The wet weather last week and the chance of sun this week or next is setting up for crusts in some fields. How do you know if you have a crust?
If you do not leave a foot print in the ground when you walk across it you have a crust.
There are as many ways to remove a soil crust as there are ways to make a seedbed. The most common tools are rotary hoe, some type of RTS (residue tillage specialist), AerWay, corn planter, and even a cultivator set so that the back feet are about one to two inches deep and the rolling baskets or harrows are working the ground. Do not worry about killing the corn that has not emerged. The cultivation technique has been tried by many. It works.
The whole process of crust removal is not “rocket science.” Try one piece of equipment and if it is removing the crust keep going. If it is not, try something else. Or make a second pass with the same piece of equipment.
The above is for corn. If you have a field of soys that has a crust, and this crust is preventing emergence, the best method involves the same piece of equipment that you planted with the first time. Make sure you have seed in it. What I mean is, soys do not respond to a crust as well as corn does. If you have areas of a soybean field that are not emerging because of a crust, replant those areas.
Before you replant soys check with crop insurance and your seed supplier. You may qualify for seed for replanting and a reseeding benefit from crop insurance.
If you have corn fields or parts of corn fields that have emerged and have a crust, consider some type of tillage to get air into these areas. Young corn plants need loose soil to allow the roots to grow.
There were a lot of acres of corn planted in April in Ontario in 2010. In fact this may be the biggest on farm demonstration ever in Ontario. Ontario growers planted over one million acres of corn in April 2010. If we want to be successful growing corn in Ontario we have to plant early. But some of these early planted acres may need some help to achieve their best yield. BF