Notill greener

yellow belly · Feb 18, 2019

Wheat on notill is greener than other fields near by
Notill for 6 years
Is there now more n in the soil because in uncultivated land leeches less leaving more for the crop

JD6920s · Feb 18, 2019

Maybe, but usually no till can look more yellow than conventional tillage at this time of year.
No till suffers less from manganese deficiency due to being firmer, so perhaps this is contributing to the colour difference.

Michael S · Feb 18, 2019

I am mostly new to no-till, but my no-till wheat after grass and OSR haven't looked as good as surrounding tilled crops for most of the winter, however in the last 4-6 weeks they suddenly look greener than other crops, although the no-till wheat after grass looks sparser than where grass was ploughed out. I am thinking I might have to do some plant counts to see if it is just the way it looks or actually is sparser.

yellow belly · Feb 19, 2019

JD6920s said:
Maybe, but usually no till can look more yellow than conventional tillage at this time of year.
No till suffers less from manganese deficiency due to being firmer, so perhaps this is contributing to the colour difference.

The question is is the yellowing issue reduced as more years of no till and an increase in organic matter in the top few inches
Or is it this year that the dry summer and dry autumn leaves more residual n in in the undisturb roots and the soil on notill retains n in the soil when drains ran in mid December where as tilled land had more n washed down the drain losing it

My notill is also planted earlier so has it deeper rooted and can use up the n that is deeper in the profile

Or did notill establish quicker as there was no moisture loss in the dry autumn

Whatever the reason it is hard to identify the actual course of greener crops

Usually crops look greener over the fence

britt · Feb 19, 2019

JD6920s said:
Maybe, but usually no till can look more yellow than conventional tillage at this time of year.
No till suffers less from manganese deficiency due to being firmer, so perhaps this is contributing to the colour difference.

Manganese deficiency is usually associated with light land, is yours light, or have you been told that this is a general problem on all soils ? Who by ?

David_A · Feb 20, 2019

yellow belly said:
Wheat on notill is greener than other fields near by
Notill for 6 years
Is there now more n in the soil because in uncultivated land leeches less leaving more for the crop

Frederic Thomas suggests that it is 5 to 7 years before the soil starts to give up the stored nutrients under a no till/ conservation ag system. So you are maybe entering the sweet spot after 6 years.

rob1 · Feb 23, 2019

My DD crops look very well this year but it has been much drier than the last few winters, Lack of Mn symtoms seem to be a thing of the past here too.
Was transfering the data from my diary into my spray records book this week in prep for my FA visit, I was quite schocked when I went back to the ones I did before we went DD how much less im spending on sprays now, last year I only used 1 ltr of Mn and prob didnt need that and no blw in wheat,this years crop so far has had just crystal and 0.2 of dff an cant find a weed in it yet apart from some vol oats,

jonnyjon · Feb 23, 2019

rob1 said:
My DD crops look very well this year but it has been much drier than the last few winters, Lack of Mn symtoms seem to be a thing of the past here too.
Was transfering the data from my diary into my spray records book this week in prep for my FA visit, I was quite schocked when I went back to the ones I did before we went DD how much less im spending on sprays now, last year I only used 1 ltr of Mn and prob didnt need that and no blw in wheat,this years crop so far has had just crystal and 0.2 of dff an cant find a weed in it yet apart from some vol oats,

Keep going, the longer you try to do it the way nature intended it to be done, the better it gets

rob1 · Feb 23, 2019

jonnyjon said:
Keep going, the longer you try to do it the way nature intended it to be done, the better it gets

been doing some from 2011, 1st harvest in 2012 since then its all been dd, steep but interesting learning curve but wouldnt go back to ploughing, last year was our best harvest since 2011 for WW and looks like the potential is there for this year

Notill greener

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