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Coldwater, Michigan | Greg,
Some twin rows have starter between the rows at high doses. Probably needed because of being so far off the row. Probably not much advantage to Phosphorous, or potash in the starter for this kind of treatment, because the farther from the row Phosphorous particularly is placed, the less effect it has. P works better, from a response standpoint, the closer you get it to the seed. That has been borne out well with replicated testing by numerous sources. If you are going to put your fertilizer between the row on the twins, you would probably be just as well off broadcasting the P&K to maintain levels, then knife your N in between the rows at planting and call it early sideress.
Seed placed starters: when I was with NaChurs/Alpine the thought was to use "more fertilizer based on more feet of row per acre. Narrower rows have more feet per acre of seed. Therefore, the rate per acre of fertilizer needed to go up".
Unfortunately for that line of thinking, when we took that thought process to the field with corn in 22" rows, and in 15" rows, we found that yes, the yield went up when we did that, yes it made good money for the grower. But the best treatment was the same 5 gallons of fertilizer we were using in 30" rows.
That result wasn't one of those looked upon with favor by the company. It was a 3 year study conducted by a University here in the MidWest. It was one of those times I was asked why I would even publish such data. You will not ever find it published on their website!
The first 2 years we tried different populations for the row widths within each plot, and settled on 34,000 drop at planting, no matter what the row width. In 30" rows I have personally run from 32,000 to 54,000 and not seen more than a 3-4 BPA difference in yield. Therefore, the 34,000 doesn't seem too high if you have good moisture holding capacity. In the University test, after 2 years we decided to just go with the 34,000 pop the 3rd year.
Over the 3 year period of time, when we used no starter, our yields improved approximately 6 BPA. When we used starter at 5 gallons per acre, our yields improved by approximately 24 BPA in 15" vs the 30" rows. When we used starter @ 5 gallons in the 30" vs 10 gallons in 15" rows (rate the same per foot of row) the yield increase for the 3 year average was only approximately 22-23BPA. I'm pulling that off the top of my head here. I have the actual results in my files.
The point was the row width alone didn't give an exciting yield increase, and more fertilizer didn't give it either. We tried that by using 10 gallons on the seed in 30" rows. That actually reduced the yield slightly over the 3 year period, as well as every year. Optimum fertility, and row width is where the real increase came. The two together, not either one seperately.
Boy, you get me started and I never shut up!!!!!
Edited by Bill Moyer 6/6/2007 16:33
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Twin Row Corn Experiment
