Keith, what N level are you aiming for?

Hey –

I’m posting this to Daffnet as others may be wondering the same thing

W/your experiments, you said you had 1 ppm Nitrogen before fertilizing

What’s your end level goal, give or take?

 

-s

1 comment for “Keith, what N level are you aiming for?

  1. Where the Golden Dawn across the creek is my N levels are/were 1 PPM or Part Per Million. Phosphorus is only 8 PPM and Potassium is only 33 PPM. PH is 4.5. According to my county agent it should be a lifeless desert. Again we ONLY added Nitrogen for these photos.
     
    Just across the creek where the Martha Washington and Laurens Koster are growing along with John Reeds seedlings we are at 8 PPM Nitrogen. Size is better and color is better in the daffodils but fast growing weeds show a lighter green. We have 48 PPM Phosphorus in these heavy loam soils and they recommend 50 PPM. Size and color of blooms could be coming from this being just about what is recommended for onions.
     
    Potassium is at 82 PPM and they recommend 125 PPM. Again this is for onions as our state soil testing labs have nothing to recommend for growing daffodils and we have never gotten any feed back from what the various commercial growers have in their soil tests. I could add nitrogen and Potassium with Potassium Nitrate and this would also raise the soil PH.
     
    In my front yard daffodils on two acres of sandy soils I have 21 PPM nitrogen. This is about half of what they recommend for growing Onions in a commercial field and this might actually be a good target or even a little high as we don’t want to feed the weeds too much as I have to maintain a grass lawn in the summer according to city codes. Phosphorus is at 30 PPM where the minimum they recommend again is 50 PPM. Potassium is 102 PPM with the target for onions at 125 minimum.
     
    Again for Onions they recommend 50 PPM Phosphorus and 125 PPM Potassium as a minimum and we are low on all of these in all locations. Some areas are lower than others and we are short Boron and Copper in some areas and just barely make the minimums in most other trace elements. Again I am just having to guess but you want onions to grow a good sized “bulb” BUT it needs to grow slow enough to store well before it is sold and not rot in storage.
     
    It would make sense that you would want nitrogen and other soil nutrients available at root depth once the daffodils are actively growing roots. Then starve the soil for nitrogen so that by the time you go to lift and store bulbs or leave them in the soil that either the bulbs would have pulled up the excess and used this nitrogen or other companion plants are pulling out of the soil any excess nitrogen so you don’t end up feeding basal rot which also likes excess nitrogen. Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas

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