After many delays, some of which had me thinking Mother Nature wanted a re-purpose of the plot into a swamp for this growing season, we planted the First Harvest Farm Management, LLC “Competitive Seed Comparison Plot” yesterday afternoon. Many thanks to Dusty Morrow at Prairieland F.S. for providing the tractor and planter and driving, and Sam Welbourne, also from F.S. for the excellent assistance and to Edgewood Farms, LLC tenant Vicky Phillips for her invaluable assistance as well.
The plot went in with ground conditions fair to decent, but under the circumstances, and the late planting date on the calendar, the decision to plant was a good one without waiting any further, as the plot received 1″ of rain during last night. With the next 10 day forecast and the near incessant recent rainfall, yesterday sure looked like it was the day to plant!!
Many thanks to our participating seed representatives and crop input suppliers for your participation and encouragement with the project. I know I read and reread many, many articles from the seed companies, the University and other sources over the past few weeks about late planting, changing hybrids, giving up on the plot and moving to prevent plant, and finally, (and I am glad we did), staying with the original plans and planting just as soon as conditions allowed.
The 2019 plot will compare each of 12 different hybrids, each planted under three separate replications. The first replication included the seed only with no enhancements; following that replication, we planted each hybrid with Prairieland F.S. Invigoron Plus starter fertilizer 10-18-4 at 5 gallons/acre added in-furrow, and the final replication included each hybrid with the same application rate of starter and 2 oz./acre of Valent MycoApply EndoPrime SC biologic product in-furrow.
At the west end of the plot, beyond the last hybrid, we planted 4 rows each of a Double Stack hybrid with the same iso-line in a Triple Stack hybrid in a trial for purposes of comparing root feeding in a corn-on-corn environment. Watch for updates throughout the summer as this project gets underway.
