Comparing cool-weather emergence in till and no-till
May 25, 2021
These 24 corn rows in 1/1,000 acre are emerging in the Corn Watch ’21 field.
The #CornWatch21 field was planted April 25. Half the field was conventionally tilled following soybeans, and half was no-tilled into soybean stubble.
Plants were still emerging at the date of writing this, and final counts haven’t been made. Based on observations so far, preliminary conclusions are:
1. Conventional tillage had a one-day jump. Plants starting peeking through the soil on conventional rows one day before any plants were detected in the no-till rows.
2. Plants emerged on both sides sooner than expected. Given cool weather conditions, it would not have been surprising for it to take two weeks to see first emergence. Instead, the first plants in conventionally tilled rows emerged in 10 days, and the first plants in no-till rows emerged in 11 days.
3. There appears to be a row-to-row difference. Some rows emerged more uniformly than other rows. The planter is equipped with the DeltaForce hydraulic down-pressure system. The difference seems to be more pronounced on the no-till side, but final numbers on total emergence and days to emergence aren’t in yet.
4. Total percent emergence appears slightly higher on conventional till. Again, this is an early observation. It appears final stands on both sides of the field will be acceptable.
Follow #CornWatch21 articles throughout the season to see how things play out.
Last year, the #CornWatch20 field was the first time that 1/1000th-of-an acre areas were selected in the Corn Watch ’20 field to track corn emergence. The field was planted in mid-May. At harvest, when some of those rows were harvested by hand and ears were weighed, there was a trend toward smaller ears for plants that emerged three or more days late.
“The difference wasn’t as big as I expected,” Nanda said. “There was also a difference in ear size based on plant spacing. That can be just as important. We will be tracking both factors this year.”
The Corn Watch ’21 field is sponsored by Seed Genetics Direct. Reports on the field’s progress are provided all season (#CornWatch21); read the latest Corn Watch ’21 articles here.