Fertilizer recommendations

[blumsden]

I planted using the throw and mow method back in September and basically it never rained until last night. Over 60 days without rain. I top sewed some additional cereal rye and wheat into my thatch Sunday. With it almost being December, what fertilizer would you recommend for optimum growth? Highs will be in the 50's with lows being mostly in the upper 30's and 40's for the next couple weeks.

 

[cutman]

No nitrogen. Too late in the year for that. Wait until spring growth to add the N. you can add whatever P - K you need now though.

 

[Don M]

I will put my 2 cents in...I would put out nitrogen at this point. Your P and K from your fertilization are probably still around...they mover very slowly in the soil and are not volatile. Nitrogen on the other hand is volatile and rapidly lost in fertilizer applications hanging around 6 weeks of so under the best of circumstances. You live in the Piedmont area of AL. and have had a very mild weather so far and who knows it may continue mild. So some nitrogen may perk things up...In our normal winters I would not recommend it at this time agreeing with Cutman. I just put mine out yesterday, but it is a roll of the dice!

 

[dgallow]

When soil has been dry for a long period of time, soil life and the associated N cycling in SOM shut down so soil N levels build as there is not plant growth to use the N. In laymen terms, if you don't have water then N won't leave your soil and plants will grow robustly when it does rain and soil life becomes active!

So if your soil N cycling is enhanced when dry soil is rewetted, then what is the most logical need of fertility? Probably Ca, P, K or other trace elements which soil test shows are lacking!

Nice balance of legumes, broadleaf, and grasses in spring and fall mixes goes a long way to eliminating the need for synthetic N!

 

[Don M]

Good point....maybe the fertilizer salesman benefitted the most!
I do plant various nitrogen fixators in many fields each spring. Planted sun hemp this last summer which is a nitrogen fixator new to me last summer. The deer b browsed it all summer and was fairly drought tolerant. It is now 6ft tall and of course died with our frost last week.

 

[Don M]

We ended up with 1.25" of rain over 2 days....give the fields about a week and we will look to see if my nitrogen was of any benefit. Praise the Lord for the rain!

 

[Don M]

Nitrogen report: So after I spread the urea we had almost 2.5" of rain over 2 weeks with some temps in the 50's but with some frosts too. My fields ( wheat, rye and oats) have grown significantly and are a beautiful green... the deer now pour in in the evenings/nights. So maybe the gamble paid off this year. Brassicas also perked up.