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| Hello Eddie,
Sorry to be slow to respond.
I don't have any personal experience with Crestmeade or similar soils but here are some thoughts:
The "clay bulge" in Cresmeade soils has high shrink-swell potential so I expect that some serious cracking occurred last summer.
These cracks may be mostly closed up now depending on how much rain/snow you have received this winter but conditions will probably be better than normal for deep root growth for an extended period of time.
Annual ryegrass with its exceptional tolerance of poor drainage seems like the cover crops species best suited for deep rooting in Crestmeade soils.
Brassicas generally do not grow well in poorly drained soils but your fall conditions may sometimes be dry enough to allow deep root growth by radishes or other brassicas.
I seem to recall that you have had good success using chicken litter... annual ryegrass and chicken litter are probably a great combination that will enhance the effects of both.
If you have not already seen this set of slides on using cover crops to improve claypan soils, you might want to take a look:
http://extension.missouri.edu/sare/resources/covercropII/claypan.pd...
Do you know if anyone in your area has tried amending Crestmeade or similar soils with gypsum?
If not, it would probably be worthwhile to try some strips and monitor them for multiple years but I would not go hog wild with gypsum until you have seen local evidence of benefit.
Joel
WIU Agriculture
Edited by jbgruver 3/16/2013 12:26
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The science of clay
