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| We are in W MN and have never dealt with lime, or figured we ever had a need for it. We grow corn and soybeans. We struggle on the other end of the spectrum as most of our soils run a Ph of 7.8- 8.4. Defensive soybean varieties are used along with soygreen or some type of iron product.
I have a farm that I have struggled getting corn or soybeans to live. They come out of the ground fine and then die. Corn this year died around V2-V4. This farm has extremely low organic matter, (blow sand) I would call it, on spots where when back in the day this ground was maybe heavily tilled, and it blew what topsoil was there away. This affects approximately 30 acres out of 110.
The last few years if has been continuous corn and these spots really don't see much tillage as there is no residue. The rest of the field gets tilled with a JD ripper. This year the corn was the first planted, April 23 or so. Where the corn died we took soil samples. Ph as low as 4.5. Unheard of here. 100 yards away Ph was 8.0.
June 10th I replanted a few acres just so the weeds would not grow in the bare spots. This is the first time I have tried replanting these spots. All that corn made it. Why did that not die like the early planted stuff? Has anyone ever seen a situation like this and had better luck with a later planting date on this type of soil? This is generally one of the first fields to be planted.
There was no starter fertilizer put on with planter here. Just a P and K preplant broadcast with 60lbs of N.
2 years ago there was a township road ditch project and they needed a home for some of the spoils. The beans had died so we dumped the spoils in the middle of this area and spread it out over an acre or so. The dirt was not great but I figured it was better than what I had.
This year when the corn died around V4, the corn in the spoils had a perfect stand and was about 10" high, to the row where we had spread out the spoil. This I am thinking should eliminate any thought that it is an insect problem.
I'm sure I am leaving something out, attaching a couple soil samples. Hopefully.
Attachments
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 soil test.pdf (882KB - 105 downloads)
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Liming question
