Soil like a sponge. Not drying out. Dozed area. What to do?

Last fall a contractor started on a series of push - up terraces. The topsoil was pushed to the side and clay was used to build the terraces. The topsoil was then pushed back. The majority of three terraces went through the winter and froze out. About 1/3 of the total footage was finished mid March. The areas that were done in November/December are so soft you can hardly drive a tractor across without sinking in 6 inches and traction is limited. In the fall constructed areas there were a couple places that looked like there was a broken tile (water coming to the top). There were no tile there to break. All of the work that was done this spring is normal - not soft and spongy.

My guess is that the topsoil that was pushed back was so loose it soaked up all of the water like a sponge compared to non - tilled ground. Just more water in it. Secondly I am guessing that the loose topsoil isn't transferring water to the compacted clay below as it would normally. Also the clay area under the topsoil would have been compacted by the dozer tracks and blade a great deal. Fortunately this field goes into soybeans. Just wondering what I should do. I think I might subsoil the area at an angle downhill towards the new tile lines. I think I can get through it by pulling it downhill. Maybe I would wait a day and chisel plow it lightly followed by the field cultivator in a day or two. It is almost like it needs a good packing. I haven't gotten much rain this spring, so maybe it just hasn't settled like it should. Thanks for your ideas.

LEAVE it be until it is dry!!!! The biggest yield killer is compaction and you will sure do it in wet ground. With bigger tractors it is easy to work ground too wet. You limit the yield for an entire year the second you do this. Go fishing or set in the house, anything but work that ground wet.

Your a month early for soybeans. So just wait until it is dry and work the ground then. Subsoiling wet will do nothing but cut groves.

Thanks JD Seller. I had wondered about that also - just leaving it to dry. Amazing how wet it is compared to the untilled ground. I think an inch of rain might help it.

JD nailed it!!! Just leave it lie and don't ruin all the work that has been gone.
Loren

Was that soil partly frozen when it was dozed? If it was, frozen chunks could still be thawing and making it wet though by now I would think all of the frost is out. A large drainage tile was put in across 400 feet of my land last December. It is 14 deep at the deepest and the trench was four feet wide. This spring that tile trench is wet mush, much wetter than the surrounding soil. When I tried to level the trench this spring I turned up wet frozen chunks still thawing. Another reason for the wet soil, and I'm just theorizing, the disturbed soil is separated from the native soil so it can't wick the water out into the surrounding soil. Just a thought.

That will probably be a fussy spot for some years.

Compacting it more now by 'I think I can mud through downhill' will make it worse and worse.

You just have to deal with it on its own time. It will get better as years go by, but treat it carefully now so it does get better.

The old water channels got disturbed, and water likes to bleed out of sidehills, you made some new sidehills.

A deep tillage in fall when its dry should help.

A deep tillage now in spring when its wet will make things worse long term.

You just have to be patient with that patch, its a work in progress, don't try to hurry it up. It needs time to heal.

Patience.

Paul

used to do alot terrace work just let i be it will settle out !!!!!!!!!!

I would probably let it set till real dry this summer, then grade it, seed it in the fall.

That sounds familiar for the Marshall type soils around home in West Central Iowa. New terraces would be soft and spongy for a few months until the ground settled a little. Very heavy rains could cut washouts through new terraces without the water level coming close to the top of the terrace. I've had a few rubber boots get pulled off in the deep sticky mud. By next year they will be OK except for the very bottom of the terrace channel. Let them dry out, even if you have to wait and do a late planting in the terrace channels.