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Paying Attention to Your Seeding Depth With Purdue’s Corn, Soybean Guys

Eric Pfeiffer
dan and shaun

Farmers have quite a bit of time right now to think about unique and different approaches as they wait for dry spells to get in and plant. Research agronomists are doing the same.

On the latest Purdue Crop Chat Podcast (available now at hoosieragtoday.com), Purdue Extension Soybean Specialist Shaun Casteel asks Corn Specialist Dan Quinn if you should consider shallowing up your corn seeding depth to avoid sidewall compaction given all this moisture we’ve had.

“I just don’t like going under two inches with corn,” Quinn says, “because I see a lot of issues on the other side in terms of root development.”

Quinn adds that they’ve done some simple seeding depth trials over the past couple of years.

“And we’ve seen yield losses every single time when we go down to about an inch and a half to an inch with that corn plant. And that’s across a fair amount of different conditions, a couple of different hybrids that we looked at. I just like staying at two inches. Last year when it got as dry as it was, I actually sunk corn down to three inches.”

For soybeans, Casteel says you can plant too deep. Going that deep would snap the plant’s neck.

“We’re going to be in the inch and a quarter to an inch and three quarters range. We’re in a pretty narrow range. An inch and a half is where I like to be, but that kind of changes based on a sandy field or a coarse texture, or the ones that are going to be a little heavier ground and some of those that have those seed slots that are opening up. I don’t like to go shallower than an inch.”

The Purdue Crop Chat Podcast is available now on the HAT mobile app, just search Hoosier Ag Today in your app store, or click the play button below.

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