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Little River, TX | True I am speaking only with knowledge of my own soils. For a number of years I puttered around using the informatin supplied. Then I started to consider what I had been tought and plus some reading, and developed the following thinking.
Usually the Nitrogen test is for nitrates, the most mobile form of nitrogen. Stuff can dissappear in just a few weeks.
There is also the ammonium form of nitrogen which here is not at all mobile. but is another cation and is quickly tied to the clay and organic matter in the soil. In this form it is not available, but can and will be available with time.
Then there is the Nitrite form of nitrogen which is a molecule in transition to a nitrate is there for only a limited time. This is true regardless of the soil type. The higher the clay and OM content the longer the ammonia will persist.
My proof of the pudding is every year I apply nitrogen to my grass hay meadows. Considerably more than is reported in the soil tests. I also test every field and every cutting for feed quality. The Protein can easily be converted back to a percentage of nitrogen. I know how much nitrogen is applied and how much is removed by the crop. There will be considerably more nitrogen removed than is reported by the soil test.
Here in my soil ammonia really becomes a slow release fertilizer. I have overdosed, with anhydrous, a small patch and the grass production and quality stayed up for 6 years, The seventh year my tables told me the nitrogen was getting low so I again included this patch in my regular nitrogen application that 7 th year. For at least 20 years now I have fertilized for nitrogen using my records for a guide.
I realize this is not a universal truth, because my friends in the East Texas Sandy lands with their higher rainfalls must apply nitrogen every three to six weeks to keep up production and quality.
Edited by Hay Wilson in TX 4/12/2008 19:33
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Soil test ?'s
