Tillage Management for Cotton in Southeastern Coastal Soils during Dry Years

With rising energy costs, expensive deep tillage needs to be reevaluated. In 2002 and 2003, tillage treatments were evaluated for effectiveness in increasing cotton yield when noninversion deep tillage was either performed annually or not. Tillage treatments included a nontilled control, a straight-legged subsoil shank with bedding, and strip tillage with each of the following: a straight-legged subsoil shank, a Paratill, and a Terra-Max. In 2003, treatments were split with half the plots tilled and half not. No-tillage treatment significantly reduced penetration resistances better than others. Tillage decreased penetration resistance and improved yield but differences were significant only half the time. Treatments not tilled in the second year did not have significantly reduced penetration resistance because of a lack of recompaction during a dry first growing season. Tilling the second year improved yield marginally. Producers need to decide whether to till after a dry year on a case-by-case basis.