With weathering and settling, ridges will be 4 to 6 inches tall the following spring. During the first cultivation, disks remove soil and emerged weeds from each side of the ridge. During the second cultivation, disks are reversed and positioned to move soil toward the row and to cover small weeds. Ridging or furrowing wings, attached behind the center sweep or horizontal disk, build rounded or flat-topped ridges. Most wings can be raised out of the way when not in use by repositioning a pin or bolt.
Wings push the soil from the sweep or disk to the row area.
Ridging wings are credited with building flatter ridges than disk-hillers. Traditionally, adjustment and use of crop shields have not been of much concern, especially during the second cultivation. However, with ridge-till, the crop shields can play an important role by helping control the ridge shape during the second cultivation. Since the crop may be relatively tall at second cultivation, the use of open-top shields is necessary. Open-top shields are less limited to crop height and are fully adjustable both vertically and horizontally.