ABSTRACT
Subsoiling soils with hard pans is a very common practice for cotton production. The conventional parabolic subsoiler used in the fall at a 45° angle to the row direction has become the standard practice. New federal legislation requires most producers to change land preparation methods to reduce soil losses from fields. New subsoilers have been designed to reduce soil surface disturbance. Two of these are the Paratill® and low-till parabolic subsoilers. Combinations of 45° conventional subsoiling and in-row subsoiling were studied on two soil types over a 3-year period. The conventional parabolic subsoiler ran in the fall at a 45° angle to row direction combined with the low-till parabolic subsoiler used in-row in the spring was the most consistent treatment of the 20 treatments studied on the two soil types. The combination deep tillage treatment averaged 44 and 64 lb lint/A higher yield than the best single in-row subsoiling treatment for Bosket very fine sandy loam (Paratill in the fall) and Forestdale silty clay loam (low-till in the fall) soils, respectively. Producers who farm non-irrigated cotton on soils that respond to subsoiling may want to try this combination tillage system.
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