What are the Best Fertilizers For a New Food Plot?

Every spring, the shelves of lawn and garden centers fill with boxes and bags of fertilizers that promise to increase growth, yield and beauty of vegetables and flowers.  The farm supply stores are filled with bags of different fertilizer formulations. What to buy for your needs as a food plotter can be confusing.  The main types of fertilizers for a new food plot are:

• nitrogen fertilizer
• zero nitrogen/high phosphorous fertilizer
• zero nitrogen/high potassium fertilizer
• organic fertilizers and compost
• liquid fertilizer

In this blog post, I will try and take away the confusion and help you decide what you need and what would be a waste of money and time to apply. I won’t go into great detail about pant nutrients – that is another article, but this post should help you make an informed decision when you are ready to apply soil amendments to your new food plot.

This post is also assuming that you took a good representative soil sample and had it analyzed at a university soils lab. Don’t even read this until you have done that step!

Also, after you have determined what amendments you need for the crop you wish to plant. The very first and most important amendment is lime to correct the pH of the soil so that the nutrients can move through the soil to the plant. No fertilizer will have any effect on the plants if the soil is acidic.

Nitrogen Fertilizer and it’s Pros and Cons

Nitrogen fertilizer can be in several forms  or N formulations mixed with Phosphorous (P) and Potassium (K) in several formulations.  Keep in mind that the numbers on a bag of commercial fertilizer represent the pounds of that nutrient per 100 pound of fertilizer.  N, P, and K do not exist in their elemental form but are in a molecule with other elements.  So, a triple 16 bag of fertilizer contains 16% of N, P, and K.  A bag of 24-4-2 contains 24% N, 4% P and 2% K.  So, it is a high nitrogen fertilizer.

Pros and Cons of Nitrogen Fertilizer

• High nitrogen fertilizers are used for quick increased growth of non-legume plants.  When establishing a new food plot, a “starter fertilizer” is recommended in your soil test.  These formulations will often be about 75 lbs of N per acre.  So, in the case of a 24-4-2 fertilizer, you should apply 300lbs to get 72 lbs n, 12lb P, 6lbs K per acre.  You can mix and match to reach the levels of nutrients recommended in your soil test.  Or, better yet, get your fertilizer custom mixed at the supplier.  Growmark is one farm chemical supplier that can do this for you.
• urea, when spread on the ground, will dissolve in water and work its way into the soil or form ammonia gas and drift off into the atmosphere.  It should be incorporated into the soil to prevent loss.  Nitrogen is the most needed element in a plant and is necessary for growth and photosynthesis.  It will be necessary when you are growing a crop that requires a lot of it such as corn or you will not get a good crop.
• N fertilizer is not necessary when planting legumes as they can draw what they need from the atmosphere through the bacteria in the soil.  A starter fertilizer is recommended that has a low N level and high potassium level for legumes.  Too much N applied will cause “lazy” legumes that will not fix N.  Once they draw N from the air, die and are decayed, they cycle N back into the soil for use by other plants.
• Nitrogen fertilizer causes soil acidity over time. When plants take up ammonium (NH4) or Nitrate (NO3) they release an H+ ion in exchange to even the plant pH.  Acidity is the quantity of Hydrogen ions in solution.  Overuse of fertilizer can acidify the soil and prevent other nutrients from getting into the plants.
• Nitrogen fertilizer is a major source of pollution.  Excess N finds its way to waterways where it can cause algae blooms and eutrophication (the excessive growth of aquatic plants reducing oxygen levels and killing animal life).  It also gives off Nitrous oxide which is considered a greenhouse gas

Pros and Cons of Zero Nitrogen Fertilizer

Much of the time when planting wildlife food plots, we lean heavily toward legumes.  In this case we don’t absolutely need any N fertilizer. The pros and cons are as follows:

• Saves money – nitrogen fertilizer is expensive and if you have many tons of it in the atmoshpere above your food plot, why pay for it
• decreases the chance of air and water pollution when used correctly
• provides the correct amount of nutrients to the plants when needed, while the plants create nitrogen from the atmosphere. Clover plots tend to thrive on lots of Potassium and don’t need Nitrogen.
• one con is that without a boost to N to get plants growing before they fix their own, they may be slow to establish and be prone to overgrazing by deer

Organic Fertilizer Pros and Pons

There are many sources of nutrients for soil and plants that are not made in a factory.  Chemical fertilizers are not allowed in Organic gardens or crops.  Organic certification requires no chemical inputs to the crops or, for meat and dairy, the feed must be organically grown.  It can be done.  Some of the fertilizers used in food production are:

• bat guano
• fish emulsion
• bone meal
• blood meal
• worm castings
• mushroom compost

Some of the pros and cons of organic fertilizer are:

• no worry of excessive pollution – sustainable and environmentally friendly
• more micronutrients – seaweed contains most of the micros needed in plant tissue
• Synthetic fertilizers have no carbon (organics) and are not very friendly to soil microbes. On the other hand, organic fertilizer is rich in organic matter, which helps microbes use the nutrients in the soil-plant-microbe nutrient cycle that is natural.
• They are more expensive and much more complicated to obtain and use.  Its much easier to load up some bags of chemical fertilizer and get it spread

Compost Fertilizer and it’s Pros and Cons

I wanted to cover compost in a separate section.  There are many different types of compost.  I am able to get truckloads of leaf and food waste compost from a giant pile managed by my home town.  This is great compost.  I am also able to get compost from the local sewage treatment plant.  This compost is the sludge from the bottom of treatment tanks that is mixed with wood chips or sawdust and sometimes lime.  It is left to cook for several months to kill any bacteria and let it rot down some.  Then it is sold as compost.  Here are some pros and cons:

• Improves the soil – the greatest benefit of manure is that it increases soil carbon. Carbon is extremely important in the biological process of soil. It is necessary for microorganisms to thrive which allows soil nutrients to become more readily available to plants.  When I get soil tested, I like to get an organic matter level.  Most all farmed soils are very low in O.M. and need to built back up to have good moisture holding capacity and microbe activity.  5% O.M. is a good start.  Composted manures will increase this important characteristic tremendously and right away.  Then, use cover crop cocktails to build soil texture and nutrient/moisture capacity.  Once levels are corrected, you won’t need to mess with spreading fertilier.
• It is organic – composted material and manure are organic and when used in soil amendments, it is very good for the soil and for the environment.  Many leaves, which contain the Sun’s energy are buried in land fills as is human waste and food waste.  Waste is a good word for it when we through it into a sealed land fill.  By cycling these nutrients back into soil we do a great service to the Earth.
• High in Nutrients that are easily available to the plants but not so high as to damage plants the way fertilizer salts can. They also will not acidify the soil but help neutralize it by increasing soil microorganism populations which keep the nutrient cycles going which in turn keeps soil from becoming very acidic. They are rich in micronutrients that are essential for plant growth and function.  Micros are usually in short supply, particularly sulfer.  Besides the secondary nutrients calcium, magnesium and sulfer, plants also need boron (B), chlorine (Cl), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), and zinc (Zn)
• Can be smelly and gross and hard to handle – fresh manures should be well-composted to remove any harmful pathogens and reduce the stink of it.  N levels are reduced some but

Liquid Fertilizer Pros and Cons

When planting corn, farmers often “side dress” anhydrous ammonia into the soil next to the corn seeds.  This takes some sophisticated and expensive equipment and it is not placed on top as it will volatilize and leave the site.  In this section we will discuss liquid type fertilizer that can be sprayed onto the soil with any sprayer you have on hand.

The advantages of liquid fertilizer are as follows:

• In liquid form, nutrients are more mobile in the soil water solution.
• Liquids have a more consistent nutrient content as they are mixed into solution while granulars are in 3 different component
• Liquids are easy to apply, handle and store
• Liquids can be blended with other plant protection products
• Liquids can be foliar applied after green-up

The disadvantages are mainly the cost of spray equipment and the high cost of the product.  They also are not slow-release so they can leach from the soil with a lot of rainfall.  So, you will need more frequent applications.

Liquid fertilizer can include calcium for a quick change in pH.  Liquid calcium with micronutrients and miccorhizal fungi and bacteria inoculant can be applied after granular macronutrients are incorporated in.  Hey, you can spend as much time and money on a food plot as you can afford.

When is the best time to apply fertilizer for a food plot?

The best time to apply fertilizer is just prior to planting, whether it be in the fall or the spring.  When you just start a new food plot, you want to get the pH and nutrient levels right before you put any seed down.  Once you spend the money and effort on that initial boost, and get a good stand of perennials going, you should have a productive food plot for many years before you have to add much to it.

Conclusion

What I see guys doing is planting food plots like clover/chicory and applying 300 lbs per acre of some fertilizer they bought at the feed store.  They figure some wont hurt and the more you put on the better.

Without a soil test and knowing what you are putting on the soil, you don’t know if you are doing more harm than good.  Soil testing and adding just the right amount of fertilizer is how you spend just the right amount of money and effort to get healthy plants.

Keep in mind also that the fertilizer recommendation on a soil test is the amount of that nutrient where more of it will not likely yield any response from the plant. It is often not even necessary to fertilize just to get plants to grow, but adding that amount will increase growth and yield.

More than that is not likely to do anything.  So, to add too much or just throw it on willy nilly is just a waste of money and it is polluting the environment.  Also, too much of some nutrients interferes with uptake of others.  So you can see that incorrect fertilization can do more harm than good.

What is the best fertilizer for your food plots? The correct amount for the plants you want to grow, no more no less.  Whether it is granular, liquid or composted manure.