How Deep Should You Plant?

This Week In Ag #114

This time every year, hemming and hawing would rage at the Nichols Farm. Dad and Uncle Gary would not only agonize over when to plant, but also how deep to drop the seeds. From “It’s been awfully dry, we better wait for a rain” to “It still feels a little wet, maybe we should run the field cultivator over it again” (gulp) to my annual favorite: “But If we get a beatin’ rain, those tops will turn into a layer of concrete.”

Prompting, “Then we’ll have to rotary hoe.”

Ah yes, the rotary hoe. A toolbar affixed with several blades resembling weapons thrown by Ninjas: rotating steel wheels featuring curved teeth. It’s used to break up crusted soils (and in some cases to incorporate herbicide) formed by those beatin’ rains. What I affectionately called a “panic” tool.

Dad and my uncle rushed to pull it out of the shed the moment the soil began to dry and the seed had not yet emerged. You’d hook it on the 3-point hitch of the utility tractor, drop it shallow in the soil, and away you went, in high gear, as the tines needed to rotate fast. And when you finished, you looked like Bert the chimney sweep from Mary Poppins.

Then again, we did find a number of arrowheads while making our journeys across the fields, so that was a plus.

Due to superior seed genetics that emerge largely uninterrupted, better herbicides, and reduced tillage practices, rotary hoes are largely relics of the past. Yet they are still found on organic and seed production farms. And on occasion, they’ll get pulled out from the back of machine sheds and used to bust up crust created by those beatin’ rains.

So, how deep should you plant? Well, that can vary, based on the soil, crop, tillage practices, and weather conditions. Ideally, you want to plant into moist, but not wet, soil. That’s often easier said than done, especially when you have thousands of acres staring in front of you.

Plant too shallow and you could experience poor root development and dry out seedlings. Planting too deep can lead to uneven emergence.

This week, I hope to plant (Mother Nature willing, and she hasn’t played too nicely this spring). So, how deep will I plant? For corn, I’ll target 2 inches, for soybeans, I’ll go 1.5 inches. Without any hemming and hawing.