Pennsylvania farmer William Stahl of Loysville, built a side dress applicator that lets him apply fertilizer to standing corn when it's between 8 and 12 in. tall. The applicator is unique because it lets him side dress with and without a row crop cultivator that mounts on a 3-pt. at the back of the applicator.

Stahl needed an applicator that would let him detach the cultivator because he raises both no-till and conventionally-tilled corn. He detaches the cultivator in no-till ground to improve trash clearance.

The 6-row applicator is fitted with swiveling Yetter coulters with dry applicator tubes on back. Also mounted on the toolbar are fiberglass hoppers, each holding about 700 lbs. of either Urea nitrogen or a mix of 30-10-10. Stahl designed the unit for dry fertilizer because it's the most economical but he says it could easily be equipped for liquid. A single drive wheel ground-drives the two units.

"I knife in fertilizer 2 in. deep and 6 to 8 in. from the row. Because the applicator's ground-driven, you drive as slowly as necessary and it'll still be accurate," says Stahl, noting that he feels the 8 to 12-in. growth stage is the most efficient time to side dress. "By then most of the starter fertilizer has been used up or released into the air."

The 3-pt. hitch at the rear of the applicator can accommodate any 3-pt. cultivator.