Soil fundamentals library

[SD51555]

Don't forget the chicory.

 

[Brian662]

If you're going to stick with balanced mixes all year like LC, your OM should start rising quickly. All your samples look really good. The biggest thing is your pH is in the strike zone all over. You could throw a little calcitic lime on #5 and #10, but I wouldn't get too excited about that.

How many acres are you managing for plots?

If you look across all your samples, your S numbers are below 2. Your calcium numbers are also low. I know this is always my answer, but gypsum can knock out both of those issues. Your plots would respond really well to a maintenance gypsum application for a few years. Once you get north of 5% OM, you can quit with it because you'll mineralize all the S you need out of your OM. 200 lbs/ac gypsum would be plenty of S for a year, and it'll stick very well in your heavy ground. Menards has 40 lb bags of pell gypsum for $9/bag.

Don't be afraid to skip some years spraying if the plot looks clean when it's replant time. You won't lose control of it, it'll just slowly move back towards nature. Every other year could/should be plenty for spraying, and you may even find every third is perfect. That will also help boost your OM quickly.

Thanks for the thoughtful response, I do plan to apply gypsum to see how it helps the soil. I have about 4.5 acres of plots I own by myself included in those samples and another ~6 acres I own jointly with a friend, in the grand scheme of things $400 isn't a big deal for a gypsum application annually.
This is in "big buck country" which is also hill country; the focus on the property is to harvest the biggest buck(s) the neighborhood has to offer. So there will be a balance of soil quality, erosion control, as well as having the most attractive food during hunting season. Some years that may mean corn or beans, but I've often had great luck into December attracting deer with LC mixes and brassicas. I am definitely committed to eliminating tilling going forward.
As far as the spraying goes, I always try to limit it when possible but the property is about 3 hours away and I have a family to keep up with around home, so timing for rolling (not crimping) can be variable. Some of the destination food that just came out of CRP is heavy with brome bouncing back from last year so we may just do a RR soybean this summer to clean the weeds out of those areas then drill the brassicas and LC mix into them in August/Sept.

 

[Brian662]

You have solid dirt.

Your pH looks good. P and K look low, I believe the Ed Spinazolla food plot book I use for a reference has a goal of 20-40 ppm for P and 150-200 ppm for K.

I've had pretty good results with food plots by keeping the pH, P and K in the target ranges, so I'd say that would be a good place to start if you are interested in amending the soil with fertilizers. P and K levels seem to stay in the goal range for several years once they are amended and if you rotate between crops. Some crops seem to be better than others at mining nutrients and making them available for the next crop. SD can probably explain the why portion, but that is beyond my pay grade.

This is our second year of plotting the 6 acres on my joint property since we closed last June. Soil amendments are definitely in our plans this year. Without tillage incorporation, I do worry about getting the P down to the root level. I know eventually the worms will take care of that once the soil gets dialed in better, but for now we may have heavy P levels in the upper 1/2" of soil.

 

[SD51555]

Thanks for the thoughtful response, I do plan to apply gypsum to see how it helps the soil. I have about 4.5 acres of plots I own by myself included in those samples and another ~6 acres I own jointly with a friend, in the grand scheme of things $400 isn't a big deal for a gypsum application annually.
This is in "big buck country" which is also hill country; the focus on the property is to harvest the biggest buck(s) the neighborhood has to offer. So there will be a balance of soil quality, erosion control, as well as having the most attractive food during hunting season. Some years that may mean corn or beans, but I've often had great luck into December attracting deer with LC mixes and brassicas. I am definitely committed to eliminating tilling going forward.
As far as the spraying goes, I always try to limit it when possible but the property is about 3 hours away and I have a family to keep up with around home, so timing for rolling (not crimping) can be variable. Some of the destination food that just came out of CRP is heavy with brome bouncing back from last year so we may just do a RR soybean this summer to clean the weeds out of those areas then drill the brassicas and LC mix into them in August/Sept.

Gypsum could give you the edge if you're up against stiff food competition from neighbors. It's been a long time since I've talked about flavor, but sulfur is the flavor nutrient in everything. I learned that first hand where we spread ammonium sulfate for brassicas in the fall and followed with beans the next year. We expanded a plot that didn't receive any ammonium sulfate. The deer browsed all the beans right up to where we quit with the ammonium sulfate the previous year.

It'll also help reach maximum protein content in legumes. Up against guys that just put on P and K for beans, those with good S will perform better and be more attractive to deer.

 

[Foggy47]

Gypsum could give you the edge if you're up against stiff food competition from neighbors. It's been a long time since I've talked about flavor, but sulfur is the flavor nutrient in everything. I learned that first hand where we spread ammonium sulfate for brassicas in the fall and followed with beans the next year. We expanded a plot that didn't receive any ammonium sulfate. The deer browsed all the beans right up to where we quit with the ammonium sulfate the previous year.

It'll also help reach maximum protein content in legumes. Up against guys that just put on P and K for beans, those with good S will perform better and be more attractive to deer.

View attachment 78159

I bought a few bags of sulfur one year to add to a food plot. Applied it with a cone spreader. Smelled like I was spitting out match heads over the land. Really smells like matches right after they are lit. Gotta wonder it it's flammable?

Bob Hunt (R.J. Hunt seeds in Wadena) once told me to make sure I had sulfur in my fertilizers when I put them down. It's commonly a 4th element in fertilizers in my area. I cannot say I noticed anything special from the sulfur....but the plot where I applied it has always been a draw.

The manager at the feed store told me he has only sold it to some folks that spread it for blueberries. Dunno.

 

[SD51555]

Came across a great tidbit tonight. A lot of you fellow nerds know that plants are exuding goodies out their roots every day they are alive. I came across this video where a guy quantifies in the best detail I've heard so far, what is happening down there, and why big, mixed, and continuous biomass is such a big deal for building OM, forage nutrition, desirability, biological fertility, and resilience to drought, flood, hot, and cold.

Start at the 44:20 mark in this video and watch for just a few minutes.

 

[SD51555]

Here's a good short watch on what happens when you can stay green and balanced. All sorts of parallels between deer food and human food.