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Central Indiana | 65% of our acres are silty clay loams, and silty loams. Crosby, Miami, Brookston, mostly minimum till, 10% no-till. The Crosby and Miami soils particularly, just will not tolerate a 1/2" rain after planting, turning off hard and crusted to the point only a well timed shower will allow emergence. Hoeing not much help.
Currently using factory rubber presswheels. Lots of info on here about different closing systems for notill. I have heard anecdotaly that maybe Dawn curvetines, or possibly one per row, would help, possibly leaving a covered, but not compacted seed furrow. Any experience out there with solutions for soils that crust easily? |
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| Run one curvetine and one mohawk
Or
Two mohawks |
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Slow motion
One per row
Two per row
Thanks, Joe
Edited by joeatdawn 3/7/2017 10:32
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East Central Indiana | I'm in east central Indiana and had the exact same problems as you.
We went with 1 curvtine and 1 rubber wheel. It helped our crusting issue A LOT!!!!!!
I would do it over again without a question. We are all conventional tillage in corn.
We run ours on a kinze splitter that we notill beans with also. They work fantastic in notill also.
On our front pusher units we have 1 rubber and 1 lofquist welding closing wheel. They work well also but not as well as the curvtines.
I've been contemplating going to 2 curvtines on our 16 corn rows but not sure that I need them since our crusting issue hasn't happens since we've had the single curvtine.
Other than when we have had the 2 inch downpour that comes in 20 minutes and just a few days after planting.
I don't think any closing wheel can help that scenario in our soils |
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South-central Nebraska | I've had three versions of Curvetines going back to the late 90's when I started farming. I tried one and one but have felt that having two, chopped the surface better and eliminated the snail trail from the solid wheel. Tough clay is where the two seems to chop the surface shut better. I've had zero problems running two even when I've "conventionally tilled" ground to change rows or develop. |
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East central Indiana | Here is a pic of 2 curvetines and next row is a pair martins. The martins really break dirt down really fine to get severe crusting. Curvetines are on right side of pic.
 (image.jpg)
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 image.jpg (236KB - 303 downloads)
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| I ran Dawn curve tines and a factory rubber for years on a JD 7000. The only drawback I could find was in wet soils they would plug with rootballs. But as a no-tiller, I shouldn't have been out there. LOL |
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Driftless SW Wisconsin | Bruce, I think you would find that on our latest version of the Curvetine, the Curvetine wheel itself is now a USA-mfg forging, with a separate Timken bearing hub. Going to separate forged wheel and hub, rather than the original one piece cast wheel and hub, enabled us to change the Curvetine wheel in a way that greatly reduces snagging rootballs. In addition the forged wheel lasts longer than the older cast version. And when the Curvetine wheel does need to be replaced, usually the regreaseable tapered roller bearing hub is still ok so you just unbolt and change the wheel, not the hub. Here is a photo I took at a planter meeting today of an interesting and successful one-pass planter setup very common in this area of SW WI. I usually like two Curvetines per row. However this planter applies dry fertilizer through the JD single disc opener up front so the soil is fertilized, cleared and worked on the far side of this row. The customer uses a solid rubber tire closing wheel on the fertilizer coulter side and our latest Curvetine on the undisturbed side of the seed. Joe's two per row video above shows a very nice job of closing the seed slot at the bottom without disturbing the seed. It also shows a pock marked surface which will not likely crust over even after a rain but will leave cracks between the pockmarks for delicate seedlings to emerge. I am also personally not a fan of a drag chains particularly in our heavy clay soils but this customer likes the action when he is no tilling beans. I would suspect he takes the chains off when planting corn. Chains can leave too smooth a surface which is prone to crusting. In any case this is a very successful setup on planters with dry fertilizer. Planting beans no till into corn this customer may want to pull some corn residue back over the top of his well-planted, uniform depth, no entrained residue beans. On larger planters without fertilizer on the planter, folks around here usually use the 1572 coulter combo as pictured up front with 2 Curvetines per row on back and no drag chain in a variety of tillage systems. Two Curvetines works well even in worked ground (as mentioned earlier in this thread), you just run the closer spring pressure in the lightest position or use the JD "half-rate" tail piece spring in lighter soil. Jim at Dawn
Edited by Jim 3/7/2017 21:34
 (IMG023 A very common and successful one pass planter setup for clay soils in SW WI 030717.jpg)
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IMG023 A very common and successful one pass planter setup for clay soils in SW WI 030717.jpg (97KB - 288 downloads)
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NW IL, Mercer County | Jim can you comment more about not being a fan of drag chains? I have only had them for half a season now so very little experience, and am curious what your thoughts are about them? |
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| Thanks for the reply Jim, but that planter is long gone. running a White 12 row now with the copperhead closing wheels. There has been bad and good comments on these, but I'm super happy with mine after 1500 acres. Lots of great products out there. I really appreciate agtalk and farm shows to actually see the products and hear comments from users! |
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Driftless SW Wisconsin | Sure Chad, I just edited my post above to add: drag chains can leave some crust prone soils too smooth behind the planter, increasing the chances of crusting and difficult emergence. Sure, in some soils it may not but in many soils too smooth a surface will crust. Doing a good job of clearing residue up front with row cleaners to eliminate residue in the seed slot and help maintain uniform seed depth, then getting good seed to soil contact and breaking up sidewall compaction with Curvetines, leaving the pockmarks as pictured in Joe's 2 per row video above will almost completely eliminate crusting problems. Using a drag chain to smooth the soil surface negates the benefits of the pockmarks and puts us back to a crusting situation in many planting and soil conditions. Some closing wheel brands require drag chains to pull soil back in that has been tossed up. Curvetines do not require drag chains nor a seed firmer to hold the seed at the bottom of the slot. BTW the plastic flap in my photo above is used by this customer to prevent seed bouncing because he plants beans at fairly high forward speed to cover ground with a 6 row setup. Speed is often more economical than width, especially in the numerous smaller hillside strip fields many folks plant around here. Jim at Dawn |
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Driftless SW Wisconsin | You are welcome Bruce. There are a LOT of different closing wheels on the market, each with subtle but very important differences. I caution folks to please NOT lump all "spike closing wheels" together. They are very, very different in how they operate and how they are constructed, bearing setups etc. |
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| You are so right Jim! I'm a big believer in what works for you might not work for me. I treat the planter like my combine, different fields, changing soil conditions warrant checking behind the planter. I remember an old farmer telling me at planting and harvest time you only get one chance to get it right! |
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Soil crusting and closing wheels, Dawn curvetines
