Anyone use Urea?
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Sbe2....where are you in NY?? I'm 30 minutes from Rochester....we have a hops field that is approx 2.25 acres. We use a mix that isn't exactly urea, but isn't too far off...it's got a lot of liquid in it. We mix ours up into leaf and straw matter and let it compost...so I think that you should be okay with using it. I would consider putting it on way early so it can mellow a little bit, but we also put a fertilizer down with a 30+/0/0 content.
Soulshine2
Well-Known Member
I would research this heavily. I have a degree in horticulture but I've not grown hops before/yet. I do have some freshly dug various rhizomes that a HBT member graciously traded to me for some hand rolled cigars. I'm going to plant them when we get settled in the new house.
Nitrogen (Urea) in fertilizer is applied normally for leaf production as in greening of grass.
I grow my own tobacco and one would assume since the leaf is used it would require heavy amounts of N . Not so. Heavy to even moderate amounts of N tend to hinder the leafs combustion...almost makes it fireproof.
As I said ,I would research the hops fertilizer needs before picking a formulation heavier on one of the elements. I'm sure there is some published university study of hops fertility needs.
Here you go-
http://www.ipm.msu.edu/uploads/files/IPMA/fertilizer_and_nutrient_requirements_for_hops.pdf
Nitrogen (Urea) in fertilizer is applied normally for leaf production as in greening of grass.
I grow my own tobacco and one would assume since the leaf is used it would require heavy amounts of N . Not so. Heavy to even moderate amounts of N tend to hinder the leafs combustion...almost makes it fireproof.
As I said ,I would research the hops fertilizer needs before picking a formulation heavier on one of the elements. I'm sure there is some published university study of hops fertility needs.
Here you go-
http://www.ipm.msu.edu/uploads/files/IPMA/fertilizer_and_nutrient_requirements_for_hops.pdf
South of Batavia. I have access to it, granular, and was just wondering if anyone has any experience with it. I would compost initially, then urea,then switch to a 15-15-15 once burr formation has begun. I have nice compost to mix with it.
I want to refine my technique to maybe one day becoming a producer...
* Edited for timing
About urea, from my fertilizer book (loose open translation recap):
Urea is soluble, but transforms itself into ammonium in the soil at speeds varying according to temperatures, from a few hours to a few weeks. Takes a few days to start because it changes forms a few times before getting there. Takes less than 10 days at 15 degrees celcius, less than 2 at 20, while over 6 weeks at or below 5 degrees celcius. If not incorporated in the soil, much of it can be lost to volatilization, and it's advised to apply it before a rain. It can rapidly increase soil pH where applied at first, but will then acidify it.
Urea is soluble, but transforms itself into ammonium in the soil at speeds varying according to temperatures, from a few hours to a few weeks. Takes a few days to start because it changes forms a few times before getting there. Takes less than 10 days at 15 degrees celcius, less than 2 at 20, while over 6 weeks at or below 5 degrees celcius. If not incorporated in the soil, much of it can be lost to volatilization, and it's advised to apply it before a rain. It can rapidly increase soil pH where applied at first, but will then acidify it.
Thanks
I think I will wait until the soil gets above 15c/60f. Maybe mid to late May, when bines are shooting towards the top.
Well the idea isn't for it to become assimilable as quickly as possible, because that's also how you lose to most. Unless you have a low organic matter sandy soil. Clays can hold it for a while, as long as it's incorporated and, ideally, in solution. Lower temperatures means it's easier for plants to gradually take it up as soon as it becomes available, instead of a race against time to take up as much as possible before it goes up as N2. Just got to be careful with salinity too, though, urea can burn roots. Pretty sure I learned more specific recommendations for use in corn (ex: how far to put it away from the seeds, how much to use max, etc.), but unfortunately I don't remember (what can I say, I don't actually grow corn, nor do enough of any crop for it to be worth stopping by the fertilizer plant yet), and those books aren't right by me on my desk.
One possibility, especially for sandy soils, is to apply compost or wood chips after fertilizing with a nitrogen-rich fertilizer. The organic matter will help capture that nitrogen that would escape, and that nitrogen helps degrade the organic matter into more stable forms. If you mix it before applying it, though, then you are just immobilizing a lot of the nitrogen, and you end up no better off than with manure in terms of accessibility of the nitrogen.
One possibility, especially for sandy soils, is to apply compost or wood chips after fertilizing with a nitrogen-rich fertilizer. The organic matter will help capture that nitrogen that would escape, and that nitrogen helps degrade the organic matter into more stable forms. If you mix it before applying it, though, then you are just immobilizing a lot of the nitrogen, and you end up no better off than with manure in terms of accessibility of the nitrogen.
