3/20/2021 – Sowed 9 rows of G90 corn in the south half next to the pecan trees. Tried a different plan to prepare the row based on what worked well last year. The plan was as follows.
- Soil has been plowed and disked to level.
- Used a middle buster plow in the cultivator to open a groove in the center of the tractor. I left the two cultivator plows either side of center but tilted the cultivator back to put the middle buster much lower and the four sweeps did not penetrate the soil deeply.
- Spread 13-13-13 with Zinc Sulfate in the groove. For each row threw 3 pints with a scant tablespoon of zinc sulfate per the soil test report and my plan here. For the 9 rows of G90 corn mix 18 pints/9qts/2.25 gallons of 8-8-8 with 6 tbsp (9×2/3) of zinc sulfate. Spread 1 quart per row.
- Used Frank’s hiller to pull the soil back over the fertilizer and build a low hill.
- Used the middle buster to open up the hill 3-4 ” deep.
- Sowed the seeds with the HOSS seeder with a custom plate with only two holes so the seeds will be placed about 9.5″ apart and not need to be thinned.
The intent of all those steps was:
- to have the fertilizer at least 2″ below the seeds
- seeds not on top of the hill so the corn stalks can be hilled for wind stability.
This might have been better had the middle been opened with a typical sweep on the cultivator. Then it could have been set deeper and would not open up such a large area as did the middle buster. Then the dirt could be thrown back over the fertilizer with very little hilling and without the need to open up a seed groove.
5/24/2021 – Found a lot of the stalks have tasseling cobs.
