Attention to Detail Important When Planting Winter Wheat Behind Sorghum

Yesterday, we heard from NC State Small Grain Specialist Dr. Randy Weisz on planting winter wheat behind sorghum. It can be done, but there’s some issues to be addressed, and Weisz says the first thing is to make sure that the harvested sorghum plants are dead, as young sorghum roots secret something of a natural weed killer:

“The young growing sorghum roots are aggressively pumping this compound into the soil. We don’t want it anything but dead at the end of the harvest. The first recommendation is to use something like glycoside or another desiccant that will actually kill the sorghum.”
 

Sorghum has a well-earned reputation of being a nutrient hog, and Weisz says when planning to plant wheat behind sorghum, this isn’t a time to economize on fertilizer:
 

“The second recommendation is to make sure you really take care of your pre plant fertility and to not skimp. Really make sure that your P, K and S levels are adequate. A soil test is certainly more important than ever following sorghum to make sure those levels are high. It’s also important not to skimp on pre plant nitrogen.”
 

To see a complete copy of Dr. Weisz’ recommendations,click here. We’ll hear more of Dr. Weisz’ solutions tomorrow on Inside Agriculture.
 

Do you plan or did you plan to plant wheat behind sorghum? We’d like to know. Take a look and answer our poll question at the bottom of the homepage.