Cole Planter--made a mistake?

[downslope]

I planted about 8 rows of pumpkins (1,000 ft long) 3 days ago with fertilizer in the hopper before I realized I may have made a serious error.

At the end of last season (2018) we had to plant a few things without fertilizer so I had removed the little disk that places the dry fertilizer off to the side a few inches. We forgot to put it back on, so I THINK most of the fertilizer may have ended up in the seed furrow.

Do you think this will kill the seedlings? It was 10-10-10 inorganic farm fertilizer. It was applied at the rate of 25 pounds for each 1,000 foot row. The ground was slightly moist sandy loam and there's been no rain since although some is predicted for this week.

The machine overplants somewhat, so I could sustain a loss up to 50% without a big problem but not a total wipeout. Hate the thought of having to replant, what do you all think?

 

[Hiptfarms]

I'd wait and see for a week. Once the seeds germinate I'd think you could tell in short order if the fertilizer will kill them.

 

[super55]

You should be fine. The fertilizer has pretty low N content so shouldn't be too much concern for burning. Did you top dress the fertilizer over with soil or is it just laying on top? If it is sitting on top of the soil 50% of you N. probably already evaporated into the atmosphere.

 

[skipperbrown]

Growing up, we used to hoe a slight furrow and drop corn, beans and fertilizer in the trench and then come back and cover with dirt. Germination rates were very high for certified seed. I don't think you'll have any issues. Just make sure you wash out the planter very, very good before storing and coat with a very thin oil. I've seen a lot of rusted out planters from fertilizer.

 

[downslope]

You should be fine. The fertilizer has pretty low N content so shouldn't be too much concern for burning. Did you top dress the fertilizer over with soil or is it just laying on top? If it is sitting on top of the soil 50% of you N. probably already evaporated into the atmosphere.

It's not laying on top, I took a quick look at the time and it seemed to be going into the same trench with the seed that is opened by the planting shoe and then covered by the packing wheel. Thanks for the info.

 

[downslope]

Growing up, we used to hoe a slight furrow and drop corn, beans and fertilizer in the trench and then come back and cover with dirt. Germination rates were very high for certified seed. I don't think you'll have any issues. Just make sure you wash out the planter very, very good before storing and coat with a very thin oil. I've seen a lot of rusted out planters from fertilizer.

Yeah, I learned that lesson about washing out and oiling quite a few years ago. I wash the whole thing out with a hose nozzle and then grease all the shafts, spray WD40 on everything inside and out and light motor oil in the bottom of the fertilizer hopper. So far so good.

Seed should be coming up about today, so we shall see. I'll have a good comparison because I planted another 7 rows immediately adjacent after reinstalling the fertilizer opener disk.

 

[redman135]

If the seed is in contact with the fert' it will burn the seedling and kill it.

 

[downslope]

If the seed is in contact with the fert' it will burn the seedling and kill it.

Well like I said, guess I'll find out. Probably depends on several factors, soil moisture, rainfall, fertilizer chemistry (they use a lot of ammonium sulfate these days), seed variety tolerance, temperature, etc.

I may take some pics of the side-by-side comparison if I get a chance.

 

[Alan W.]

Ok what happened to the punkins. Did they come up.

 

[joe48]

not to be a smart a__! But just go dig up a few spots in the rows and see if the seeds have sprouted yet!

 

[sixdogs]

How did this end up? Kill the seed?

 

[downslope]

Re: Cole Planter--made a mistake? HOW IT ENDED UP!

The pumpkins ended up OK, the ones that went in with the fertilizer just had a very few skips here and there. The strange thing is those same seeds that were in contact with the fertilizer took about 3-4 days longer to germinate and crack the ground, so that had me worried as I figured they were ruined. You will see they are significantly smaller in the attached pictures. The only thing I can figure is the fertilizer in contact with the seed absorbed all the soil moisture causing whe slow germination
The plants on the left in the pictures are the ones where the fertilizer went in with the seed. The rows on the right in the pics had the fertilizer placed "properly".

 

[sixdogs]

That sure is a nice looking field of pumpkins.
My guess is the plant and roots were just stunted by the fertilizer so close to them but that's just a guess.

 

[super55]

Thanks for sharing the pics. It will be interesting to see if the those plants will catch up with the properly side dressed seeds.