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Fertilizer placement for potatoes: A comparison of level-band and hi-lo methods

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Summary

In recent years much interest has been taken in the placement of fertilizers for the potato crop. The results of several years’ field work, 1931–35, showed that of the 6 or 7 methods of placement compared, the most profitable method was the one which placed the fertilizer in a band on each side of the seed piece, two inches therefrom and on a level with or slightly below the lower plane of the seed piece. Accordingly this particular method was officially recommended by the National Joint Committee on Fertilizer Application and it is the one that has been generally adopted by potato growers and machinery manufacturers alike. Since the general adoption of this method, other methods have been suggested for the potato crop. One of them, the so-called Hi-Lo method, is reputed to have an advantage from placing one of the fertilizer bands two to three inches below the seed piece level into presumably more moist soil in order to better maintain its nutrient availability to the potato plants should dry weather prevail. Another suggested change involved placing more of the fertilizer in the lower band than in the upper one, such as the 25–75 per cent fertilizer distribution considered in the, present tests.

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Literature Cited

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, New Brunswick, N. J.

    J. C. Campbell

  2. Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Research Administration, United States Department of Agriculture, Orono, Me.

    Arthur Hawkins

  3. Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Research Administration, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Md.

    B. E. Brown

  4. Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, Orono, Me.

    J. A. Chucka (Head, Department of Crops and Soils)

Authors
  1. J. C. Campbell
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  2. Arthur Hawkins
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  3. B. E. Brown
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  4. J. A. Chucka
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Additional information

In collaboration with the late Fred H. Bateman, of the A. B. Farquhar Manufacturing Company, York, Pa., an enthusiastic supporter of fertilizer placement work in general, and especially interested in fertilizer placement studies with potatoes.

Research Associate in Agriculture.

Respectively: Assistant soil scientist and senior biochemist.

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Campbell, J.C., Hawkins, A., Brown, B.E. et al. Fertilizer placement for potatoes: A comparison of level-band and hi-lo methods. American Potato Journal 22, 297–311 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02862602

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