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No slurry for maize on cracked soil
Cracked soil supplies so much nitrogen (N) that no slurry fertilization is required for maize cultivation. Additional fertilization promotes nitrate leaching and leads to unnecessary losses of nitrogen from animal manure. Fertilizing with potash is always necessary, preferably immediately after sowing.
How does nitrogen subsequent delivery of the turf work?
The right time for tearing (milling) the sod is usually the first half of March. Due to the wetness and therefore the poor carrying capacity of the country, this has been postponed in many places to the end of March / beginning of April. When the mineralization of the sod starts in time, the maize can largely utilize the N released. This is all the more important because the application standard for nitrogen in the event of grassland tearing is being reduced by 65 kg per hectare.
When the sod is worked in properly and in good time, it can supply a lot of nitrogen. The torn sod still supplies nitrogen in the second and third year after cracks, because the mineralization continues for longer than one maize season. There is, however, a big difference in nitrogen supply between an old and young sod (see table).
No slurry, but row fertilization
Under normal circumstances, no slurry fertilization is required on cracked soil. Row fertilization is recommended to ensure that some easily absorbable N is available. Other nutrients such as sulfur and boron are also added with the row fertilization. In the second year after tearing, the subsequent delivery of the sod is already a lot less and a small application of slurry is possible. Depending on the dry matter yield and the N levels in the manure, 15 to 25 m . is then sufficient3 per hectare.
What about potassium?
Corn is a real 'calibrator'. Potassium is important for the sturdiness of the plant, for the functioning of a large number of enzymes, for the proper functioning of (moisture) transport functions in the plant and for resistance to diseases and drought.
Normally, slurry is the largest source of potassium, but in the case of maize on cracked soil, no animal manure is used. A good crop of maize extracts more than 250 kg of potash per hectare. This is far from being achieved with subsequent delivery from mineralization of the turf. The table below therefore shows that in all cases far too little potassium is available from mineralization of the turf. Supplementing with potassium is therefore necessary in all cases.
Time of Potassium Fertilization
Sprinkle the potassium supplement in full fields and immediately after sowing maize. This prevents damage to the seedling or the leaf and the potassium is quickly available for the maize plant. When the maize is already a bit bigger, sometimes grains get stuck in the leaf axils of the plant, the leaf is damaged or grains land in the 'calyx' of unfolding new leaves. This can result in leaf damage.
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