The Deep Banding Immobile Nutrients project is more than two-thirds of the way through and we have some preliminary observations. We're in the third year of the project, working with peas, canola and wheat in three different locations in Alberta. Lethbridge, Vegreville and Falher each have their own crops with different soils (brown, black and grey) as well as different growing season conditions (long, medium and short) to represent most areas of Alberta.
In the first year of the study, all of the immobile nutrients (P, K and Cu) were deep banded 5-6 inches in the ground in amounts to cover three years of crops.
Some of the benefits of deep banding three years' worth of fertilizer that have already been noted are:
- No need to fertilize as often saving time and manpower in later seasons
- Phosphorus close to the seed in spring helps jumpstart the growth
Drawbacks:
- Deep banding creates a tillage effect in current crops
The third-year is where we will look for the most information to compare deep banding to shallow banding. To date in the third-year, the deep banded phosphorus treatment has shown a rich deep green uptake compared to a duller green on the shallow banded crop.
Keep an eye out for the final report coming by the spring of 2021.
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