The A-“Mazing” Maize Yavapai College Agri-Business
by Justin Brereton
say it’s like growing your own organic material. The vetch is a legume plant and comes on strong in spring. Legumes work well with soil bacteria to take atmospher- ic soil-based nitrogen and convert it into plant based nitrogen stored in root nod- ules in the plant. When the crop is ter- minated in late spring, the nitrogen later becomes plant available for your future crops. Growing your own organic material and nitrogen source is a great way to im- prove your soil. We also do this at a time of the year where typical winter rains are enough to suffice, and we need little addi- tional inputs to grow these types of crops.
We sent out a soil sample to Motzz labo- ratory in Phoenix. Since I teach soils and fertility, this information is valuable to make the correct amendments, and for students to understand the process, and think through management decisions. Students then utilized the new tiller at- tachment to incorporate the leftover crop debris and add a few corrective nutri- ents. The analysis showed that with the legumes we were able to bring up the N values, higher than our other cultivated areas. Since are crop is a heavy nitrogen feeder, we decided to supplement some ammonium sulfate at the rate of 2lbs per 1,000 sq. ft. since the N source is 21%, there were some great learning calcula- tions done to get the correct application for our sized area. The only other limiting factor was soil pH. In most cases in Arizo- na the pH is elevated and often nutrients such as Iron and potassium become un- available to plants based on the relation- ship in the soil. We took the approach of using soil sulfur (90%) to apply 10 lbs per
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orn mazes have become an increasingly popular way for an extended Ag pro- motion, and potential profitable venture. It’s also a great way to get kids on the farm. A YC grown Maze was discussed during a brainstorming session to pro- mote the upcoming 50th anniversary (Fall 2018). Sweet corn is a natural choice, however our local event at the Agribusiness campus is scheduled for late Octo- ber. This would be well after the 1st normal freeze date for our area. I started researching alternative crops for mazes, and there has been some great work
done in this area. Farmers across the country are getting very creative with corn, sunflowers, and crops like sorghum. There are also high-tech methods for creating that perfect design… picture a maze depicting the face of our local college administrator just to butter up!
The research garden was chosen as the best place to create the maze. This area is fenced and equals about ¼ acre. The size is decent enough to get kids moving around and a bit lost, but not too big for our 1st endeavor. We have also farmed this area before, and the soil has been worked and improved over the years. We chose Sudan Sorghum which is often grown in the Midwest to Southeast U.S. Farmers will grow this as a huge green crop for silage or green manure. We think it will make a hardy, dense maze! In the event the freeze does happen before our event, the stand- ing stalks will be dense enough to still provide the desired intent. We plan to cut the patterns paths into the crop before it is too tall. My advanced designing plan is limited, and I’ll need to kick this out to the last summer session class, for ideas.
Our process for this year was to start with a winter cover crop of cereal rye and vetch. Cereal rye provides the green manure and growth needed that gets turned back into the soil. I would
HORSE & AG MAGAZINE I AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2018 7
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