Nitrogen Fixing For All Crops

[TOM4CWB]

BigLentil,
We had a big storm with hours of lightning last night... you know the kind that flashes every 5 seconds or so....

I figure on a 2 hour storm like this... with 1/2" of rain to wash in the N from the lightning storm... is worth about 30N to the crop.

Our prairie soils organic matter was built on N from lightning storms... and still is!
How else can we grow a 60bu crop of Canola... on 90N applied! Figure it out... that kind of production requires close to 200N... while our N is rising in the soil profile... as is the organic matter! We had 70bu CWRS... with 16px... close to the same 200N needed.. we applied 70N to the seed bed when we seeded last spring.

Fertilizer co's don't want to talk about this... free is not profitable for them!

Since we can't know the number of storms... and the amount of N before hand... it is not usually included in fertility programs.

Soil bacteria are wonderful workers for us... Tag Team is a great example of N and P fixing systems we already use!

I can just imagine the climate change folks will want to outlaw these kinds of lightning storms... the nitrous oxide produced must me massive!!!

[biglentil]

Yep heavens opened up and provided a beautiful lightning storm here at 2am. I slept through most of it but according to the wife it was the most lightning she has ever seen. It's funny you say it was probably good for 30!lbs of N because that's the same thought I had. Thank you mother nature!

[sumdumguy]

At 1:30 A.M. or so, east of Regina, the light show was spectacular last night. It was a ways off in the east, but wonder if there was more than lightning in that event. Fill us in guys.

[ado089]

Silly question but if this does work why not simply run a cable along the front of your drill with chain or cable hanging down in front of each row (or to the side slightly) and make it a one pass system. One would think it easier to insulate a cable instead of the whole machine?????

[biglentil]

Maybe doable but theres alot going on imo, better incorporated with spring burnoff with a pull type sprayer.

[Ache4Acres]

You connect this apocalypse machine to a drill and your seeds pop like popcorn. LittleLentil pops!

[ado089]

How are you verifying the 100#/ac N fixing?

[biglentil]

Soil test before n after it varys depending on soil moisture more the better it seems

[farmaholic]

If its free or cheap it can't be a very good nitrogen source. Probably requires a plethora of new denitrifying bacteria strain to make it plant available.

[ado089]

I'm not calling anyone a lyer and I'm far from an expert on this but the math doesn't add up. This is essentially the birkland-eyde process. 1# of N requires 7 kwh of energy. There is 40.7 kwh of energy in a gallon of diesel. The best diesel engines are only about 60% efficient, never mind running that power through a generator and resistance losses through lines. It seems a little far fetched to think you're getting 100# of N out of a gallon of fuel.