Food Plots Potassium leaching?

[megalomaniac]

I haven't fertilized in a couple years, but pulled soil samples (mostly to recheck pH) this late spring.

ALL my plots now have very low Potassium (Phosphorus is fine, as well as calcium and Magnesium).

Talked with my Agronomist, and he says he does see potassium leaching out in poor low lying soils like where my plots are. He suggested I go ahead and add some nitrogen and potassium with this falls planting.

Anyone else not using fertilizer, yet putting the grown crop right back into the soil (not removing the crop) who is seeing the potassium levels slowly drop over time?

I was trying to get away from all fertilizer use, but I think he is right and I'll have to add some this fall.

Most of the summer plots look fine, except I'm really disappointed with the proso millet (the short stuff with tiny seeds under the sorgham in the second pic) which didn't produce enough biomass to make much of a difference. BUT, the quail and turkeys are really hammering the proso... they are using the plots this year much more than usual. Beans are long gone in the smaller plots, still have some in the larger plots.

 

[Popcorn]

It is directly related to the soils you have and winter use. I have plotted and cropped in many different soils and was confident in my ability to make significant improvements in my soils no matter their type or condition until I started managing river bottom duck plots and wetlands. If the sand content does not make it impossible to retain nutrients then being flooded from Oct thru Feb will. Being under water for 5 months causes anaerobic decay of the organic matter. Decay without oxygen changes nutrients making them unavailable or more likely to wash out of the soil. Soil without oxygen becomes a hostile place for aerobic bacteria and void of most beneficial living things in the soil. In this soil you must add essential nutrients annually

 

[Popcorn]

Anyone else not using fertilizer, yet putting the grown crop right back into the soil (not removing the crop) who is seeing the potassium levels slowly drop over time?

To better respond to this, in my upland plots where I have low sand content, clay content or even old stabilized gravel where water once flowed long ago I do have success with no added fertilizer and most are that way. I do take soil samples every 2 years to keep track of where they are and plan needed amendments. Interestingly I find Trigg county clay / chert to almost always be deficient in boron which is a micronutrient but a very important one.
I do recognize that even where no inputs is acceptable, a good dose of nitrogen can make a huge difference in the tonnage of matter produce…