well, if you get good quality veggies, they will take away a lot of
nutrients. No till eliminates tilling, weeding, and reduces fertilizing
and watering, but you can not grow great chard with leaves compost only
(though you can with manure).
You do need either manure or some chemical fertilizer, at least with
some veggies. Or you need to grow a lot of peas and beans.
Also, no till eventually becomes very friendly to slugs. Now organic
slug bait is available everywhere, so this is no longer a problem.

simy1 wrote:
There are certain plants that catch diseases. I leave all greens and
all root crops and all bulbs in place, because they never catch
anything, but tomatoes, cucurbita, beans and cabbage, if I know I am
not going to rotate next year, I prefer to remove. Most of my tomatoes
are healthy, but there is one particular heirloom that is hit or miss.
And the cukes get the wilt.

Just curious, where do you write from simy1?

southeast michigan.

southeast michigan.

g'day rob,

yes i use them all the time very successful for me come vsit my web site and
see how we do it:

http://www.users.bigpond.com/gardenlen1/

len

snipped

George.com wrote:
Has anyone experimented with, made use of, no dig gardening? I'm interested
in your experiences and opinions, how you got started, successes or failures
etc.

I tried planting butternut and acorn squash in a thickly mulched plot
last year and had mixed results. The acorn squash plants all turned
yellow and died. The weeds still grew, just a bit more slowly. The
butternut produced modestly. What else has to be done and how much
attention has to be given to soil testing? Thanks.

Dave wrote:
George.com wrote:
Has anyone experimented with, made use of, no dig gardening? I'm
interested in your experiences and opinions, how you got started,
successes or failures etc.

I tried planting butternut and acorn squash in a thickly mulched plot
last year and had mixed results. The acorn squash plants all turned
yellow and died. The weeds still grew, just a bit more slowly. The
butternut produced modestly. What else has to be done and how much
attention has to be given to soil testing? Thanks.

I don't know about acorn, but I did grow butternut once, before I was
told it was impossible! It was a heat-wave year, and they did rather
well. Others here will tell you not to bother, as (unless they've
produced a variety suitable for the British climate) they want a long
hot summer. If you don't get many replies, a Google Groups search of the
group archive will bring up a lot of stuff from the past couple of
years.

I don't think soil testing is worth the expense for most amateurs: if
your garden grows stuff, and you do the usual feeding routine, it's OK.

--
Mike.

Mike Lyle wrote:
Dave wrote:
George.com wrote:
Has anyone experimented with, made use of, no dig gardening? I'm
interested in your experiences and opinions, how you got started,
successes or failures etc.

I tried planting butternut and acorn squash in a thickly mulched plot
last year and had mixed results. The acorn squash plants all turned
yellow and died. The weeds still grew, just a bit more slowly. The
butternut produced modestly. What else has to be done and how much
attention has to be given to soil testing? Thanks.

I don't know about acorn, but I did grow butternut once, before I was
told it was impossible! It was a heat-wave year, and they did rather
well. Others here will tell you not to bother, as (unless they've
produced a variety suitable for the British climate) they want a long
hot summer. If you don't get many replies, a Google Groups search of the
group archive will bring up a lot of stuff from the past couple of
years.

I don't think soil testing is worth the expense for most amateurs: if
your garden grows stuff, and you do the usual feeding routine, it's OK.

Oh, this thread is being cross-posted across three groups. I'm located
in the midwest US. The Summer here can be quite hot and dry. In fact it
was rather difficult to judge when the mulched plot needed water. UK
weather is probably similar to the northwest US.

Dave

Hi All,
I have grown butternut squash [ Butternut Sprinter ] with success in most
years. Hope this helps you.

Richard M. Watkin.

"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
Dave wrote:
George.com wrote:
Has anyone experimented with, made use of, no dig gardening? I'm
interested in your experiences and opinions, how you got started,
successes or failures etc.

I tried planting butternut and acorn squash in a thickly mulched plot
last year and had mixed results. The acorn squash plants all turned
yellow and died. The weeds still grew, just a bit more slowly. The
butternut produced modestly. What else has to be done and how much
attention has to be given to soil testing? Thanks.

I don't know about acorn, but I did grow butternut once, before I was
told it was impossible! It was a heat-wave year, and they did rather
well. Others here will tell you not to bother, as (unless they've
produced a variety suitable for the British climate) they want a long
hot summer. If you don't get many replies, a Google Groups search of the
group archive will bring up a lot of stuff from the past couple of
years.

I don't think soil testing is worth the expense for most amateurs: if
your garden grows stuff, and you do the usual feeding routine, it's OK.

--
Mike.

R M. Watkin wrote:
Hi All,
I have grown butternut squash [ Butternut Sprinter ] with success in most
years. Hope this helps you.


So what plants are thought to be optimal for a no-till plot? My hope
was that the weeds would be kept under control for squash -- which are
difficult to weed -- but as the season wore on the weeds got pretty
thick. Some weeds seem to be effective mulch penetrators. Also I guess
I didn't really employ "no-till" but till once in the Spring and then
add another layer of mulch on top of that. With that is mind is there
anything else should I till in, such as lime? I have a source of horse
manure but figure that will be loaded with weed seeds. Thanks.

If you lay down a piece of cardboard, punch a central hole for the
squash plant, and then cover with mulch, brambles might make it
through, but most weeds won't.

When you ask about which plants are optimal for a no-till plot, I
assume you mean "clay plot". A sandy plot will be OK with any plant.
Plants that break the soil effectively include radicchio, fava,
cardoon, mache, and potato. Anything with a taproot, though the latter
two do not have one. Even carrot, parsnip, and beets, if you don't mind
the misshapen roots too much.

simy1 wrote:
If you lay down a piece of cardboard, punch a central hole for the
squash plant, and then cover with mulch, brambles might make it
through, but most weeds won't.

When you ask about which plants are optimal for a no-till plot, I
assume you mean "clay plot". A sandy plot will be OK with any plant.
Plants that break the soil effectively include radicchio, fava,
cardoon, mache, and potato. Anything with a taproot, though the latter
two do not have one. Even carrot, parsnip, and beets, if you don't mind
the misshapen roots too much.

Yes, I might try some sort of barrier this year. How about newspaper? I
guess my question has more to do with the quality of the mulch soil.
The several layers of mulch are still deteriorating so I presume this
may favor plants which tolerate acidic low-nitrogen soils??? Thanks.

Newspapers are fine, but if you want to kill brambles and grass,
cardboard is better. But more important than cardboard vs newspapers,
The secret to a good kill is to apply the mulch after growth has
resumed. That way you push down the shoot, and you have a long time
before the paper breaks down and lets perennials through.

There are plants that like degrading mulch, most notably tomatoes,
garlic, potatoes, squash. Degrading mulch tends to be acidic, but not
all the time, and not necessarily low nitrogen unless you use very
brown materials. Lettuce, for example, is sensitive to acidity, but it
will be very happy if planted directly through six month old leaves
mixed with some manure. In practice I always give wood ash to just
about anything i grow except potatoes (I have acid soil, and I prefer
wood chips, the most acid mulch of all, because I plant most
everything in seedling form).

Over time the pH of the degrading mulch climbs up to near neutral
values as it becomes soil. It will start to look like soil. There are
tricks that you can play. First, if you use leaves as mulch, they will
be 99% gone by next year, with a decent pH, so you can seed directly in
the resulting soil. If you use chunkier mulch, like wood chips, you
will have weed protection for two years or more, but you will have to
plant through the chips until they are gone. Wood chips start quite low
in pH but when they are done their soil is similar to that made of
other mulches, if possible with a stronger humus. If you use cardboard
covered with leaves or mulch, the cardboard is 99% gone the next year.
if your mulch is not quite done, and you want to seed directly there,
gently rake it to one side of the bed. Use that side for potatoes or
garlic, and the raked part for carrots and beets. The raked part will
have more weed seeds than if you had not raked it, but still less than
the soil underneath it.