So sorry for the long delay in posts from your favorite blog. This past week was pretty hectic for me with the office move (next post, coming up) and a short fertilizer mission out of state. But in the meantime, the AgroLiquid NCRS staff took the opportunity to pose for the annual picture last week. We also wore our Research Field Days costumes. I, of course, like the color, and had no say in its selection. So hope you can come see them up close at an RFD, which start next month with the Specialty Crop Field Day on July 31. Consult web site for all the details.
It was also noteworthy that he field crop crew planted its last plot. Here we see cotton being planted in the demonstration plots on Farm 12. (See the mountain range in the backgroud. Great skiing in the winter.) We have planted cotton with varying degrees of success at the NCRS in the past. Cotton needs warm soils to germinate and grow. We have never gotten cotton to actually make a boll. We usually get a frost around flowering. Just not enough heat units this far north to carry it to maturity. We have tried earlier planting to give it longer growing time, but had no emergence. So it is just for demonstration. This included using the AgXcel units for splitting up the planter fertilizer between in-furrow and surface band behind the press wheels. Cotton is also sensitive to higher rates in furrow, and this could be a great new way of applying fertilizer to this crop. With the completion of planting, the field crops crew have over 1800 individual plots in experiments at the NCRS. The specialty crop crew have planted over 950 indivuidual plots.
So there is little time for things like posing for pictures. But we owe it to the fans of research to look nice once a year.
