Benefits of Fall Applied Phosphorus and Potassium

Nov 11, 2022
The timing of application of Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) in a granular form can be crucial to your farm’s success. Applying P & K in the fall could bring many benefits to your operation. Thumbnail-Images-8-(1).png
 
What are the Benefits of applying P & K in the fall? 
1. Efficiency on your farm – Spring weather can be unpredictable. This could leave you waiting days or weeks for application depending on rain events throughout your farm. It tends to be drier in the fall, which allow the rigs to get over more acres. Even if we have a wet fall, we can still spread when the ground is frozen. This allows you to get a head start on planting in the spring. 
2. Nutrient availability - With P & K, we don’t have to worry about the volatility like we do with nitrogen products. The soil carries a net negative charge while P & K products carry a net positive charge, which means the nutrients will bind to the soil. This makes the products much less susceptible to loss compared to nitrogen. 
 
No-till vs. Conventional till
The practice of no-till farming would benefit the most of fall applied fertilizer. No-till gives the nutrients time to break down over the fall and winter to incorporate into the soil. With a spring applied program, often times granular products may not break down into the soil until later in the season to become available for your crop. Even if you practice the conventional till method, you will still see efficiency benefits if you incorporate P & K in the fall. 
 
Do you have high or low Ph?
One product to pair with your Phosphorus is Avail. The further away from 6.5 Ph whether that be higher or lower, the better results you will see from this product. What Avail does, is create longer chains for the soil to eat through, so it doesn’t tie up in the low or high Ph soils and would be available for your crops in the growing season. We can determine weather this be a good product for you by soil sampling or utilizing our Optimal Acre grid sample program. 
 
MKC’s Fall Fertilizer Program
MKC’s Fall Fertilizer Program gives you is a discount on application of $.25 an acre and offers a flexible payment option. If we apply your P & K in the fall, we can defer payments until February 28th, 2023. 
 
If this is a program you’re interested in, please contact your strategic account manager. All orders must be in by December 1st, 2022, to qualify. Thank you for your continued trust in MKC. We look forward to working with you in this 2023 crop season. 

Article Provided by: Jarrod Nickelson, MKC strategic account manager