 |
ProCrop |
Nitrogen With Seed at Seeding Time
Crops vary in sensitivity to contact with fertilizer salts through germination and emergence. This limits the amount of nitrogen (N) and potassium (K20) that can be applied in the seed row with seed. However, low rates of both granular and liquid fertilizers can be used with a number of crops to stimulate early season growth countering effects of cold soils and slow root growth.
Practical working limits for nitrogen as identified in the following table apply equally well for potassium or combinations of nitrogen plus potassium.
Nitrogen Limits -- Applied With Seed in 1" Band or Less |
||||
Pounds/Acre |
||||
| 30 | 15 | 10 | 5 | 0 |
Crops Row Width (in inches) |
||||
| Wheat (6) | Safflower (6) | Corn** (30) | Sugarbeet (22) | Soybean (30) |
| Barley (6) | Wheat* (12) | Sunflower** (30) | Canola (6) | Dry Bean (30) |
| Oat (6) | Barley* (12) | Flax** (6) | Potato | |
| Oat* (12) | Millet (6) | Buckwheat (6) | ||
| Mustard** (6) | ||||
| Peas** (6) | ||||
| Lentil** (6) | ||||
* 15 lb. limit when urea is the nitrogen source.
** No Urea
Potential for germination damage from seed-fertilizer salt contact is reduced in high moisture content seedbeds, with narrow row spacings and with seeding equipment that spreads both seed and fertilizer over a wide band. Alternately, dry soil increases the salt concentration in water a seed absorbs during germination and wide rows put more fertilizer down drop tubes at the same application rate. Narrow rows is one of the reasons why higher nitrogen rates can be applied with wheat than with row crops like corn and sunflower.
Several crops are sensitive enough to fertilizer salts that no fertilizers should be applied in contact with seed.
Back to Nitrogen -
Fertilizer Menu
Back to Fertilizer Menu
Back to Main ProCrop Index
