywhere next year.
 
That is to be expected. In the old beans there is enough residual nitrogen to carry this years crop. Two years of a crop that require a fair amount wont work because there just isnt any left to carry the second year.
 
If you want to keep this an annual food plot I'd look at rye, winter wheat, or a mix of rape and turnips which is what I'm trying this year. Maybe the smartest would be to put in all four, each in a different part of the plot and observe which gets the most attention and when.
 
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