SOILSAGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SERVICE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

FERTILIZERSAMENDMENTS

CONTENTS

1. Personnel Changes.2. California Fertilizer Conference,

January 30.3. New Book on Nitrogen.•+. Hunger Signs in Crops - New

Edition.5. Boron Retention by Soils.6. Gypsite - Another Form of Gypsum.7. Herbicide Injury or Salt Damage?8. Don't Use Staples on Plant Sample

Bags.9. Look at the Backside.

10. Dry Matter or Moisture?11. Sign of the Times.12. Field Research with Dwarf Wheat

in India.

PERSONNEL CHANGES

We are happy to announce that the posi¬tions formerly held by Fireman and Gowansare finally filled.

Robert S. Ayres will become our newsoils and water specialist handlingsalinity and alkali problems startingJanuary 1, 1967. Bob is well known tomost of us and we welcome him back intothe Agricultural Extension family. Bobis a native of Arizona with a B.S. fromthe University of Arizona in 1937 and aM.S. in clay soils from Berkeley in 19M-7.Bob worked as a chemist with a commercial

laboratory before joining AgriculturalExtension as a soil and water farm ad¬visor in Imperial Valley in 19U9. In195U, he became county director in

December 1966 - No. 28

Imperial County, From 1956 to the pres¬ent, he has been soils specialist for theDiGiorgio Corporation in its Californiaand Florida operations.

We are glad to welcome William E. Wild-man as our new soils specialist handlingsoil classification and soil management,starting January 1, 1967. Bill is anative of Indiana and received his B.S.from Earlham College in 19'+8. Billworked as a chemist for one year and thenfarmed for nine years before coming toCalifornia. He worked three years as achemist for a commercial laboratory be¬fore coming to the University in 1961 towork as a technician and get an advanceddegree. Bill has worked with Lynn D.Whittig, and his doctorate thesis sub¬ject is "Weathering of serpentine rockand soil formation in certain Coast Rangeand Sierra Nevada areas."

BAK

CALIFORNIA FERTILIZER CONFERENCE, HACIEN-DA HOTEL, FRESNO, JANUARY 30, 1967.

This is the 15th Annual California Ferti¬lizer Conference sponsored by the Cali¬fornia Fertilizer Association. CFA isone of the few organizations that sep¬arates its social and technical meetings.The annual social and management meetingis held in the fall at a large hotel inthe San Francisco or Los Angeles area.Fifteen years ago they set up a separatetechnical meeting. We think this isgood, and University personnel alwayscooperate to help make this technicalmeeting a good one. This year's programincludes presentations on the following

Branson - Krantz - Martin - Quick - Rible

Compiled by B. A. Krantz, Extension Soils SpecialistCO-OPERATIVE EXTENSION WORK IN AGRICULTURE AND HOME ECONOMICS, U.S. Department of Agriculture end University of California co-operating

general topics: Maximum yield researchprogram; crop quality improvement throughfertilization; what's new in fertilizers;and also papers on tomato and rice re¬search, We encourage the attendance offarm advisors in nearby counties. Pleaseput this date on your calendar.

BAK

NEW BOOK ON NITROGEN

A new book entitled Agricultural Anhy¬drous Ammonia - Technology and Use hasbeen published jointly by the Agricul¬tural Ammonia Institute, the AmericanSociety of Agronomy, and the Soil ScienceSociety of America, in 1966. This bookwas taken from a symposium in which eachof the17 chapters were covered by 26leaders in their respective fields. Thebook covers the production, use, andagronomic significance of anhydrousammonia and other nitrogen fertilizers.

Dr. F. E. Broadbent, professor of SoilMicrobiology at the University of Cali¬fornia, Davis, was a co-author on two ofthe chapters. In our recent fertilizertechnology training conference, we re¬ferred to Dr. Broadbent's work, as wellas other phases of this book. We thinkit is one that many of you would like tohave for your county library. The bookmay be ordered from the American Societyof Agronomy, 677 South Sego Road,Madison, Wisconsin 53711. Write thecompany or me for price.

BAK

HUNGER SIGNS IN CROPS - NEW EDITION

The third edition of this book came outin late 196M-. This edition is a com¬

plete revision in text with IIU- new colorprints and 68 new black and white illus¬trations. If the third edition is notin your county office library, your of¬fice should consider getting it. Itmay be ordered from the David McKayCompany, 750 Third Avenue, New York,New York. Write the company or mefor price.

BAK

BORON RETENTION BY SOILS

That soils are able to fix boron, makingthe leaching of high-boron soils diffi¬cult, has been recognized for some time.

Until very recently, however, the mannerby which soils accomplish this fixationhas not been understood. It was believedby some that boron was held mainly on thesurfaces of clay particles, but this hasbeen disproved.

It is now known, as a result of thesisresearch by J. Sims at UCR, that the soilcomponents primarily responsible forboron fixation are the hydroxides of ironand aluminum, with the latter being themore reactive. Maximum boron retentionoccurs at about pH 8.5. Unfortunately,soils that are affected with excess boronoften have pH levels that favor highboron retention.

This suggests that either acidificationor alkalinization above pH 8.5 would aidin boron removal from such soils. Acidi¬fication may not be feasible becauseboron-excess soils frequently containlime, which strongly buffers them againstacidification. In such cases it may befeasible to increase the soil pH tempor¬arily (with ammonia, for example) immed¬iately prior to leaching, and therebyspeed reclamation of the surface layer ofsoil and make earlier crop establishmentpossible.

RLB

GYPSITE - ANOTHER FORM OF GYPSUM

Gypsiom occurs as a mineral in two forms,gypsite and gypsum. Both are found andmarketed in California and both are hy-drated calcium sulfate (CaSOi^ * 2H2O).Gypsite is the form which occurs naturallyas a powder or as small grains dissemi¬nated through an earthy mass. Gypsum isthe crystalline or rock form.

While both of these materials are calciumsulfate, the crystalline form is moreoften found in a higher state of purity.However, if they are both ground to thesame fineness for application to soils,they should be equally satisfactory as asoil corrective on the basis of equalamounts of calcium sulfate.

RLB

HERBICIDE INJURY OR SALT DAMAGE?

During this year's Plant Diagnosis

training conference for farm advisors,some interesting similarities betweensymptoms of herbicide and salt injury-were noted in the slides presented.Two herbicides, dalapon and simizine,can cause tree-leaf injury that looksremarkably like that due to chloride,sodium or boron. Some tips that willhelp you to distinguish by observationbetween the two types of damage aregiven below:

Dalapon

Similarity to salt damage:Burned tips and margins of leaveslike that due to excess chlorideor sodium.

Difference:

Dalapon affects young and olderleaves about equally. Chlorideor sodium damage occurs on olderleaves first,

Simizine

Similarity to salt damage:Interveinal chlorosis, like thatdue to excess boron.

Difference:Interveinal chlorosis caused bysimizine is preceded by a verynarrow band of chlorosis extend¬

ing all around the margin of theleaf. Also, both young and old¬er leave are affected, whereasboron injury starts on olderleaves.

RLB

DON'T. USE STAPLES ON PLANT SAMPLE BAGS

Staples do a good job of closing samplebags, but they do an even better job ofruining the cutting edges of blades inplant tissue grinders. Please do notstaple sample bags closed, because sta¬ples often drop into the sample whenthe bag is pulled open. Use bags bigenough so that the top can be foldedover several times or else tie or tapethe bags closed.

JQ

LOOK AT THE BACKSIDE

We've always felt that our laboratoryreport forms put up a pretty good frontjbut even "Playboy," with its emphasis ona form's outstanding points, doesn't over¬look the backside. Our forms can hold uptheir end there, too. However, we've hadjust enough questions that could be an¬swered by turning the report over, thatwe're beginning to wonder how many of youknow there's a wealth of information on

the backside. Heed the wisdom of the oldfolk song and roll 'em over — you mayfind yourself in clover.

JMR

DRY MATTER OR MOISTURE?

Laboratory analysis of forage and feedsamples often requires that the samplesbe weighed as received, then oven driedand reweighed so that actual yields orfeed weights can be computed. The termused in the Extension Laboratories forthis process in "Dry Matter, (DM)," Ifyou want this determination made on yourforage and feed samples, be sure to askfor "Dry Matter" not moisture on yourWork Requests.

JQ

SIGN OF THE TIMES.

Recently, Tom Aldrich, Colusa County,called for Dr. Jim Vomocil and left the

following message, "Tell him not to for¬get the demonstration tomorrow," Therewas much concern and speculation amongthe office force as to which long-hairedgroup Dr. Vomocil was associated withi

P.S. The Slip Plow "demonstration" inColusa County was a success, and Jim re¬membered to be present,

BAK

FIELD RESEARCH WITH DWARF WHEATS IN INDIA

Editor's note: At the suggestion of Mil¬ton D. Miller, we are including a sectionfrom Bert Krantz's Sabbatical Reportwhile working for one year in India withthe Rockefeller Foundation. In India,wheat is grown in the winter time when

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iitt-le or no rain occurs. Even thoughthe climate and growing conditions aredifferent, we in California are inter¬ested in some of the same wheats whichwere developed by the Rockefeller Foun¬dation and Mexican agronomists in Mexi¬co. We hope some of the principles welearned in India might be helpful tofarm advisors interested in wheat.

One of my applied research activitieswas developing and initiating a coordin¬ated agronomic program with wheat. Thisprogram was designed to develop agron¬omic information on the recently intro¬duced dwarf wheats involving depth andmethod of seeding, frequency of irriga¬tion, and rate of fertilization.

These coordinated trials were conductedby agronomists at the India AgriculturalResearch Institute, State Departments ofAgriculture and State Agricultural Uni¬versities in the major wheat growingareas. Fortunately, the Swastik Com¬pany at Secunderabad had recently start¬ed to manufacture a small 3-row seed-cum-fertilizer drill" and we were ableto buy one of the ten experimental mo¬dels in time for use in our experiments.This drill enabled us to attain depthcontrol and to evaluate different meth¬ods of sowing. It also provided themeans of attaining accurate fertilizerplacement.

In order to achieve the desired pre¬cision in the installation of these ex¬

periments, we transported this drill, asmall tractor, and other necessarysupplies and tools to each of six sta¬tions and installed experiments in co¬operation with the local agronomists.In addition to the depth and method ofsowing studies, a fertilizer, irriga¬tion, variety trial was planted at fivelocations. Irrigation and fertilizerplacement trials were installed at twolocations. A few of our most signifi¬cant observations are listed below.

Irrigation studies

The date of first irrigation appears tohave important influence on the develop¬ment of primary tillers. This is espe¬cially true of Sonora 6M- which as ashort tillering period and does not have

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the "vegetative lag" which is character¬istic of most tall growing varieties,(Several other new varieties includingPV-18, S-227, S-307, and S-308 havetillering habits similar to Sonora 6M-),A delay in the time of first irrigationresulted in reduced number of primarytillers and reduced yield. At I,A.R.I,the yield of Sonora 6M- in plots wherefirst irrigation had been applied at 32,M-3, 6H-, and 79 days after planting was5200, 4200, 3700, and 2800 Kilograms/hectare respectively. From observationsin other trials, we now think that anirrigation earlier than 32 days wouldhave stimulated better crown root de¬

velopment, more primary tillering, andpossibly greater yields.

My recommendations to the RockefellerFoundation contained outlines for twoadditional future experiments: (1) tostudy the effect of time of first irri¬gation on tillering, seedling growth,and yield and (2) to determine thephysiological stages of growth at whichirrigation is most critical.

Depth and method of sowing dwarf wheats

An experiment involving three depths ofdrilling (1, 2, and 3 inches) was con¬ducted at six locations using Sonora 64and Lerma Rojo. Sowing at the depth of3 inches resulted in delayed emergenceand reduced stand as compared to sowingat 2 or 1 inch. This difference dimin¬ished as the season progressed but wasstill observed at heading time and atmaturity. Usually, the magnitude of thereduced stand was greater where the soilwas packed either by a hand "roller orpack wheels.

Nitrogen responses of tall and dwarfvarieties

In irrigated areas, wheat often followscorn or sorghum crop which depletes mostof the available soil nitrogen. Thisoffers an excellent opportunity to studydifferential nitrogen responses of talland dwarf wheats. Three of the five lo¬cations of the nitrogen trials wereplanted following corn or sorghum. Thedata in Fig, 1 from the experiments atU.P.A.U, serve as a good example. Theyield of Sonora 64 was increased from

1560 Kgs/ha, with no nitrogen to 6M-70Kgs/ha. with 160 Kgs/ha. of nitrogen.Thus, 30.7 Kgs. of wheat were producedfor each Kg, of nitrogen applied overthe whole 160 Kgs. range. This is anexcellent efficiency of nitrogen utili¬zation and is very profitable at today'sprice in India where an increase of only3 Kgs, of wheat is needed to pay for oneKg. of nitrogen.

The shape of the response curve for thetwo dwarf wheats was similar althoughthe top yield of Lerma Rojo, a semidwarf, was slightly lower than that ofSonora 6"+.

The tall growing 0-306 gave no yieldresponse beyond the 40 Kgs/ha. rate ofnitrogen and the shape of its yield re¬sponse was distinctly different fromthat of the dwarf wheats.

General observations

As I made almost daily observations ofwheat plant growing in various parts of

Northern India, I was greatly impressedwith the potentialities of wheat produc¬tion in this area. It appears to me thatthe climate is almost ideal for wheat

production and when properly fertilized,irrigated and managed, the v/heat plantsappear to flourish luxuriantly.

Observations from other parts of theworld indicate that a new hybrid or dras¬tically different variety, such as dwarfwheat, is an excellent vehicle for dis¬seminating and promoting improved manage¬ment practices such as fertilization,irrigation, plant protection, and soilmanagement. With these thoughts in mind,v/e developed a brief one sheet set ofrecommendations entitled "Five Steps toIncreased Wheat Yields," The captionsfor the five steps are:

1. Plant an adapted dwarf variety,2. Fertilize adequately.3. Irrigate adequately.4. Protect your crop.5. Manage properly.

BAK

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75 " U.P.A,U., WHEAT, 1965-66 R

HO 80 120 160 200

NITROGEN, Kgs./Ha.

Figure 1. Differential nitrogen response curves for dwarf wheats vs a tallgrowing variety (0306) at Uttar Pradesh Agricultural University,Pantnagar in 1965-66. Conversions:1 quintal = 100 Kgs or 220 lbs.;1 q/hectare = 89 lbs/A.;67 q/ha =: about 6000 lbs/A or 100 Bushel/A.;200 Kilograms N. per hectare = 178 lbs N. per acre.