I am looking at banding one kind of N-available fertilizer------which is just damned expensive,           as compared to broadcasting another kind.......for the N value.......which is much less expensive........and I already have it.

The purpose of this fertilizer is to give corn a shot to get it up and moving quickly.......so, the availability of the N to the roots during that initial period is the question.

Banded N would go 2inches over and 4 down...........or about 2 inches below the seed.

Broadcast would be disked in..........so, maybe 2 inches below surface for part of it, so part of it would be at seed level.

It would seem that the roots would only have to grow some less than 3 inches to hit the banded fertilizer.  How many days would it take for the roots to grow that far?

However, for the broadcast..............roots would have to reach further out to get same amount of availability of fertilizer..................about how many days would it take for the roots to grow far enough away from the row to collect from, say, one square foot??

It would appear that the roots in broadcast situation would have to grow at least six inches.......to cover one foot from row.........and then the assumption would be that rain had brought the N from 1-2 inches below surface to down to seed level.

Thanks.