Posted 11/29/2015 22:11 (#4927897 - in reply to #4927603) Subject: RE: Anhydrous question
EC Nebraska
johnny skeptical - 11/29/2015 20:45
ridger what would attribute the difference between non fallow/fallow ground, or more specifically the mechanics behind it.
The best answer I got after two years of talking to every expert I could find was that the fallow year had starved out most of the microbial life that typically associates with crop roots. So the NH4 didn't convert as fast in that part of the field, and the corn roots were in a hostile soil environment to start with. It was showing classic purple P-deficient symptoms even though the fallow ground had been used for hog slurry quite heavily the summer before. The next spring soil tests showed 90 ppm P in those areas. The corn roots couldn't access the phosphorus because there weren't significant levels of mychorizzia fungi in the soil. Probably couldn't access a lot of other nutrients as well.
My conclusion from the whole episode was that soil with a healthy microbial population can handle a lot of shock. Soil with a starved microbial population can't handle anything going wrong. It did a lot to send me down the cover crop path.
Anhydrous question
