It's essential to apply commercial fertilizer properly to enjoy the best results on your plant growth. Mistakes made during fertilizer application can drastically decrease crop yield and thereby decrease profit margins from a farming operation.
Agricultural operations need to put a lot of research into their fertilizer application practices to avoid mistakes. The following are five mistakes to avoid at your agricultural operation to ensure proper fertilizer application:
Applying liquid fertilizer too soon before you plant
If you're planting crops from seedlings rather than from seed, it's important to avoid applying liquid fertilizer right before planting.
Liquid fertilizer can damage the root hairs of growing seedlings. Therefore, it's important to let some time pass between the time you apply liquid fertilizer and the time you plant your seedlings. This will ensure that the fertilizer becomes adequately dispersed into the soil so that root damage will not occur.
Failing to understand crop uptake dynamics
Various factors influence how a crop will absorb nutrients provided by fertilizer from the soil. You need to understand the crop you're planting to figure out which nutrients you need to provide and how frequently you need to provide them by fertilizing repeatedly after planting.
Study the life cycle of your crop to know what nutrients you need to provide at which part of the plant life cycle.
Selecting the wrong type of fertilizer for your needs
Some examples of available fertilizer types include manure fertilizer and chemical fertilizers such as nitrogenous, phosphate, and potassic fertilizers. You need to study the crop you're growing carefully to figure out which of these fertilizer types is best.
For some crops, it might be advantageous to combine different fertilizer types throughout the growing season for the best results.
Applying fertilizer in a way that doesn't maximize accessibility
Another thing you need to understand about your crop to fertilize it properly is the root-soil dynamics and the process of nutrient movement within your soil. Make sure you're supplying fertilizer not only in the right amounts but also at the right locations so that roots can uniformly and easily absorb nutrients.
Applying too much or too little fertilizer
Farmland soil can easily become over-fertilized or under-fertilized if you're not careful. Carefully measuring out your fertilizer distributions can ensure that your crops stay properly nourished and flourish.
In order to distribute precisely the right amount of fertilizer, you need to make sure that you're using a fertilizer spreader that will distribute at a uniform rate.
