Fertility planning: Safe seed-placed rates

What are safe seed row fertilizer rates for phosphorus (P), sulphur (S) and nitrogen (N)? With lower seeding rates than in the past, this concern is greater than ever. Growers need to keep all seed viable to hit plant population targets. Therefore, the best practice is to put up to 20 lb./ac. of phosphate (max 40 lb./ac. of MAP) in the seed row – if P is needed – and put all other fertilizer in a band outside the seed row.

Making this more important is the move to wider row spacings, which increases the concentration of seed-row placed fertilizer. This is all the more reason to keep most of the fertilizer outside the seed row.

Resources and further reading:

Seed-Placed Fertilizer Decision Aid
Test your seed-placed fertilizer safety
Canola Encyclopedia section on seed-placed fertilizer
3 fertility questions for seeding time
How much fertilizer does canola need?
Canola Digest: Root bacteria relates to higher canola yield
Canola Digest: Why are low-yielding areas low yielding?
Canola Digest: Post-emergent nitrogen reduces the seeding crunch
Canola Digest: Soil sampling in the Big Data era