By Clint Thompson
The Georgia Cotton Commission and University of Georgia Cotton Team encourage growers to get back to the basics with regards to soil fertility.
Glen Harris, UGA Extension soil specialist, discussed that topic with AgNet Media’s Randall Weiseman during the recent GCC annual meeting in Tifton, Georgia.
“There are a lot of new things we’re looking at; biologicals, carbon credits. But I don’t want us to lose sight of the basics of fertility, the things that we really need to be doing; soil testing, liming, good pH, good recommendations for P and K. That’s what I mean by back to the basics,” Harris said. “You do all of those things, that gets you probably more than three-quarters to the finish line.”
In an era of soaring input costs, cutting back on essential nutrients like nitrogen is not the most efficient way to manage resources. That was another key part of Harris’ talk.
“On cotton, nitrogen and potassium and pH; if you get your pH right and do a good job with nitrogen and potassium, that really goes a long way,” Harris said. “Sure, there’s other things. We’ve got to watch out for micronutrients here and there. Phosphorus has to be good. “I think we learned that when fertilizer prices were high. You’ve got to make yields to make the budgets match and reducing things like nitrogen is not the way to do that.”
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