# Anhydrous ammoia on orchardgrass?



## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Has anybody ever tried anhydrous ammonia on an established orchard grass field? Spring or fall application?

I was thinking that maybe next fall I'd apply it late in the fall.

Ralph


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

rjmoses said:


> Has anybody ever tried anhydrous ammonia on an established orchard grass field? Spring or fall application?
> 
> I was thinking that maybe next fall I'd apply it late in the fall.
> 
> Ralph


How were you going to apply it?

Regards, Mike

Anhydrous Ammonia Top Nitrogen Source | AGWEB.com


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## steve IN (Jan 13, 2010)

How would you get it in the ground without tearing up your field?


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

I was thinking of knifing it in on 30" centers, same as putting on corn, etc. My concern is 1) burning the OG and 2) tearing up the soil.

Just a wild hair idea to maybe develop a better root system and get a better application than urea.

Ralph


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## OhioHay (Jun 4, 2008)

I've had this same thought. Local coop has the John Deere applicator that uses big discs instead of knives. Figured this wouldn't tear up the sod or pull up rocks. I am concerned that the root system of the grass wouldn't let the slot seal real well. I also had the concern of burning the orchard. Wanted to try some this spring, but we have been way to wet and now with the warmth, the grass is getting too tall too fast. I would also love to hear of anybody doing this.


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## OkhayBallr (Dec 18, 2009)

I put nh3 on Bermuda fields with a wako grass applicator. It doesn't tear up ground. Way cheaper by the lb of actual Grass Applicator - YouTube


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

So, I did a test strip 2 weeks ago down the middle of one my OG fields. Put it down at 200 lbs/ac of AA. I figure this should give me about 160 lbs actual.

Checked it yesterday. The ground has settled back pretty good, although there are some clumps. I figure these should not be much of a problem. There was just a little dislodging, or tearing up, of the crowns, but not as bad as I might have expected.

The area where it was knifed in was noticeably greener and showed darker green than the areas adjacent to the strip. But not as much as I would have expected.

Several preliminary thoughts: First, I don't think the ground sealed well enough to prevent the ammonia from escaping. Many of the knife tracks seemed to be somewhat still open. Second, the nitrogen might be too deep for the OG roots to get to it, and perhaps it needs a little more time to migrate through the soil. Third, we have been shy of rain lately which might be affecting both the movement of the nitrogen as well as the OG growth.

On the bad news side, my OG has started heading out which means I am looking at the weather window. Somehow, putting up hay before I do my income taxes just doesn't seem right!

Ralph


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

We used it for most of the 80s and half of the 90s on our grass hay then it kind of stopped being very effective. It worked fairly well. We put it in the water that we used to irrigate with as the water was going onto the fields. However the coops around do not supply it anymore to farmers around here like they used to as the last time they offered it a few years ago every tank that they sent out got messed with by Methheads trying to steal the stuff to make meth.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Urea price really jumped here last week.180 lbs actual N is $41 acre less using Anhydrous then Urea.That includes bar rental.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Update on anhydrous application:

Mowed the field with the test strip in it yesterday. The whole field had been fertilized with 80 lbs of nitrogen from urea. The urea was treated with Agrotain and rained within 3 days after application.

The test strip of anhyrdous was knifed in with a standard field applicator on 30" centers (we were doing corn when the wild hair idea struck) at 200lbs/acre. The ground was soft and had a fair amount of moisture.

The test strip was fantastically better! Color was much, much darker. Leaf production was at least 4 times better--more mass! Roots and crowns were healthier, bigger and thicker! No dead leaves, fungus problems. Didn't see any weeds at all--probably shaded out.

And here's the kicker--the ground was noticeably smoother and softer. No clumps.

I know some of the yield results came from the extra nitrogen. But what surprises me is that the nitrogen "traveled" to fill in the centers of the 30" rows. I'm not sure what is going on, because I was concerned that I might have a really heavy streak over the knife track, but the in-betweens wouldn't benefit.

Now I'm wishing I had done the whole field! Then I'd have a problem of getting it dried - but I'll take it.

Now I want to see how it recovers after mowing.

Ralph


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

rjmoses said:


> Update on anhydrous application:
> 
> Mowed the field with the test strip in it yesterday. The whole field had been fertilized with 80 lbs of nitrogen from urea. The urea was treated with Agrotain and rained within 3 days after application.
> 
> ...


That is interesting.What was difference in tons per acre?

I did 80 lbs of N with anhydrous on some mixed grass this spring.One area is timothy/bluegrass and another orchard/bluegrass.I won't cut that for a month yet.

T hought 80 was a lot but will have 160 on overlaps so am interested seeing the result.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

swmnhay said:


> That is interesting.What was difference in tons per acre?
> 
> I did 80 lbs of N with anhydrous on some mixed grass this spring.One area is timothy/bluegrass and another orchard/bluegrass.I won't cut that for a month yet.
> 
> T hought 80 was a lot but will have 160 on overlaps so am interested seeing the result.


I won't be able to tell tons/acre difference, other than eyeballing it, because I only did a strip 33' wide by about 400' long. But my eyeballs are guessing 3-4 times as much.

Ralph


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Here's a couple of photos:
View attachment 1979
View attachment 1980
View attachment 1979


The pictures don't really show as much difference as I see. Poor lighting, poor camera, poor photographer--pick one.

Ralph


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