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Little River, TX | I can not tell you how to do it but here is a hint or so.
Much of the loss depends on you soil and Cation Exchange Capacity. A clay soil with a high CEC value, above 20 or 30 meq/100g the clay will attract and hold the ammonium much like it does for calcium, potash and magnesium.
The rule of thumb we use, on our 50 meq/100g CEC soil, is half the nitrogen applied this season used this season the remainder goes into a residual. Up to half of any residual is available to this years crop. This does not mean this years crop will use it's full allotment of nitrogen trapped in the clay. If this is the case for you than it will require roughly 5 years to deplete the residual down to where there is no effective nitrogen residual.
It is for this reason the organic people can come in selling compost tea or some other organic soil activator, and show no loss in production. They will be 6 counties away before the residual fades on us.
My friends in East Texas must apply nitrogen every 3 to 4 weeks if they want much production in their sand. They use the same amount of N I do but they apply it 8 or 9 times to my one time. | |
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