Equipment

I have used this set up for the past three years and have never regretted doing it.  I use it on no-till and minimum till without needing to make any adjustments.  It seems to crumble the soil, rather than press it in hard.  Sometimes if the soil is just a bit wet, two solid wheels will set things up for the soil to crust over.  I followed the wisdom that the rubber wheel will firm up the soil and limit the chance for the soil to "wick" dry; but the spike will fracture the soil and allow easy emergence.  I set the down pressure on my Kinze's closing wheel arms to the first position, so there is little down pressure.  One thing I did notice is that the plants do not line up exactly down the row.  Maybe this is caused by the corn plant finding a fracture to emerge through or the seed being moved a tiny bit.  This is just an observation that has not made any difference to us. 

We also added the Martin chains to run behind the closing wheels.  This has worked well and helps to leave the surface loose and maybe help cover any seeds that need just a bit more soil over them.