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Post by iamwill on Apr 6, 2022 15:01:41 GMT -6
This may be a dumb idea but... looking to seed wheat as a cover crop for a field of seed canola and am wanting to put down all my fertilizer at the same time. Drill is 7.5 inch spacing with midrow banders. Question is if I put the fertilizer through the banders how will my canola crop look? If I place the fertilizer with the wheat how much can I use without causing injury to it? Can do a split between the two (need 140lbs actual N and 40lbs actual P) but how much with the seed and how much through the banders? Don't want to screw things up too badly!
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Post by kevlar on Apr 6, 2022 15:15:17 GMT -6
Are you thinking of sowing both the canola and wheat at the same time in one pass? Or two passes? Just trying to understand before I give any advice.
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Post by iamwill on Apr 6, 2022 16:23:51 GMT -6
Two passes. Should add that there is no fertilizer capabilities on the canola planter and that my air drill is a disc drill so not a very wide band of seed/ fertilizer.
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Post by iamwill on Apr 6, 2022 16:44:34 GMT -6
Could also put the wheat down the banders and fertilizer down the seed tubes but not sure how the depth control would be or how much good the wheat would do at 15".
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Post by kevlar on Apr 6, 2022 16:57:39 GMT -6
A few more questions. How much moisture are you seeding into? How much later will you plant the canola after the wheat? Assume you would sow both the same direction? GPS and how accurate? I would think all the p with the seed would be fine, and maybe 10-15 pounds N with the seed, but would want to be careful with that narrow seed bed. Have never done anything like this, just trying to think what might work, so take free advice for what it’s worth!
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Post by iamwill on Apr 6, 2022 17:18:53 GMT -6
The top is bone dry but do have moisture wicking up. The field was in potatoes last year and we did seed barley in it last fall but it was just emerging when everything froze up. It keeps blowing and I did try the air drill in it but I doesn't pull up enough lumps so am going to rip it with the chisel plow and then go in with the drill. The water will be on around April 25 and the canola should be seeded around mid may so around 40 days after the wheat is seeded. No rtk on the drill but do have it on the planter tractor.
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Post by kevlar on Apr 6, 2022 19:04:10 GMT -6
I would think with irrigation the soil would have perfect moisture to make the nitrogen spread out enough that by the time you did the canola it shouldn’t be an issue. I wonder if it would be better to sow them at a bit of an angle to each other if you’re still worried about nitrogen burn , but I don’t think it would be an issue.
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Post by iamwill on Apr 6, 2022 21:47:29 GMT -6
Free advice that works is way better than paid advice that doesn't! Anyway I talked with an agronomist at the local Nutrien and she recommended a maximum of 25lbs actual P and 10 of actual N with the seed which leads me to the question of how the dryland guys with single shoot drills ever got even close to enough nutrients on their crops in the days before there were big spreaders? Maybe she was just overly cautious.
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Post by kevlar on Apr 6, 2022 22:13:12 GMT -6
I don’t know how they used to get enough N on before spreading, can apply more with wider openers and duel shoot, but still have limits. We tried the one pass thing for several years with MRB, just couldn’t make it work for us, didn’t help it was wet at the time. How are you getting the sulfur on? Putting it and that much urea down the banders might be reaching the limits of what they can handle? I take it you spray the wheat out when you spray the canola? Cover cropping or mixed crops is something that always interested me, but it would be hard to find a mix that would work well here.
I guess I’m assuming you are using all granular with my questions.
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Post by meskie on Apr 6, 2022 23:00:36 GMT -6
We put 35lbs of actual phos and 10lbs of potash down with our cereals. Without any trouble on 10” spacing and 3/4” opener. On 7.5 you should be able to do more. Soil makes a difference though. We have have hill tops that are lighter or sandy that the fertilizer rate is a bit spicy for. If there is lots of moisture it’s less of a problem.
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Post by iamwill on Apr 7, 2022 9:46:28 GMT -6
We never put any sulfur on as the irrigation water has high levels of it. Soil tests always come back with sulfur levels being excessive. We did try some years ago on some really sandy soil but didn't get any sort of response from it. The field will be sprayed for broadleafs before the canola comes up and then 3 applications of liberty at 1.35l (as per BASF contract) may also have to give it a shot of centurion as well if the wheat doesn't die back quickly enough. Two shots of fungicide and usually two of insecticide and then finish it off with reglone. Not to mention the cost of keeping field boundaries clean, clipping the male bays then mowing them out and the roughing of off types throughout the season makes it a very expensive crop to grow. I guess that is why they pay us the big bucks, also the reason I don't want to screw this up.
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