Replicated Block Trials on Corn That Might Fall Over

I got in my own head, ignored my own advice, and put too much nitrogen on this corn-on-corn field. The soil test at V6 came back at nearly 200 lbs of nitrate. At this latitude, 200 lbs is luxury nitrogen. It grows a big, fast crop with weak stalks, and now the whole field is at risk of tipping over before harvest. What happened and what I am doing about it: Why I applied 220 lbs of urea plus 100 lbs of MESZ instead of my original 100 lb split-application fertility plan What the fall soil test and the V6 soil test actually showed Foliar potassium (K-Ace from BW Fusion) sprayed on 32 acres, with check strips left open for comparison A replicated block trial of Mainstay Si, a calcium and silicon product from Redox, laid out with software from Laconik that ties into John Deere Operations Center The EarthOptics soil DNA report that came back two days after I planted, and it would have changed the whole plan. I will be walking this field all season, checking stalk integrity and pulling tissue and soil samples. At harvest, the software analyzes yield from every block and tells us whether there is a statistically significant difference. The more blocks, the better the data. CHAPTERS 0:00 I Should Have Followed My Own Advice 2:22 The Soil DNA Report That Came Back Too Late 2:54 Foliar Potassium and a Calcium Trial from Redox 3:19 Replicated Blocks with Laconik 3:46 How the Software Scores the Yield Data 4:20 24 More Trials, Because I'm a Maniac DISCLOSURE I do not sell Mainstay Si or any Redox products, and nobody at Redox paid for this video or had any say in it. The data says what it says. Adam Kuznia is an independent agronomy consultant, writer, and seed dealer in Northern Minnesota. He chases shiny objects, says yes to too many trials, and reports the numbers, whether they make him look smart or not. This year, that's 25 trials and one cornfield that might not stand up. Follow the data, not dogma. True Grit Agronomy | TrueGritAg.com