Local Growers Boost
No-Till Corn
By Rich Hansen
Ciba-Geigy Corporation
“I’ve no-tilled my corn for
five years and have found
that early planting, in mid-
April, gives me better com
and fewer problems,
especially with fall
panicum,” states Charles
Nissley, Washington Boro.
With 350 acres of his own
com last year and several
years experience as a
custom applicator treating
weed probelms in other
fields, Nissley has seen the
upsurge of fall panicum
infestations.
“Fall panicum appears to
be the most severe weed in
the no-till corn system,”
says W. L. McClellan, Penn
State agronomist. “It ger
minates m late April and
early May and is almost
impossible to control after it
has formed seven or more
leaves.”
McClellan notes that
heavy infestations occur
when late plantings in fields
with fall panicum seed
supplies were followed by
normal herbicide ap
plications. He recommends
AAtrex plus Lasso or AAtrex
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Nissley tried the AAtrex-
Lasso combination but found
that plenty of rain was
needed for activation, so he
tried the AAtrex-Princep
mixture two years ago. He
now uses it on his own fields
and on nearly all no-till com
he treats. Paraquat is used
prior to AAtrex-Princep if
weeds and grasses are
present.
“With no-till you need a
good stand and good grass
control,” emphasizes Frank
Peiffer, grower-applicator at
Pequea. “Also, you have to
watch the lime content of the
soil because low pH runs
hand in hand with poor grass
control.”
A Penn State graduate,
Peiffer moved through
seasons of other treatments
for panicum control until he
came to AAtrex-Princep.
This sping he’ll use it for the
third time as a preplant
application.
“In 19721 sprayed on April
17 and last year on April 10,
five days before planting,”
he relates. “I had generally
good results all season. The
early application seems to
get ahead of the panicum
germination.”
Peiffer says that six years
ago he was one of the early
adopters of no-till in his
township. Now much of the
area is cropped that way
because of the benefits of
erosion control in hilly land.
He’s fashioned his own no-till
planter and does custom
work with it.
“Last year I planted 330
acres of com with it,” he
Methods
states. “In spite of the
initial resistance, no-till has
grown by leaps and bounds
in this area. With the tight
fuel and labor supplies, it is
the only way to go."
Frank Lessiter, editor of
No-Till Farmer magazine,
agrees and points out that in
one test a no-tillage system
used nine-tenths of a gallon
per acre as compared to 5.33
gallons for conventional
tillage. And there’s less
labor involved.
Nissley and his son, Ken,
farm 350 acres and operate
their spraying business;
Peiffer farms and does
custom work alone.
Both are satisfied with
corn yields. “I was prepared
-to take a yield loss the first
year of no-till,” says Peiffer,
“but I had a substantial
increase. I haven’t suffered
any decreases since. I plant
Pioneer 3306 and 3368 and,
with the help of Belt in
secticide, had a better stand
and no downed com last
year.”
His fertilization program
“runs all over the board”.
Some of his land got 240 lbs.
of actual potash last season,
plus 80 lbs. of phosphorous
and 180 lbs. of N.
Fertilization is necessary
to profitable com produc
tion, but weeds must be
controlled to keep them from
stealing those nutrients.
Agronomist McClellan has
these hints for better weed
control: identify your weed
problems; select a herbicide
program to solve the
problem; and apply products
at the recommended rate at
the right time.
fctttAD f o j
Frank Peiffer, Pequea, examines the conserve moisture and prevent
corn trash left on his no-till field after erosion,
picking. Peiffer says the trash helps
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Feb. 9.1974
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