For those of you that experienced flooding last year, you may be wondering how your soils will perform this year.

An article in Science Daily, discuss the impact of floods on soil.

Key Points From the Article:

• Soil aggregation is an important soil attribute that is related to the physical-chemical state of the soil, and is one of the essential processes that determine soil quality.
• Loss of soil aggregation impacts agriculture by decreasing soil quality and crop production.
• The research revealed that the aggregate stability of upland soils was decreased under reducing conditions from short-term water ponding. The decrease in aggregate stability reached approximately 20% during a 14-day ponding period, which is quite significant in terms of soil disaggregation. Changes in redox sensitive elements (increases in Mg, Fe), alkaline metals, and dissolved organic carbon (reductions in carbon) under reducing conditions contributed to the decrease in aggregate stability.
• Overall, the aggregate stability of cultivated soils was more affected by the reducing conditions than that of uncultivated soils. This indicates that the management system plays an important role in the stability of aggregates.
• The authors believe that once the reducing reactions take place in the field and disaggregation has occurred, the process will not reverse itself because the natural drainage will carry away the released chemicals and the chemistry of the soil-water system will not return to the original state. The disintegrated aggregates may clog the soil pores and further degrade the soil structure.
  

What does all this mean?

Soils that have been flooded need more nutreints replaced since more than N-P-K are leached. You should think about calcium, sulfur, zinc, boron, and organic carbons when looking to restore flooded ground.

Keeping you soil free of hard pans will help to reduce the chance that soils will flood. Don't work soils when wet and deep rip when needed.