Crusted soil after planting?

I don't know much about agriculture, but I can't see a sunflower seed pushing through that. I can hardly break open the crust with my hands.

So earlier today I undid the drivechain from the planter and went over part of the field again. I adjusted the toplink so that the 2 swords of the planter won't dig in more than an inch or so into the soil. Then I went back over the field and drove in the same tracks as when i planted. It turn the sold crust into lots of grape sized pieces of soil over the planted rows. I only did half the field. I did see some germinting seeds once the crust was broken.

Is this the right way to fix a problem with crusted soil, or is there another better way?

Mother Nature will NOT take care of the situation. Sunflowers are sort of like soybeans , in that they have to push the germinated seed up through the soil. The result of a packed soil is that the seedling will "snap-it's-neck" {break the stem} pushing against the hardpacked soil. I have seldom seen a field do very well after a packing rain does that to the soil. The crop will never be what it would have been, if it had not happened {even with all the crust busted open!}.

I would guess that you will see a much better yield/crop on the part that you broke open. Many folks do not like to see ANY plants or seed laying on the ground after a rotory hoe runs over a planted field. But the proper way to us it {we have a modern 3pt. mounted JD} ...use a lot of down pressure, drive fast, don't look back! I have tried playing with the down presssure and speed, but have always found that there is only one way to do it!

I add compost and plow down green manure crops, and our soil crust over after hard rains. Rotary hoe usually works, but it is hard on root crops.

High clay soils will crust over under the right conditions, just how it is.

Rotory hoe is the tool of choice, a harrow (drag) with the teeth real shallow works fine, and what the original poster did probably worked, tho was a heavy implement & difficult to control a shallow depth I'd think.

--->Paul

That same summer, the sewage pipe from St. Peter (or was it Le Seur? I don't think so, there problem is the settlement & treatment ponds are in the flood plain & the MN River was running _through_ their city septic tanks....) under the Minnesota River washed out & ruptured. The pipe could not be shut off, as there was no place else for the sewage to go. There was no alternative pipe, and this was that bad flooding year so no one could get to repair or reroute it.... So, the experts decided the 30,000 gallons of human sewage that was leaking out of the pipe _per day_ directly into the Minnesota river was no real threat to anyone or anything, and no one was fined anything, and it should get fixed in a few months when the flood waters go down.

Never ever heard there was any problems or fines or issue at all with the Le Seur issue.

Fairness.

--->Paul