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You have a nice rig to burry electric lines & such. But, why are you 'subsoiling' in that sand up there? There can't be much gained. You folks never get any rain anyhow up there. Down here in Nicollet county with the heavy yellow/blue clay soils, a hardpan develops, and is made worse by wet soils in low spots. If you have the hp & equipment, subsoiling deep will help break up that hardpan, and allow the water to sink below the hardpan, as well as the roots of the crop. As stated, the hardpan usually reforms over a few years. It also helps stir up the soil & mix in the P & K from the lower levels of the ground - our low spots of clay are pretty nutrient rich, but the roots can't penetrate the hardpan any better than the rainfall can. It is best to rip the ground when it is fairly dry in the fall so it shatters, ends up like big cinderblocks in the field, about the size of a front tire of your tractor. Trying to do it when it is very wet causes more problems that help, just makes smeary hard-packed grooves in the soil. Subsoiling only helps on certain soils for certain conditions, and is not worth the expense to do all over. Just the hardpan soils. You want to get the points just a little deeper than that layer of hard soil, and shatter it up. I hear there are areas in California where they go 4 feet deep to rip the soil, has fertilizer & hardpan benifits. Wow. In the sand up where you are, I would not expect any benifit at all to subsoiling (also know as ripping). The subsoilers have points from 1 to 3 feet apart, mostly near the 3 feet. If going deep with a single point, you would see results by going 6 feet or so apart. Much more than that and it won't be doing enough. --->Paul
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