Crop Talk

[bikinkawboy]

Roots going down that deep, maybe in Iowa and Illinois.  In these claypan soils of northern Missouri or the similiar claypan soils of southern Illinois, no way.  Up here, at best we have 10-12" of topsoil setting on top of a tight, visible clay layer that geratly restricts root growth as well as moisture movement up or down.  We had several petroleum pipelines go through here in the last few years and where the pipelines were buried, the soil was disturbed and replaced, busting up the claypan.  The corn there was about a foot taller than elsewhere in the field, meaning there was increased rooting depth and probably more pore space to hold water.

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