Fertilizer question

[Jerry-B-WI]

Got my brassica mix planted two weeks ago and it's up and looking good. Everything I've read says to hit it with 100#/acre of urea at about 4 weeks. Do I have to worry about burning the plants when I apply the urea?

Should I wait until next month to broadcast WR in the brassica plots? Do I need to fertilize the WR?

 

[4wanderingeyes]

The brassicas will like urea, and help with bulb size. Dont apply after a rain, when the plants are wet, and they should be fine. I never fertilize wr.

 

[TenPoint]

With top dressing urea, you're gonna want to do it right before a good rain. Otherwise it will just be lost to the atmosphere quickly. I wouldn't bother fertilizing WR. That can grow anywhere. I'd spread WR in September sometime.

 

[Barndog56]

I would leave a strip of your brassicas un-fertilized. Then you'll know how much of a difference the fertilizer makes. You may not need it? I don't fertilize and they still grow well.

 

[Jerry-B-WI]

I would leave a strip of your brassicas un-fertilized. Then you'll know how much of a difference the fertilizer makes. You may not need it? I don't fertilize and they still grow well.

I'm just following the soil test recommendations.

 

[SD51555]

I would leave a strip of your brassicas un-fertilized. Then you'll know how much of a difference the fertilizer makes. You may not need it? I don't fertilize and they still grow well.

I concur.

I had to spray off three sections of my plots this year to get a handle on sedge. I had a solid month of fallow due to extremely dry conditions. Never fertilized these spots and the collards are coming in well.


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[FarmerDan]

Do you need to worry about burning the plants? I think it's an overrated concern. To fertilize or not is another question.

 

[T-Max]

I'm going to piggyback on this thread. I am planning to plant my brassicas into standing beans this weekend. Approx 4 weeks after that I intend to hit it with urea. Would there be a problem mixing my WR with the urea into my PTO cone spreader and throwing both at the same time? I'm planting 3.5 acres and would like to disrupt the beans as little as possible so doing both in one pass would be ideal. Thoughts?

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I'm going to piggyback on this thread. I am planning to plant my brassicas into standing beans this weekend. Approx 4 weeks after that I intend to hit it with urea. Would there be a problem mixing my WR with the urea into my PTO cone spreader and throwing both at the same time? I'm planting 3.5 acres and would like to disrupt the beans as little as possible so doing both in one pass would be ideal. Thoughts?

I have never done that, but I have spread them separate, so no reason why you couldnt. Other then weight, being the fertilizer is heavier then the rye, the fertilizer will want to work its way to the bottom, and it wont be evenly spread.

 

[T-Max]

I never considered their weights. Maybe I will load half of it and see how that goes. Whether or not I need to do the rest a different way...

 

[FarmerDan]

I'm going to piggyback on this thread. I am planning to plant my brassicas into standing beans this weekend. Approx 4 weeks after that I intend to hit it with urea. Would there be a problem mixing my WR with the urea into my PTO cone spreader and throwing both at the same time? I'm planting 3.5 acres and would like to disrupt the beans as little as possible so doing both in one pass would be ideal. Thoughts?

I did it for others when I managed the coops, Even spread is a problem. We set the pattern at half-rate and cross-hatched the application in some pattern that fit the field shape. And that circles back around yo ask, then, why do it that way at all? The answer is - it depends....

 

[T-Max]

I could do it with my over-the-shoulder bag spreader with less crop damage, but again its 3.5 acres. The PTO spreads 46’ allegedly. That sounds better for my back even if it requires a crosshatch pattern. Thinking of doing half and then refilling. My thought is if there were some settling of the fertilizer to the bottom I would know and adjust, and filling a second time would reset that problem to square one.


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[Shearwood Forest]

I could do it with my over-the-shoulder bag spreader with less crop damage, but again its 3.5 acres. The PTO spreads 46’ allegedly. That sounds better for my back even if it requires a crosshatch pattern. Thinking of doing half and then refilling. My thought is if there were some settling of the fertilizer to the bottom I would know and adjust, and filling a second time would reset that problem to square one.


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What about doing it in 2 passes fertilizer then seed but driving the same pattern so you don't double up on what you crush with tires.

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[FarmerDan]

I could do it with my over-the-shoulder bag spreader with less crop damage, but again its 3.5 acres. The PTO spreads 46’ allegedly. That sounds better for my back even if it requires a crosshatch pattern. Thinking of doing half and then refilling. My thought is if there were some settling of the fertilizer to the bottom I would know and adjust, and filling a second time would reset that problem to square one.


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In my experience most of the separation of materials occurs when mixing prior to loading it into the spreader. Mix thoroughly but not too much.

 

[bigboreblr]

When you use a spreader, the more dense pieces fly farther. Fertilizer is much heavier for it's size than ceral grains. The fertilize spreads farther than the cereal grains. Can be mangeable. Best way is to test some on the road. Run the spreader for about 30ft and see what drops and where.

Far as mixing winter rye and urea, you'll be fine. Very commonly done wirh potash and cereal grains. Some farmers even spread oats that have been sitting mixed with potash for months. This was the days before a farmer had the right seeder for every job.

A hour or so of urea youll be fine. When you buy blended fertilizer, it's pellets of urea in the mix. I have spread food plot seed mixed with fertilizer for a decade with no problems.

Try a little oats mixed in in one part of your foodplot, you might like that you did.

 

[Angus 1895]

Is there something special about urea?

Is it an economic thing?

 

[Angus 1895]

I remember when I had some irrigated land, it was solid set.

when I put 200 units or 100 units of N on the fields, the service road when we would have no nightcrawlers on it.

For some reason I didnt apply a big load of N in the spring one year…….nightcrawlers would appear on the wet dirt service road.

I never put mor than 50 at a time from then on.

I was told there is just as much mass of nightcrawlers in a pasture as the cattle the grass would sustain.

On new seeding I would suggest 25 units and not be all Urea.

furthermore if you going to take the time to apply it I would use a balanced type pasture blend fertilizer

 

[FarmerDan]

Is there something special about urea?

Is it an economic thing?

I haven't checked prices. Bear that in mind as I shoot from the hip. In the trade we talk about unit prices. What does a unit -- or one lb of a macro element cost?
I'd assume anhydrous ammonia is still the cheapest source of N. It's a gas and needs to be knifed into the soil. It's also dangerous to the user.
Ammonium nitrate was the (my?) second cheapest source, but it's used as an explosive and is now tightly regulated.
Urea is widely used as a single source of N because, on a unit basis, it's cheap to manufacture..
The phosphate fertilizers can be ammoniated. The result is phosphate rock with ionic nitrogen added - MAP or DAP. It costs a little more than 0-46-0 (11-52-0 or 18-46-0 plus or minus) but the N is "almost" free!

Yes, urea is used because of economics. There are several possible modifications that can be made during it's manufacture to facilitate spreading and reduce natural volatilization.

Urea has strong desiccation characteristics. That's the burn.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

@FarmerDan I’m curious about the urea volatization thing. I broadcasted urea on Thursday and the forecasted rain didn’t show. No more forecasted now until this Thursday. Curious if I should be planning on spreading more now?

 

[Brian662]

@FarmerDan I’m curious about the urea volatization thing. I broadcasted urea on Thursday and the forecasted rain didn’t show. No more forecasted now until this Thursday. Curious if I should be planning on spreading more now?

I've Googled that answer and it looks like within 3-7 days you should want to see a 1/4" to 1/2" of rain before volatization occurs. The studies are kind of all over the place but IMO, a heavy morning dew can be somewhat effective too. Long answer made shorter from my readings; it depends.