Why Stick With It? News About Water.
 Dr. Noori, OSU, Imbibed Seed, SRS, Abscisic Acid, Wheat,
 Winter Canola. OSU, WSU, U of I, KSU, Dr. Noori.

Ninety Per Cent of the Erosion of the Great Plains Comes From a Winter Wheat Rotation.  

We are raising the wrong crop.
GJS.

Starting a winter wheat crop in the PNW Chemfallow rotation.  

A good chance for emergence in a No-till soil. A soil with a high CEC with excellent depth for storage of winter moisture.

Continuous Tillage through  the last 130 years provides most of the erosion on the Great Plains.  

The soil stores about 10% to 20% of the original carbon and cannot start a fall crop timely as it did in the early pioneering years.

Seed Winter Wheat deep, the more it is tilled the more difficult it becomes at Hugoton, KS.  

Getting a stand of winter wheat is difficult.  No wonder dryland corn is the backup plan and it is a better choice.

Winter Canola requires SRS for a 99% stand in 4 days.

Time for a better crop. Raising a better crop that is good for the soil and the pocket book.  

News about Water....all and before the Internet, ring your bell.
GJS 

https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/3t945t78z?locale=it 

Iranian Student at Oregon State. F. Noori. A PhD in Water Injection, Winter Wheat In Tillage.  

On the plains of Oregon and in the Willamette Valley, the fall start of winter wheat can be difficult requiring special, HZ split Packer drills in heavy tillage, black fallow 2, year rotation wheat on wheat.   

The shallow soil areas of North Central Oregon cannot take much more tillage, since they had virtually no soil to begin with. Travel down highway 97 to Bend Oregon from the Columbia River, Somehow the Ash went right over the top of the Basalt Plain.   

So the intention was to use water to start the germination of winter wheat in black fallow systems...with a soil stored capillary moisture line that could not be maintained well in the germination zone in volcanic ash soils of the Cascade range.

In the Commercial Fertilizer Era, the Beginning of No-tillage in the PNW, 1973-75, the second very beginning.
Stationary Threshers, Horses and hoe drills,1928 was the true beginning.  

At Yielder/Pioneer, Mort and I had a long discussion with Lyle Nagle of WSU Agronomy Department.  We were trying to clean up a shallow soil farm at Palouse, loaded with cheat grass from 5 No-till years of top dressing Ammonium Nitrate in continuous winter wheat 1975 to 80.  

The top dressing drill was Old Yeller. This was a top dressing design and the Comfort King Drill was the copy of Old Yeller.  Since it was shallow to rock at Palouse certain fields were best in Perennial or winter crops.  

The farm was referred to as Granny's Pad. It was intended as a pig farm during the Great Depression. It was not meant to be farmed since it was way too shallow of soil type up against the timber of Palouse River Canyon, and did not have enough soil to 3 feet to store moisture in fallow.   

The Palouse farm (Granny's Pad) did not allow tillage since there were too many rocks and no place to store the 21 inches of rainfall. Similar scenarios are found South of the Snake River Canyon across Idaho, Washington and Oregon. 

Thus Winter Canola is a fit in the Blue Mountains of Oregon and was well proven by Lewis Key at Milton Freewater, Oregon.  

....We had a copy of this Nori paper when we went to water injection for Dwarf Essex, Winter Rape in 1983 to 1985.  

We fired up a friendship with the seed supplier of Dwarf Essex at Julietta, Idaho, George F Brocke and Sons, Dean Brocke became our coach on Dwarf Essex. 

The water injection program appeared to be way far out in left field for winter wheat, but for a July Seeding of Dwarf Essex it might work. 

Lyle Nagel at WSU had seen the paper.  

I directly remember the advance information coming from Oregon State.  I will source the paper from the OSU library.  

At WSU Lyle Nagel was a key scientist in the adaption to no-tillage farming in the 70's and 80's.  

He and Mort were best friends, Lyle had won the Silver Star in the Battle of Bulge so he was "big medicine". 

He was also a good skier, a former farmer and WSU weed scientist, (early developer of Stauffer Sulfasate and Glyphosate, sold to  Monsanto for peanuts)  and a director on the Palouse School Board, so Lyle had a big effect on the Swanson Family.  

Thus Lyle got us started down a good path. Note: 50 ml per meter of row water is the same as 2.21 gallons per minute per row of water at 6 mph.  

The water must be delivered into the row with no splash at .5 to 1 psi pressure of release. 

Two critical points that should not be missed...150 gallons per acre water is required on 10 inch and delivery at 1 psi in the row, keep this in mind when you start thinking an ordinary starter fertilizer system will work, starter fertilizer systems will not work. Since the pumps at 60 feet on twin row planter need to be 92 gallon per minute, most starter fertilizer systems do about 8 to 12 gallons per minute.  

Dr. F. Noori went as high as 70 ml per meter.  He is Iranian as near as I can tell, and maybe he went back to Iran to teach the Iranian scientists how to raise wheat and use water to imbibe the seed. Cannot figure this one out.  It would be interesting if Dr. Larry Stolskoph's discoveries from Iran are a fall out of the Oregon State, PhD thesis.  

Note that 50 ml of flow is the same as .013 gallons.

The tool to Inject Water.

http://www.exactrix.com/Broadcast_10_13_2017.htm  

At Exactrix, GJS and Joel McClure, we think about 1.5 gallon per minute per row to 2 gallon per minute per row is about it at Hugoton at 6 mph.  It depends on the soil, the temperature and residue.   The rate also depends if producers desire to get the full SRS effect which includes the dilution of Abscisic Acid. Budget 50 gallons per acre on 30 inch, up to 65 gallons per acre on 30 inch at worst conditions.   

In 1983, 84 and 85, our Yielder Drill 10 inch spacing, No-tillage seedings were all completed with a 20 inch deep band in paired row 5/15...at 150 gallons per acre. The seed germination requires a big cart or tank. The program requires is a lot of water and well worth it, a wonder crop with a good stand of a winter perennial in July over the eroded Palouse clay hilltops.  Most of the erosion coming from the plow. Man-made destruction of good land.  

Why did we stick with it? The water cost was totally insignificant as yields were 5,000 to 5,500 lbs., per acre range of Dwarf Essex Winter Rape. The crop was a cleanup powerhouse and established in July on a shallow soil depth.

So once again...the scientist was on the mark in a tillage system struggling to work, Dr. Noori needed a good practitioner to go make water injection work in totally different system and a different crop.  I am certain that no credit was given for the dilution of the hormone Abscisic Acid as SRS does with a small amount of Zinc Sulfate ( 3 to 4 ppm) enhancing the breakdown of the hormone.  

Water Injection or SRS (Hormone dilution effect) worked and it worked every time...and water injection was not required for No-tillage Winter Wheat with the Yielder design, but required for Winter Canola since the Chemfallow would lose the moisture line in July seedings.  

The Winter Rape Dwarf Essex must have an emerged stand in 4 days and 99% germinated and coming out the ground hell roaring in faith, that was the amazing discovery across the land. As soon as the seed went in the ground it was on a march to maturity no matter where it was located in the landscape, up and over the top. The plant must germinate in 4 to 8 hours and  SRS will dilute the Abscisic Acid which delays the germination. This is now called SRS or Seed Row Saturation.  

Certain soil types just required the extra water to get a stand of winter rape and  Winter Canola, the hilltops and areas where weed pockets of wild oats had harvested the moisture could not imbibe the seed. But there was more to the story….the hormone that was delaying germination could be diluted.  

It became obvious water injection(SRS) was going to work at the end of harvest the first year, we were geared up to clean out the grassy weeds with Dwarf Essex since we had a cheat grass control soil active chemical PPG 135, a dry flowable designed to take out grasses for about $2.00 per acre.  

PPG 135 was a powerful chemical.

Sprayed in late October and early November with soil temperatures hit 50 degrees F, a temperature sensitive soil active and a power play to take out he grass of all types. A spin off from pea production in the PNW. It allowed a spring crop to be planted if the Dwarf Essex froze out.    

The PPG, Pittsburg Plate and Glass material was economical and killed cheat grass, in fact all grasses as a temperature sensitive soil active selective herbicide.  Great Crops followed the Winter Canola/Winter Rape and we were on a roll with Dwarf Essex. PPG-135 was a combination of IPC and Sevin. The Sevin was a soil insecticide that delayed the bacteria from degrading the IPC at 50 degrees and less. 

The Sevin in the IPC, PPG-135 mix may have also helped with fall insects, that we today commonly see in Winter Canola. The PPG 135 was sprayed over the top of the growing plant.  

So the answers are there.  Just a little coaching  and SRS is going to be a real success story across the Great Plains and Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Utah as winter wheat fades away for now.  

Yielder Drills were the baseline machines that allowed No-tillage farming to develop in the western US, Canada and Spain. 

We have been raising the wrong crop.

Operating Instructions for SRS.
Dr. Noori. Iran. Water Injection, Controlled in Growth Chambers.

As a reference, 50 ml per meter of row is .013 gallons per meter or 3.28 feet of row.

• At 6 mph this is 2.126 gallons per minute per row or 161 meters of travel or  528 feet of travel.
• 1 acre per minute is 8.25 mph with a 60 foot planter with 24 rows on 30 inch centers.
• At 8.25 mph (1 acre per minute) this is 2.91 gallon per minute per row and this is 221.34 meters of travel or 726 feet of travel.
• This 6 mph at 50 ml per meter application is 50.4 gallons per minute at 60 feet width, 24/30 openers or .7272 acres per minute.

The nominal rate.
Testing showed about 50 ml per meter of row length or about 2.1 gallons per minute per row at 6 mph was a good goal.
At 50 ml per meter application is 69.3 gallons per acre.  at 6 mph at 60 feet at .7272 acres per minute at 2.1 gallons per minute of 30 inch row.

The high rate.
The parameter was set to 70 ml or about 2.94 gallons per minute per row at 6 mph  or .7272 acres per minute.
This 70 ml per meter application is 97 gallons per acre. 

Dwarf Essex water Injection 1983, 84, 85, Not SRS.
The Proven Rate in Palouse Soils in 3 years of testing over about 1,500 acres indicated that 150 gallons per acre was correct with 10 inch rows.   

The place to start with dual purpose SRS, H2O and 3 ppm Zinc Sulfate.
10 inch 150 gallons per acre,
15 inch 100 gallons per acre,
20 inch 75 gallons per acre,
30 inch 50 gallons per acre,
40 inch 37.5 gallons per acre.

• Since the application is No-till with capillary movement 50 gallons per acre has been selected for 30 inch row spacing.
• This is a row flow of 1.53 gallons per minute at 6 mph or 528 feet. This  is 36 ml per meter of row.

This is not a simple decision. What is the real cost of the Water? Will the Return be 10 to 30 times greater than the investment?
What is the minimum return anticipated? About $150 more net income with Winter Canola.  

• High Quality Winter Wheat Seed (Faro and Stephens) is not the same or even close to high quality, planter grade, Rubisco Hybrid, singulated Winter Canola Seed.
• The Cost of Water. Estimated at $5.00 per acre. The Cost to operate a planter at 90% of nominal acres per day.
• How to raise the efficiency of the planter to 98% level of efficiency as compared to no starter fertilizer system on the planter?
• Can the planter reach 98% level of efficiency with the correct equipment and personnel?
• It is estimated that the trailer of 2,800 gallons of water and up to 1,000 gallons on the tractor will require 50 horsepower or about .2 gallons per acre additional diesel fuel.

Factors that affect the correct in row water rate are:

1. Daytime temperature/night time or humidity or evaporation rate at altitude.
2. Windy weather.
3. Soil water holding capacity.
4. Soil type and CEC.
5. Residue protection,
6. Tillage System.
7. Areas of escaped weeds. Poor weed control.
8. The point of injection, No splashing, quick sealing.
9. The design of the planter opener, shank tillage verse offset leading double disc precision planter openers.
10. In Row Seed Spacing. .625 spacing verse 6.2 inch spacing. 10X.
11. Seed size, planter grade vs bin run.
12. Seed condition, coating and specie.
13. Hard Seed Coats?
14. High Abscisic Acid levels of certain seeds?
15. Support of the planter and the quality of the injection determines the water rate.
16. New developments in dilution and or flushing of Abscisic Acid.
17. New chemicals or hormones to stimulate the germination of winter Canola and other seeds.

Aspects of improved performance.

1. Always Check the seed with a 50% humidity test between towels.
2. Make certain the water delivery tubes are fine-tuned, will not splash and make a delivery at 1 psi on steep slopes on the Palouse.
3. Always No-till.
4. Raise water flow on truck roads and compacted soil areas.
5. Low residue means higher water.
6. Poor weed control means higher water.
7. Sandy soils mean more water.
8. Raise the water rate on low OM, high clay soils or hilltops.
9. Study hormones and Abscisic acid for improved germination.
10. Make certain you educate others correctly.
11. There will be failures by others that do not apply the criteria. Find out why they failed.
12. No attempt should be made if the stored soil moisture line does not exist or is too deep for a capillary intersection.

Here is what Dr. Noori has to say. Oregon State University, Doctors Thesis from 1979 to 1982.  

Stand establishment plays a significant role in the development and yield of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

[1 Availability of soil moisture to the germinating seed is one of the most critical factors affecting stand establishment.

[2 Water injection is a method of applying supplemental moisture to the soil in direct contact with the seed by injecting small amounts of water into seed-zone at planting.

[ 3The purpose of this study was to evaluate water injection as a means of enhancing stand establishment by improving soil moisture conditions surrounding the germinating seed.

[4 Several water injection and combinations of water with liquid starter fertilizer treatments were compared with a check which received no water, under different soil water potential treatments in growth chambers and in field studies.

[5 Two soft white winter wheat cultivars, Faro and Stephens, were compared. In preliminary experiments water was added to the seed-zone of dry soil (-11 bars) at rates of 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 ml/m row in one experiment 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 ml/m row in another (soil at -15 bars).

[6 These treatments increased seed-zone moisture content immediately after adding water and the moisture remained higher for 9 days.

[7 Thus, it appeared that water injection should be effective in hastening imbibition by seeds.

[8 Subsequently, 40, 50 and 60 ml/m row water only and combination of each water rate with 5 ml/m row of a liquid fertilizer mixture, 10-34-0, improved stand establishment over the check under -11 and -15 bars soil moisture potentials.

[9 Higher concentrations of liquid fertilizer depressed germination and emergence rate.

[10 These studies were done in growth chambers.

[11 Water alone at rate of 50 ml/m and the combination of 50 ml/m water plus 5 ml/m 10-34-0 treatments, resulted in greater stand establishment, plant growth and yield compared to the check under -11 bars tension in 1979-80 field study.  

[ 12 Cultivars did not differ in stand establishment and plant growth due to water or water plus fertilizer injection.

[13 Both 20 and 40 ml water only treatments improved stand establishment over the check, but the 40 ml water/m row rate resulted in the greatest emergence and gave the highest emergence rate index under -11 and -9 bars tension in 1980 growth chamber study and 1980-81 field study, respectively.

[14 The 40 ml water/m row alone and the combination of 40 ml water/m row with low rates of fertilizer improved plant development, leaf P content and yield over the checks under -9 bars tension in 1980-81 field study.

[15 All three water injections at rates of 20, 40 and 60 ml/m in 1981-82 field study increased seed-zone moisture content, and improved imbibitions, stand establishment and seedling growth over the check in fallowed (-6 bars) and non-fallowed (-8 bars).

Technical Products for raising soybeans in high pH using TAPPKTS and Ferrilene.
Liquid Rhizobia, http://agproducts.basf.us/products/vault-np-soybean-liquid-inoculant.html 
Ferrilene, http://www.helenachemical.com/products/micronutrients-specialized-nutrition/ferrilene/  
DeKalb, Iron Chlorosis Tolerant Beans. http://www.dekalb.ca/soybeans/varieties
Exactrix TAPPS and TAPPKTS formulators.  www.exactrix.com/EPM.htm   
Exactrix Mustang Openers, www.exactrix.com/mustang.htm  
Exactrix SRS. http://www.exactrix.com/Broadcast_08_09_2017.html  
KMS,  https://www.diamondkgypsum.com/pdf/Diamond%20K%20KMS%20Potassium%20Magnesium%20Sulfate.pdf  
Single Super Phosphate,  http://www.cropnutrition.com/single-superphosphate     

Your Great Plains Reporter.
GJS