46-0-0 evaporation

jlane35

Well-Known Member
I know if nitrogen doesn’t get rain it evaporates but how long can it sit without rain before it’s gone?
 
Heat and humidity are factors. Each day it will lose a certain percentage but I guess it depends on the conditions. I've seen some charts but I don't have any links.
I can tell you this, when I spread urea, the rain will stop.
I spread it Wednesday while raining with more coming, the sky was black and it was looking nasty. The sun came out 30 minutes later. It did rain that night, but it was spotty so I don’t know if the field got hit. But today it’s a downpour all day and night. So if I only lose a small percentage over 2 days then I’m ok with that.
 
I spread it Wednesday while raining with more coming, the sky was black and it was looking nasty. The sun came out 30 minutes later. It did rain that night, but it was spotty so I don’t know if the field got hit. But today it’s a downpour all day and night. So if I only lose a small percentage over 2 days then I’m ok with that.
You wouldn't have lost that much over 2 days.

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I only spread 150 of the 300 pounds, I didn’t want to put all my eggs in one basket. I’ll give it another shot of fertilizer next month. Thanks guys.
 
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Thats an encouraging chart. A 12% loss for a farmer can be catastrophic, which is why I’m sure they’ll likely till in the N so all is usable. For my little plots, it’s a very small portion of my world.


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It is an encouraging chart, but it also doesn’t account for humidity and temperatures higher than 75 degrees. You can lose a lot in a couple of days if it’s hot, humid, and windy. There is a reason why real farmers use coated urea if they have to top dress their nitrogen.
 
I spread 150 lbs/acre over my corn a week ago - and the rain I figured on missed me. I had very heavy dews the next three days and I couldn't find any on the ground any more after. then big rain on day 4. The corn got urea in the whorls and I had some burning on the leaf edges show up -but 7 days later my corn has grown 1-2 ft more. I don't think it disappears as fast as I used to think it did.
 
So could all of my nitrogen be spread at the time of planting, as long as it’s incorporated or covered by a heavy thatch? Or is it better off being applied to an already growing plant?
 
Yes in deed. I disc, spread lime and fertilizer, and disc again to incorporate/cover the fertilizer (and corn). If planting brassicas, after incorporating fertilizer, I’ll cultipack, broadcast seed and cultipack again. Because I broadcast all my plantings, I try to incorporate all fertilizer on the front end. Up to about a month or 6 weeks after planting brassicas, I have from time to time broadcast more urea in advance of a heavy rain. I’m always apprehensive about driving an 8000lb tractor over brassicas, but they’ve always bounced back. Getting nitrogen to brassicas is essential for optimal growth like this.1B566825-1201-46C2-BEA2-D3E96E4E99E3.jpeg
 
Excellent, I always tried to broadcast before a rain and I would miss. Or I would run out of time, which would hurt my plots without the right amendments.
 
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