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Digging down- warning picture heavy and rambling
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NEMOScott
Posted 5/3/2016 21:18 (#5281028)
Subject: Digging down- warning picture heavy and rambling


Callao, Missouri
This is a continuation of my post yesterday about problems with corn emergence in a series of cereal rye fields:

http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=630278&posts=3...

I hope the pics show up in order.

I dug down to a depth of 32". I had rye roots down there, but was tired of digging. No clue how much farther they are.

At the 8" depth, the topsoil transitioned to clay.

At the 12-14" depth, water could be seen flowing out of the clay. Take note of the cluster of rye roots around this spot.

From 14-32" it was drier, but still plenty of roots.

Now, turn your attention to the pics of the seed furrow. This is where I think things went wrong in this long term notill cover crop ground, that my recently converted field hasn't progressed to yet.

The seed trench is packed full of earth worms. Also note that their channels/tunnels are a lot wetter than the soil next to them. It is impossible to dig seed in this field without cutting worms.

SO.... I think the soil moisture is being concentrated in the seed trench by three things:

1. Earthworm activity. There are so many burrows that you can slap the ground with a hand shovel right now and hear the soil water pop or crackle for a 15ft radius.

2. The residue above the ground prevented runoff, and soaked it all up like a sponge.

3. I think soil moisture is moving up the roots much like the capillary action of putting a piece of paper in a glass of water. But because it's been cold/cloudy and there is a zillion earthworm holes in the top 4", that's where the water has been sitting.

The two wettest areas in the 32" is

1. The seed trench, 2. The twelve-fourteen inch limiting layer of clay.

The seed dealer looked at it and said that it looked like pythium got most of them after sprouting.

Thank you for the suggestion to dig. Otherwise I would have never believed it was this number of factors and would have just wrote it off as insulation and aleopathy from the cover crop.


Edited by NEMOScott 5/3/2016 22:05




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