Soil crusting can affect how water moves through soil and how erosion happens. This study looked at how soil crusting impacts soil moisture, runoff, and erosion during natural rainstorms. They found that soil moisture and runoff were similar between crusted and uncrusted plots because new crusts formed quickly on the uncrusted plots. However, erosion was much higher on the uncrusted plots due to surface soil disturbance. This challenges the common practice of hoeing lands after rainfall to reduce runoff and erosion.