by BERNARD TOBIN
One in every 12 rows of Bill’s corn was stunted because the plants in these rows were suffering from fertilizer burn.
Bill had done a good job of maintaining the disc openers and tubes on his 12-row planter. However, the bushings on the parallel linkage of the eighth row unit were worn out. This allowed the unit to move a couple of inches from side to side, explains Pioneer Hi-Bred agronomist Scott Fife.
The fertilizer trench is usually set two inches beside the seed trench, so fertilizer is placed where it is available to the seed, but not close enough to burn it.