ghost riding the apocalypse cuz there’s no way off this ride

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 12th, 2023

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  • Yeah, fresh manure can be pretty hot/high in free ammonia. If you can mix it in yearly piles with leaf litter and shredded garden clippings, and then use last years pile it’s pretty safe. But, you don’t know how rich it is without experimenting. Mixing some aged stuff into planting areas like 6 weeks ahead of planting and then side dressing a couple times over the grow season is what I’ve heard others do, but I haven’t tried raw inputs like that myself. Not sure how much and all that.
    Corn does need a fair bit of nitrogen to grow well, though. That much I’m sure about.


  • You can use a balanced fertilizer (same number across NPK values, like 10-10-10) if that’s what you have. If you were buying something, I’d go with like a 6-3-3, or similar. Ideally, an organic fortified with ammonium sulphate (if my guess about your soil being alkaline is correct). There’s quite a few kiln dried manure products made this way. Might ask at a local turf supply shop. They’re gaining popularity and shops like that have large bags at good prices. Organic inputs tend to have micronutrients and supply what the soil bacteria need to improve the soil over time. They’re like concentrated compost, in a sense. Problem with compost is you need a lot of it, by comparison, but it’s better for soil health most of the time.

    Spacing is pretty important, too. You want corn spaced about a foot apart.

    I tried to attach a photo of some corn I grew last year… will see if that works.
    2023 - 6 foot+ corn stalks a few weeks before harvest