Fertilizer For Grass

Categories: MIXTURES FOR CROPS

A fertile soil will make a good sod. A thinner

soil should have a liberal dressing of complete fertilizer at seeding

time, and the formula that has been suggested is excellent for this

purpose. If a succession of timothy hay crops is desired, the problem

of maintaining fertility is wholly changed. The nitrogen supplied by

the clover is soon exhausted, and the timothy sod must be kept thick

and heavy until broken, or th soil will not have its supply of organic

matter maintained. Nitrogen must be supplied freely, and phosphoric

acid and potash must likewise be given the soil. The draft upon the

soil is heavy, and at the same time the effort should be to have a sod

to be broken for corn that will produce a big crop without the use of

any fertilizer. The grass is the natural crop to receive the plant-food

because its roots fill the ground, and the corn should get its food

from the rotting sod, when broken. Station tests have shown that a sod

can be caused to increase in productiveness for several years by means

of annual applications of the right combinations of plant-food in the

early spring. A mixture of 150 pounds of nitrate of soda, 150 pounds of

acid phosphate, and 50 pounds of muriate of potash is excellent. This

gives nearly the same quantity each of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and

potash, and is near a 7-7-7 fertilizer. The only material change in

relative amounts of plant-food constituents, when compared with a

3-10-6 and 3-8-10 fertilizer, is in the increase of nitrogen, due to

the heavy drafts made by continuous mowings of timothy. This fertilizer

should be used as soon as any green appears in the grass field in the

spring after the year of clover harvest. The large amount of nitrogen

makes this an unprofitable fertilizer for clover, and its use is not

advised until the spring of the year in which timothy will be

harvested.