Fertilizer Price

[Emeraldisle]

A Thai person has asked me to give 3000 Baht for fertilizer for rice field in Khon Kaen. I don't know the number of rai but could somebody tell me how it costs per one rai for fertilizer. 

Thank you

[northsouthdevide]

My wife says about 400baht per rai.... Half a bag per rai at 750 to 800 per bag. 

[northsouthdevide]

And now is the time to fertilise the rice field. 

[IsaanAussie]

I will follow this with interest. There are many different fertiliser strategies used. 

Just now, northsouthdevide said:

My wife says about 400baht per rai.... Half a bag per rai at 750 to 800 per bag. 

This is the first urea dosage for most people near me.

 

Just now, northsouthdevide said:

And now is the time to fertilise the rice field. 

However it is applied (hand broadcast) after the rice has emerged to promote vegetative growth.  Complete fertiliser is added later to promote flowering and grain fill. Note: I am talking about the "traditional" Isaan method.

Complete crop fertiliser can be incorporated when the land is prepared or In concert with drilling seed. I would welcome any thoughts of that, especially if the cost can be limited to 400 baht per rai.

[Grumpy John]

We waited till there had been enough rain and it was within days of sprouting. Not good to spread in the dry as the sun will burn off some of the chemi which makes it less effective.

[kickstart]

When I stated in agriculture a long time ago, they were still a few combination drills about, corn drills that applied fertilizer as well as the corn,I was told that P and K where slow release fertilizers, basically being ground down rock, hence being applied with the seed, here we are talking about wheat and barley ,but as rice is a cereal crop the same should apply .

Also, P and K is needed in the early stages of the crops' life, again apply with the seed .or after 2-3 week of sowing/planting .

Urea is easily lost  from the ground ,mainly though leaching ,so that could be applied in 2-3 applications .one being a top dressing ,(seen that done around here  on maize crops as the crop comes in to flower).

In my experience with dairy farmers ,and saying how much fertilizer do you apply to your grass land most say not a lot or none, and they wonder why the grass dose not grow.fertilizer seems one of those  inputs Thai's seem to skimp on, so as northsouthdeivd's wife said 400 baht/rie ,is that enough for a crop ,and bearing in mind Issan soils being low in everything ,maybe that extra bucket full per rie ,could do a lot .

And what are the recommendations  for fertilizer on Thai rice fields ,again I would say more than what is being used.

[Emeraldisle]

Thank you all for your input. It gives me an idea of how much it should cost when I find out how many rai are involved.

[IsaanAussie]

17 hours ago, kickstart said:

And what are the recommendations  for fertilizer on Thai rice fields ,again I would say more than what is being used.

Arh the big question to which there are a million answers. I have tried many of them. Last year I fertilised twice and used a combination of NPK based on 40:26:12 kg per hectare for the crop. 

I mixed a blend of standard formulas which based on price and availability. This year I will reduce the N used in the second round as we suffered from some rice blast which I have been told can be made worse with too much N and not enough water.