Wet picking and soil compaction – NSW, QLD (Factsheet)
In this Cotton Info factsheet, Blake Palmer discusses how rainfall in cotton harvest season affects the structural stability of clay soils leading to compaction. The first step in identifying soil compaction following a wet pick is to observe the depth of wheel ruts and the footprint of the picker wheels on the shoulders of the hill. If wheel rutting is observed, shovel a 20cm deep cube of soil from within an un-trafficked furrow, a trafficked furrow and from under the hill to assess the porosity and structure of the soil. Compaction may be more severe in the sub-soil. Blake then outlines some short, medium and long-term strategies to ameliorate compaction i.e. rotation crops, reducing tillage and controlling traffic, While this factsheet focuses on NSW and QLD cotton growing areas, it may be of interest to growers in other states [PDF 889 KB, 8 pages].#
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