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I'm interested in Potash
Topic Started: Oct 18 2012, 09:25 PM (374 Views)
Banandangees
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India Cultivates Fertilizer Problem


This past spring, I got back the results of a soil sample of where I plant sweet corn. It showed extremely high in potassium (POTASH). Ten years ago when I first started using a 3 acre field for gardening, it had been an unused weed field depleated of the three essential crop chemicals. Through the years of some chemical fertilizing, legume (bean) rotation, buckwheat and rye plantings to choke out the weeds, the chemical balance came up into a good range. I usually use a 10-10-10 for most veggies except for corn where I use a 20-10-10 mid season application, and potatoes where I use a little more phosphorus. Apparently, the potash doesn't leach out as fast as the nitrogen.

Back in 2005, gardening and a few "investment" articles directed my attention toward fertilizer companies as a possible area for a little investment dabbling. The Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan was one of them. 2005 would have been a good time to invest as it's stock went from $10 up to $75. Now it's $42. This little India caused blip will pass. Fertilizers will still be needed, if not for food, terrorists will still be looking for it.
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ngc1514
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You can grow corn? Amazing! Can't wait to move out into the countryside and learn all this neat stuff. Next you're going to tell me you can grow rib eyes.... Get outta here.
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Banandangees
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I grow the corn, my neighbor down the road raises a few beef cattle. I give him fresh sweet corn in the summer, he gives me a few "rib eyes" in the fall. Bartering! :smile:
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ngc1514
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Amazing! I thought it was all made at Publix. Man, we're gonna start growing stuff when we move to the country. Can't wait for my first home grown rib eye. Do they take long from planting to harvesting?
Edited by ngc1514, Oct 18 2012, 11:25 PM.
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Banandangees
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Speaking of "learning neat stuff"... about corn, I suppose you may have heard that one can actually hear corn growing. My brother--in-law (who is a corn farmer) told me one day years ago that you can actually hear corn growing. Of course I didn't believe such a "dumb" thing.

If you ever worked on a farm years ago where they raised hybrid seed corn for "seeding purposes" for next years crop ... back then you had to detassel certain rows (usually two rows detasseled eight not) for cross breeding. Well, you either snapped the tassel off if was fully out of the leaves or you pulled it out if it wasn't. If you pulled it out you would be well aware of the sound... sort of a "squeaking chirp" sound.

My brother-in-law told me to stand in/near a corn field, especially on a hot, humid July day after a short dry spell, followed by a good thunder shower, and the corn, soaking up the moisture actually causes the "telescoping" sections of the corn to grow and producing that short, squeaking, chirping sound. I've heard it.

Don't believe me? Travel out from Atlanta to a nice "field corn" parcel on a hot, humid day, after a weeks dry spell, when a good thunder storm is expected, plant yourself in the middle of that field and wait. You'll hear it. :33: But, watch out for the lightening.
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Neutral
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I grew up in corn country and I've never heard that.
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retired
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There is no better smell than liquified cow manure being spread on fields. Nice thing on a windy day you can smell it for miles.
Now on our trek to the sunny south we are parked in New Holland Pa. The prices for veggies and flowers are so low it is hard to believe. And the NY strip we had last night was the best ever.
Too bad we don't have a large freezer with us as Florida has lousy meats.
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Banandangees
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Oct 18 2012, 11:34 PM
I grew up in corn country and I've never heard that.

You can't just grow up in "corn country," you have to actually get out in it..... after a good, quick rain (thunderstorm).

Quote:
 
Corn grows surprisingly fast in the heat of the summer. If you go quietly to your corn patch on a calm, humid summer night before it tassels out, you can actually hear the corn growing. I always thought this was an "old wives tale", but I tried it anyway. It actually sounds like a light breeze is blowing through the corn, when there's no breeze. The more corn you have, the better you can hear it.


Yes you can hear it grow, only it doesn't sound like a "light breeze" as the article says. Go to a corn field when the tassels are out. Find one that is about two/thirds out, reach up and pull it straight up and listen to the sound. That's what it sounds like only not as loud as you will no be standing right next to it when it happens after a rain storm. I first heard the sound as a teenager one night while sitting in the middle of a corn field snipe hunting. A short storm came up, rained hard, stopped and in about 10 minutes I began hearing the same familiar muffled squeak, like pulling a tassel out... only you will hear it many times and often. Try it. You don't have to hunt snipes to sit in a corn field, in corn country. Pick a patch. Any patch. There's got to be a good, short thunder storm after a dry spell. :33:
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Mountainrivers
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Banandangees
Oct 19 2012, 02:40 AM
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Oct 18 2012, 11:34 PM
I grew up in corn country and I've never heard that.

You can't just grow up in "corn country," you have to actually get out in it..... after a good, quick rain (thunderstorm).

Quote:
 
Corn grows surprisingly fast in the heat of the summer. If you go quietly to your corn patch on a calm, humid summer night before it tassels out, you can actually hear the corn growing. I always thought this was an "old wives tale", but I tried it anyway. It actually sounds like a light breeze is blowing through the corn, when there's no breeze. The more corn you have, the better you can hear it.


Yes you can hear it grow, only it doesn't sound like a "light breeze" as the article says. Go to a corn field when the tassels are out. Find one that is about two/thirds out, reach up and pull it straight up and listen to the sound. That's what it sounds like only not as loud as you will no be standing right next to it when it happens after a rain storm. I first heard the sound as a teenager one night while sitting in the middle of a corn field snipe hunting. A short storm came up, rained hard, stopped and in about 10 minutes I began hearing the same familiar muffled squeak, like pulling a tassel out... only you will hear it many times and often. Try it. You don't have to hunt snipes to sit in a corn field, in corn country. Pick a patch. Any patch. There's got to be a good, short thunder storm after a dry spell. :33:
Yeah, right! I was taken snipe hunting when I was a kid. You can pull that stuff on people like neut, but not those with a brain. :teeth:
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Sea Dog
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Are all snipe hunters right wingers?
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