During autumn sowing, we often skip several technological steps, mainly for cost-saving reasons, saying that it will sprout anyway. This can be true if the weather is on our side.
However, if we want to be sure, we need to sow in a good seedbed!
The role of the seedbed is partly to create a moisture-stable soil structure. The fine cloddy structure on the surface and the uniform, compact seedbed base underneath have insulating and heat-retaining properties that preserve soil moisture, giving the seed a better chance to germinate and sprout even in dry conditions.
Another important property of the seedbed is its settledness. Often, deeper tillage performed before sowing does not have time to settle, so this happens after sowing. Plants cannot develop as they should above the more airy parts. Moreover, when these cavities collapse, the soil starts to move, damaging the plant roots.
According to Professor Sipos, ‘the plant does not like it when the soil moves with it.’
If there are ‘caves’ under the sown seed, the germination and subsequent development of the exposed plant, and thus the yield size, depend on the size of the cave. In the case of a poor seedbed, the sprouted plants are like organ pipes.
As we have seen in recent years, at any stage of the growing season, in autumn, winter, or spring, weather conditions can greatly stress our plants. It matters how our plants start and strengthen, and how much reserve they will have when needed.
Therefore, it is best to sow in settled soil. However, there is not always time for the soil to settle naturally (for the caves created by tillage to collapse naturally), for example, in the case of sowing cereals after corn or sunflower. Deep compaction is needed to create the settled soil condition.
This is where a good seedbed preparation machine comes into play, capable of deep compaction. More precisely, it would be needed because, for soil mechanical reasons, there is no traditional tillage tool capable of this.
The Busa Rotary Hoe seedbed preparer has evolved over the years into a perfect seedbed preparer.
The Rotary Hoes, striking vertically, excellently crush even the hardest clods, as the clods are supported from below and cannot roll away from the blades. This same vertical strike results in good deep compaction, eliminating air chambers in the root zone, and also covers and presses plant residues on the surface into the soil.
Subsequently, with a gradually slowing lateral movement relative to the soil, it performs weed knocking down and opposite direction surface leveling functions. A huge advantage is that it does not clog with plant residues or other materials on the soil surface. It can create an ideal seedbed in summer, autumn, or spring, i.e., at any time.
Unfortunately, this ideal seedbed must not only be produced under ideal conditions.
In dry heat, the concrete-hard clods require the best clod crushing. In contrast, in rainy, wet weather, the clogging tool, over-compacted soil, and wet clods kneaded by the machine cause difficulties. The Rotary Hoe does not simply crush clods by weight; its energy comes from the speed of the strike due to the rotor’s movement characteristics. Therefore, the same machine can be used effectively in dry conditions and does not crush the soil if it is still wet below the surface.
This information can be obtained from BUSA Agricultural Machinery Ltd., which not only invented, manufactures, and markets these tools but also teaches its customers how to use them successfully..
It is not a bold statement to say that agricultural engineers worldwide have produced only one new tillage tool in the past hundred years.And that tool is the rotary hoe.
