I planted some PTT 2 weeks ago and we had about 1/2 inch rain I was actually broadcasting the seed in the pouring rain. 2 days later I had turnips coming up. we have not gotten any rain since and it is very dry. they look good but need rain soon. the ground was almost hard as rock and challenging to even to scratch up the top inch or two with the tiller, but it's looking pretty good considering the conditions.
I've had bulbs as large as 5 lbs planting in August here. I'm far enough south that we get enough warm days in the winter that radish that is not eaten gets mushy and rots. In good mast crop years, turnip bulbs make it through the winter without being eaten. If I don't terminate them the next spring, they bolt and go to seed.
I'm guessing you have clay if the top is that hard. The previous plowing has introduced oxygen and burned the OM. Clay tends to for a crust if the OM is low. I would not go more than an inch with that tiller. You just need enough to break the crust. Another thing to look for with clay is compaction. This comes from putting heavy equipment on the field when the soil is wet. Clay compacts easily. You need to be very careful not to get on your fields when they are wet.
I've reclaimed old logging decks that had the topsoil removed and were highly compressed. Weeds wouldn't even grow on them. My first step was to use a sub-soiler to relieve the compaction. If I started in the spring, I would break the crust with a tiller and broadcast and cultipack buckwheat. If I started in the fall (or following the buckwheat), I would again break the crust and broadcast winter rye, groundhog radish, and crimson clover. In my area, the crimson bounces back in early spring along with the winter rye. That would cover spring and summer in year 2. In the fall of that year, I would repeat the process but this time, I would use a persistent perennial durana clover instead of an annual like crimson. By now, my topdressed lime had a chance to work and I could grow perennial clover. Durana is slow to establish so each time the WR would reach a foot, I'd mow it back to 6" in the spring.
After that spring of establishing the durana, I'd only mow once a year in the fall when cool nights and rain were favoring the clover. Each year, the field would get a little more weedy, but I'd get at least 7 years out of the durana. At that point, I could grow other crops. Sometimes I could do a complete no-till and some times it would crust a bit and I would need to min-till to break the crust, but after 7 years of no tillage, and only mowing once a year when it was dry but with rain in the forecast, the soil recovered quite a bit. It still takes years of smart crop selection and min/no-till to build OM from the top down to the point where I get no crusting. By smart crop selection, I mean a good balance between C and N. That is a mix of legumes and grasses or a rotation between them. (That doesn't mean you can't include other crops in the mix).
I'm now working part time on my way to full retirement and my farm is an hour and a half away. One of the things I'm realizing is how tough it is to be a weekend warrior. With limited time and uncertain future weather, it is often hard to balance soil temp, rain, soil wetness, and everything else when planting and the more acreage the more difficult. Planting windows can be small, and when access windows are 7 days apart, untimely rain can easily push you out of the planting window. It becomes easy to rationalize getting on wet soil with equipment or planting without rain in the forecast.
Our retirement property is only 15 minutes from the farm. I'm down there a lot more often now as we are building the barn and telecommuting makes my location less important. I'm looking forward to eventually living 15 minutes from the farm and being able to say "Little too wet today, I'll wait until tomorrow."
Thanks,
Jack
