Corn fertilizer

[Bob Perry]

Turns out my fertilizer is triple 19, not 16.

Now I'm just a make-believe farmer but when I was a real farmer, I would never buy fertilizer with fillers. So 19-19-19 was real common.

[Boss Hog]

I plant it with 10-10-10 and side dress it with 46-0-0 or 33-0-0 , depending on what is priced the best.
A fifty pound bag of 10-10-10 has 5 lbs on Nitrogen or N , 5 lbs of - phosphorus or P and 5 lbs of potassium or K
It takes about 250 lbs of N for an acre of corn , it would take 40 bags of 10-10-10 to give you 200 lbs of n for example. or about 9 bags of 46-0-0. I put down 10 bags of 10-10-10 per acre at planting and side dress 2 time with 46-0-0 at a rate of 4 bags each time. That gives me 234 lbs of n per acre.
This is for sweet corn and harvesting 2 ears per stalk planted about 6 inches apart

Boss

[Super A]

Turns out my fertilizer is triple 19, not 16.

Now I'm just a make-believe farmer but when I was a real farmer, I would never buy fertilizer with fillers. So 19-19-19 was real common.

All man-made fertilizer has filler in it.

Boss your situation is a good example of how it is hard to make a "blanket" recommendation. What you are using works out to almost 2x the typical N rate around here. Of course your land is a lot heavier than ours so it works good for you--here it would burn the corn to a crisp!

Soil test, soil test, soil test, everybody....

Al

[Boss Hog]

You are correct, the type of soil plays a BIG part
Boss

[Bob Perry]

All man-made fertilizer has filler in it.

If you take the common ingredients of commercial fertilizer and mathematically make the N,P, and K equal, you can't do any better than 19-19-19. So 19+19+19 = 57%. The other 43% of the weight wasn't added, it's just there because it's part of the molecule, just like when you buy bananas, the peels get weighed but you don't eat them. (I give mine to the goats).

But the fertilizer companies want to make some $$$ at this. So they blend in some filler. In the example of Boss using 500 lbs. of 10-10-10, he's got 50 lbs. each of N,P, and K.

Instead of applying 500 lbs. of 10-10-10, he could have applied 264 lbs of 19-19-19. But around here nobody's going to bag up 19-19-19.

It's kind of wasteful that we end up paying the costs (transportation of needless weight). That's what I meant when I said "when I was a real farmer" the NPK came from a blend plant without fillers added. Nowadays, being a "make-believe" farmer, in the smaller quantities I buy, I'm forced to pay for added fillers.

[DanR]

A soil test is the best and only way to adjust NPK in the field. However it must be done before planting. N is relatively fast acting but P&K are not as fast. Corn is a big user of nitrogen that's why we side dress during the first of the growth cycle. Repeated use of P&K is in almost all cases is just a waste of money. It's the nitrogen that promotes growth. A good soil test will give application rates for a certain crop so tell the lab what you're going to plant. Plants have different nutrition requirements so don't guess. Also talk to your County Extension Agent. Test don't guess.

[Boss Hog]

On of the biggest factors is the PH of the soil , soil that has maybe 4.5 PH will take more N than soil with a PH of 5.5 or 6. It lets the N be released more efficient. A good sign of needing more Lime is broom straw in abundance growing on a field.

[Super A]

All man-made fertilizer has filler in it.

If you take the common ingredients of commercial fertilizer and mathematically make the N,P, and K equal, you can't do any better than 19-19-19. So 19+19+19 = 57%. The other 43% of the weight wasn't added, it's just there because it's part of the molecule, just like when you buy bananas, the peels get weighed but you don't eat them. (I give mine to the goats).

But the fertilizer companies want to make some $$$ at this. So they blend in some filler. In the example of Boss using 500 lbs. of 10-10-10, he's got 50 lbs. each of N,P, and K.

Instead of applying 500 lbs. of 10-10-10, he could have applied 264 lbs of 19-19-19. But around here nobody's going to bag up 19-19-19.

It's kind of wasteful that we end up paying the costs (transportation of needless weight). That's what I meant when I said "when I was a real farmer" the NPK came from a blend plant without fillers added. Nowadays, being a "make-believe" farmer, in the smaller quantities I buy, I'm forced to pay for added fillers.

https://courses.cit.cornell.edu/css412/mod5/ext_m5_pg8.htm

I had to re-read your post a couple times but I think I understand what you are saying. Extra fillers are added to "dilute" the original 19-19-19 to 10-10-10 or 8-8-8 or whatever is desired. That extra 43% of weight in 19-19-19 is technically filler/carrier, just because it has to be there to have N, P2O5, K2O, etc.

This is yet one more illustration of why it is so valuable to get a soil test: 19-19-19 may give you "full strength" N, P, and K, but you may not need it. In fact in a lot of our soils this analysis would be short on some nutrients and over on some. Here you can generally get away with little or no P, (there may be some benefits for a little at planting as a starter depending on the crop) because our soils are very high in it--hard to find a spot with a P index of less than 100, and we have some fields that are 300 or more. For several years we did 100-125 lbs/acre of 0-0-60 and then went back with 30% liquid N at layby. It would have been foolish to pay for the extra P (and N since turkey litter had been applied) at planting since it was not needed. Corn however does take a lot of K (not as much as N of course) for stalk strenght so we applied the 0-0-60. Soybeans on the other hand usually get 0-0-60 exclusively at planting because they will soon "make" their own N, and extra P doesn't really do anything.

Around here, it is fairly easy to get several different analyses in the bag---10-10-10, 5-10-30 (real popular for corn at planting), 0-0-60, 33-0-0, 15.5-0-0, 3-9-9, 6-6-18. So that gives one a little more choice. Of course for the average gardener, 10-10-10 may be all they need.....

And Boss is 100% right, it is easy to overlook soil pH but soil pH is critical. I tell my students that when the pH is wrong, adding fertilizer is like setting a large pizza in front of them, and then having me whack them over the head with a large wooden spoon everytime they reach for a slice-----wrong pH makes the fertilizer unavailable to the plant.

Soil test, soil test, soil test.....

Al

[CapeCodCubs]

Thanks for the input and info. Jimdawg came by over the weekend and told me where to buy Urea 46-0-0. I also found that The University of Rhode Island has a soil testing office and so does U Mass. The URI office is 5 miles from where I work so if anyone wants me to drop of samples I can do that for them. It costs $13.

[Bob Perry]

[Bob Perry]

[ScottyD'sdad]

Turns out my fertilizer is triple 19, not 16.

Now I'm just a make-believe farmer but when I was a real farmer, I would never buy fertilizer with fillers. So 19-19-19 was real common.

Bob, I thought that you used goat fertilizer, on your corn! Ed