Re: any ideas for a crop

Posted by Wilamayb on February 27, 2015 at 19:34:35 from (71.9.167.251):

In Reply to: any ideas for a crop posted by Brian806 on February 27, 2015 at 16:16:00:

The first important thing is to do a soil test to check for the presence of heavy metals. You should make sure there is not some parent material present that prevents growth of vegetation.

Soil that came from 100 ft below is going to need many many years to be excessively productive. It is going to need some help from you. It will need lime. Even if the pH is high (which is unlikely for mine soil) calcium is still a vital nutrient. It will need phosphorus and potassium at the plant root level, not on top. Micro nutrients will be needed as well.

If you are looking from something to help you gain weed control I would suggest a roundup ready soybean. Get your nutrients out and plant your beans on narrow rows at high populations to shade out the middles for water conservation and weed control. If you apply good pre-emergent herbicides in addition to the option to make multiple applications of roundup on the beans you should be able to gain fairly good weed control. It wont happen in one year. It takes more like 3-5 years to gain good weed control and it takes diligence to accomplish it in that amount of time. If you slip up and let the weeds produce seeds you'll be back to square one.

Remember that when you apply nutrients that not all of it will be available to the crop. Much of the applied nutrients will be tied up in the soil. This is especially relevant to soils with low organic matter which is why it is so very important to apply nutrients to the root zone in bands. It will take excess nutrients. Apply what the crop needs plus a little each year.

I recommend the Purdue field guide as a reference to help you understand the nutrient needs of your crop. Sometimes we fail to realize exactly how much we remove with each bushel of crop.

Also be aware that legumes will need the appropriate bacterial treatment (inoculant) to be able to gather it's own nitrogen from the environment. It's cheap and shouldn't be ignored especially on "dead" soil. You might even opt for a fungal treatment for your soil to introduce the microbial activity that should be present in healthy soil.

Good luck! If the weather cooperates you'll be fine so long as the nutrients are available. It costs money to build soil and produce crops.

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