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Eastern Ontario | For me two things are really important if your fertility program is worked out.
The first, if you are starting out, definitely look at the crop trial results for your area over the last few years and pick a hybrid that tends to always be in the top yielding hybrids throughout the past few years. Unless you like to gamble, stay away from the hybrid that really did well last year but really tanked the year before. I plant most of my corn with a hybrid that works for me (in my case N29T from NK). I then take the time to try at least 1 other hybrid in the same field side-by-side every year. If that hybrid outperforms, I try it again another year on more acreage until I replace my main hybrid. Most years I will try three different hybrids on very small acreages. For me it has to outperform over at least 2 years before I give that hybrid much more acreage.
The second, I have not yet seen a year where my corn hasn't responded better to sidedressing. I have a variety of soils from very high CEC "muck" to very sandy with some hard clay. I found the corn in the higher CEC soils will still respond to sidedressing but in some years it is financially a breakeven proposition. Without doubt the corn in the sandy and clay ground does much better with sidedressing. I experiment alot but I like to put down about 60lbs N at 4-5 leaf stage. I limit it to that amount because traditionally we get a lot of rain when the corn is at that stage and it could be hard to get all of it done in time.
Good Luck! | |
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Ontario corn seed/inputs
