In year’s past, building up soil fertility versus plant nutrition has been the typical trend in the field. Local Diamond Ag Seed Sales Manager Sam Brownlee says more farmers are veering away from that by treating the soil months in advance:
“Whether that is ag retail as a whole or just in general agriculture, basically what that means is not building up the soil as far as nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and all that, putting it in months and months before and hoping that it is there when you need it. We are starting to spoon feed it throughout the year. A late season nitrogen was a big thing. Some interesting facts here, the seven to ten day old roots take up the most nutrients. If you think about it, in the top ten inches of your soil, even the top five inches, there is 40% of your roots right there in the top zero to ten inches, that is 60% of your roots. A lot of that new growth is right there, not a foot in the ground or wherever your nitrogen is pushing down through, whether that be ammonia or whatever else.”
For each vegetative stage, the roots of the corn or soybean crop will push down 2.75 inches.
