About Your Fields, August 13, 2018
In this issue:
1. Nitrogen Stabilizers: Not Just N-Serve Anymore
2. What's Next?
Nitrogen Stabilizers: Not Just N-Serve Anymore
For as long as many of you can remember, including myself, if you wanted to stabilize the nitrogen in anhydrous ammonia we used N-Serve. In the last few years there has started to be some research into new ways of stabilizing nitrogen. This year there are several new options for people to look at and compare to N-Serve.
The first options that I will talk about is Centuro from Koch (same company that sells Agrotain). Centuro is similar to N-Serve in the fact that it is a bactericide that kills the bacteria that converts the ammonium form of nitrogen into the nitrate form that can be leached away from the zone. One key difference that I see between Centuro and N-Serve is the rate. As you know the rate for N-Serve is 1 quart per acre, because of this we have to figure how many acres a tank will do. With Centuro the rate is 5 gallons per ton, so we don't care what the rate is, all we have to know is how many untreated tons are in the tank. The results of a two-year study done by Iowa State shows a reduction of leaching by Centuro of 44% when compared to untreated NH3 applied in the fall and 23% on spring-applied NH3. One other reason that we like the potential of this product is that there it is low odor, non-corrostive and unlike N-Serve, Centuro can be mixed with UAN (same product). Stay tuned for more information on this new product as it has just recently been labeled.
Another product for you to look at is Nutrisphere NH3 from Verdesian. Many of you may have used this with UAN, but this formulation is designed to be used with anhydrous. There are a few differences between Nutrisphere and N-Serve. First, you get above ground protection from volatilization, leeching and denitrification. I understand that you are knifing the NH3 into the ground so volatilization is not that much of a concern but it is something different from N-Serve. Next, Nutrisphere is a polymer that coats the nitrogen molecule, it does not kill the bacteria that converts the nitrogen from ammonium to nitrate. And the final difference is that Nutrisphere is injected right behind the knife using a different system mounted on the bar.
These are just a couple of the options that we will be seeing coming out in the next few years to help with nitrogen stabilization. Talk with any of our agronomists if you would like any information on these products.
What's Next?
As we enter the home stretch for this year's crop I wanted to make you aware of a couple of diseases to watch out for in your corn crop. Many of our fields are in the R3 to R5 stage and according to the University of Illinois Field Crop Disease Blog we need to start looking for Physoderma Brown Spot and Node Rot in our corn. If your corn has leaves that look like the picture below you need to guage how bad it could be infected. This particular disease will attack the stalk and weaken it, causing lodging berfore harvest.
Brown Spot in corn
Another disease that was discussed on this blog is Tar Spot on corn. This disease is fairly new to Illinois and not much is known about it. If you see leaves that have developed black spots as shown in the picture below let one of the agronomists here at Akron know as the Unniversity of Illinois has asked to be made aware so they can study the disease.
Tar Spot