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South East

I know its been posted before but i just read a piece on it,and i start wondering again. i spend lots of time loosening up soil in making a new patch. Its needed to make it workable but am i destroying more then i do good by tilling it over and over?

3/22/2008 9:38:22 AM

Whidbey Island

Repeated tilling can end up creating a compacted layer of soil just below the depth of the tiller, so it looks great on top, but you end up growing in just 6 or so inches of soil, the roots won't penetrate the deep layer. Farmers have devices to drag deep and cut this layer, but in the small patch it may be better to limit tilling as much as possible.

3/22/2008 9:59:16 AM

Webster, NY

What would be best for the small grower to work up the soil? Take a shovel and turn everything over?

Dave

3/22/2008 1:29:09 PM

Rhode Island

its difficult to get the ammendments into your soil unless you till in the fall and after ammending again in the spring. yes you will kill some worms but there will be more to replace them.

new patches do require alot of extra tilling and traffic over the soil so you can create a hard pan six or so inches below the surface.

we have a sub soiler that we run over the patch every couple of years. it is a single small blade that will break the soil below ground up to around 3 ft deep.

another good way to airate your soil is to pitch fork around the outside of plants several times during the year.
no need to turn the soil just drive the pitch fork as far down as you can then rock the handle back a few inches opening up a break in the soil.

pap

3/22/2008 1:44:43 PM

Rhode Island

i neglected to mention that you can check for proper drainage by doing the following

1. dig a whole 1 ft around and 1 ft deep in a couple areas of the patch
2. fill with water and time how long it takes to completely drain (should be around 45 minutes to 1 hr)

we have a more complete method article coming out in our next sngpg newsletter. proper drainage is very important.

pap

3/22/2008 1:52:48 PM

Ohio

What about a Plow? I have used this in the past when adding my ammendments. Turns the soil over and everthing else under. Just a thought, i have the local farmer do mine. I always give him some money for his work.

3/22/2008 2:24:03 PM

Anamosa, IA [email protected]

A moldboard plow will build up a plow pan just under the tillage depth. It will limit rooting and drainage. If you use this you may need to have the farmer bring in a deep chisel plow. That will break up the plow pan.

3/22/2008 7:31:38 PM

Boulder County Colorado USA planet Earth

I did a sharp shooter shovel this spring took all damn day. but got down 16 plus inches./

3/22/2008 8:33:01 PM

Denver, CO

Just as an aside, in reading the "how to grow" books, I notice several very big pumpkins are grown doing nothing but simply building on top of the soil that is already there, adding a new depth of about 2 feet. So maybe a shallow tilling to mix admendment in, with a focus on building the patch upward each year instead of diggin it more downward.

3/23/2008 10:23:12 PM

sometimes when i read these till/no-till discussions i think the only reason i have a tiller on the back is
to cover-up my tractor tracks! but it seems to me that
as long as the tiller is wider than the tracks then
not all is lost; any layers of soil structure are
destroyed but that's what TIME is for, to cover-up all of our mistakes. i suppose that as long as there are a couple of weeks between when i till all the goodies in and when i actually plant i am okay. then again, no thousand pounders yet. again, the TIME thing! well, have a good day---eg

3/23/2008 11:24:28 PM