Corn Planting Going On. 2015

 

There was some field corn planted a week ago, but not a whole lot in deep south Georgia. (Some sweet corn was planted a little before Valentines day.)

 

I dug up some that was planted a week ago and it looks pretty good to me, considering the somewhat cool soils we’ve had.

 

 

 

 

Several folks started yesterday on corn and are planting today.

 

Here’s a ripper running ahead of the planting rig, making sure the roots can grow deep, easily. Here’s an excerpt from the UGA Corn Production Guide concerning tillage.

 

“A good soil management program: (1) protects the soil from water and wind erosion, (2) provides a good, weed-free seedbed for planting, and (3) destroys hardpans or compacted layers that may limit root development. To conserve moisture and reduce compaction, work the land no more than necessary to achieve these objectives. Water erosion is a significant problem on many Georgia soils during the high rainfall, winter months. Wind erosion can be a problem on sandy Coastal Plain soils in early spring when blowing sand can severely injure young corn plants. Crop residue left on the soil surface or a seeded cover crop effectively reduces water erosion problems.

 

Using minimum-till planting practices such as strip-till or slit-till helps reduce soil losses and “sand blasting” from wind erosion. Tillage Compaction layers or traffic pans (dense areas) are present in many, if not most, of the sandy, Coastal Plain soils in Georgia. These traffic pans restrict root growth and thus affect water and nutrient uptake by the plant. Traffic pans or dense soils should be disrupted by deep turning, V-ripping, paraplowing, chisel plowing or by in-row subsoiling during planting.

 

Inrow subsoiling has increased corn yields over 50 per cent on soils where traffic pans were present . It enables corn plants to develop deeper root systems which make better use of sub-soil moisture and improves chances of recovering nutrients as they move through the soil.”