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| Its not so much a matter of worrying of putting too much out at once and burning when going through the tape, really more of a matter of getting it all out and getting the plant acces to it without it leaching away. I certainly haven’t found that it requires less fertilizer than other methods of irrigation. There is no way I can get by with 1/3 of the fertilizer that I would be using top dressed. I’ve done the comparison and seems as if neighboring fields need about the same fertilizers as overhead irrigation.
Nitrogen is pretty easy going through the tape - although I feel like there has to be some leaching when your putting it out 14” deep right under the row in sand and then there is a possibility of getting a big rain. I don’t know about putting 50gal of 32-0-0 under the row in a short amount of time - it feels like a 3” rain might wash that deep and inaccessible to the plant? Plus the roots have to get big enough to reach it - especially if it is 80” spacing and the tape is 20” off each row and 14” down.
Phosphoric acid as P is a little more challenging and expensive too going through the tape not to mention all your micronutrients and then having to foliar feed K as I don’t think it can go through the tape.
We don’t irrigate the cover but it does i’m sure sap early moisture. I think we hold more when it rains though. We use the cover like you said to keep sand from blowing 1. 2 it does help weed pressure, 3 it seems to really help with washing rains and run-off erosion. 4 we get paid to do it through some gov programs. 5 we use about 25% of the tractor hours per year we used to and our tractor payments/repair bills have dropped to a tiny fraction of what they were before. 6 rotation, we do a lot of every other year wheat/cotton now half a field then switch it the next yr. But yes, I also question why I’m doing it at times sice it seems my yields are down. Is it worth it I don’t know. There are many who have been no till a lot longer I am hoping to hear from.
Edited by Balata9999 11/20/2024 08:51
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No-till Drip Cotton and fertilizer application
