Rototilling
I prefer no-till "Lasagna" gardening, or "Sheet Mulching" as others call
it. To my way of thinking it is the best way to garden, and it requires less exertion. --- Gaia's Garden, Second Edition: A Guide To Home-Scale Permaculture (Paperback) by Toby Hemenway http://www.amazon.com/Gaias-Garden-S...culture/dp/160 3580298/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271266976&sr=1-1 p. 81 - 82 To Till or Not to Till We've seen that organic matter keeps soil light and fluffy and easy for roots to penetrate. What then about the mechanical methods used for breaking up soil? The invention of the plow ranks as one of the great steps forward for humanity. Farmers know that plowing releases locked-up soil fertility. Plowing also keeps down weeds and thoroughly mingles surface litter with the soil. We do all this, too, when we drag our power-tiller out of the garage and push the snorting beast through the garden beds in a cloud of blue smoke. What's really happening during tilling? By churning the soil, we're flushing it with fresh air. All that oxygen invigorates the soil life, which zooms into action, breaking down organic matter and plucking minerals from humus and rock particles. Tilling also breaks up the soil, greatly increasing its surface area by creating many small clumps out of big ones. Soil microbes then colonize these fresh surfaces, extracting more nutrients and exploding in population. p.82 This is great for the first season. The blast of nutrients fuels stunning plant growth, and the harvest is bountiful. But the life in tilled soil releases far more nutrients than the plants can use. Unused fertility leaches away in rains. The next year's tilling burns up more organic matter, again releasing a surfeit of fertility that is washed away. After a few seasons, the soil is depleted. The humus is gone, the mineral ores are played out, and the artificially stimulated soil life is impoverished. Now the gardener must renew the soil with bales of organic matter, fertilizer, and plenty of work. Thus, tilling releases far more nutrients than plants can use. Also, the constant mechanical battering destroys the soil structure, especially when perpetrated on too-wet soil (and we're all impatient to get those seeds in, so this happens often). Frequent tilling smashes loamy soil crumbs to powder and compacts clayey clods into hardpan. And one tilling session consumes far more calories of energy than are in a year's worth of garden grown food. That's not a sustainable arrangement. Better to let humus fluff your soil naturally and to use mulches to smother weeds and renew nutrients. Instead of unleashing fertility at a breakneck, mechanical pace, we can allow plant roots to do the job. Questing roots will split nuggets of earth in their own time, opening the soil to microbial colonization, loosening- nutrients at just the right rate. Once again, nature makes a better partner than a slave. ----- McGowan's Drinking Guide (Translated from the original German. It's complicated, OK?) Drinking Problems Symptom Fault Action to be Taken Bar is moving You are being Find out if you are carried out being taken to another pub - if not protest that you are being kidnapped by the Salvation Army. -- If you like weekends (8 hr./day & 40 hr./week), then thank a labor union. They paid for it in blood. Real working class heros. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair Taxes Citizen$ --- Government --- Corporations --- Top 1% --Where the money went Are you better off than you were 30 years ago? 10 years ago? Last Year? -- - Billy Dept. of Defense budget: $663.8 billion Dept. of Health and Human Services budget: $78.4 billion Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953 |
I composted long before today's "experts" knew what it was and only a lazy person shies away from rototilling. So how do today's "expert" put in a lawn. Lay cardboard and newspaper across the empty space for a year then seed? Todays "experts" have an answer for everything, that is taking shortcuts to save the environment.
|
Rototilling
In article ,
bullthistle wrote: I composted long before today's "experts" knew what it was and only a lazy person shies away from rototilling. So how do today's "expert" put in a lawn. Lay cardboard and newspaper across the empty space for a year then seed? Todays "experts" have an answer for everything, that is taking shortcuts to save the environment. There are those of a different opinion on rototilling. Why shouldn't their concerns be allowed to be expressed? "A lawn in preindustrial times trumpeted to all that the owner possessed enough wealth to use some land for sheer ornament, instead of planting all of it to food crops. And close-mowed grass proclaimed affluence, too: a herd of sheep large enough to crop the lawn uniformly short. These indicators of status whisper to us down the centuries. By consciously recognizing the influence of this history, we can free ourselves of it and let go of the reflexive impulse to roll sod over the entire landscape." You are in favor of saving the environment, aren't you? How would you do it differently? Please, continue. If you like weekends (8 hr./day & 40 hr./week), then thank a labor union. They paid for it in blood. Real working class heros. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair Taxes Citizen$ --- Government --- Corporations --- Top 1% --Where the money went Are you better off than you were 30 years ago? 10 years ago? 1 year ago? Thank Reaganomics/Thatcherism, a.k.a. Voodoo economics :O( -- - Billy Dept. of Defense budget: $663.8 billion Dept. of Health and Human Services budget: $78.4 billion Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953 |
Rototilling
I till a new bed the first year and then turn it over the following years with a spading fork. A tiller chops up way too many earthworms which I like in my beds. Rich |
Rototilling
Tilling is a good way in my book for first time ground prepping. After that
no more tilling is needed ever. Be it for new lawn or garden. -- Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan) |
Rototilling
|
Crackpots come in all shapes, colors and sizes who assume they have "all" the answers. Meet many wouldn't be a friend to any.
|
Rototilling
In article ,
bullthistle wrote: Crackpots come in all shapes, colors and sizes who assume they have "all" the answers. Meet many wouldn't be a friend to any. Bull, why do you use so many words to say nothing? "The philosopher who said that work well done never needs doing over never weeded a garden." - Ray D. Everson Are you better off than you were 30 years ago? 10 years ago? 1 year ago? Thank Reaganomics/Thatcherism, a.k.a. Voodoo economics :O( -- - Billy Dept. of Defense budget: $663.8 billion Dept. of Health and Human Services budget: $78.4 billion Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953 |
Rototilling
In article ,
Nad R wrote: Tilling is a good way in my book for first time ground prepping. After that no more tilling is needed ever. Be it for new lawn or garden. "Double digging" is certainly to be recommended for a new garden, as it speeds up the development of the bed, but it isn't necessary otherwise. Rototillers create a hardpan, a layer of compacted soil, at the bottom of the tilled zone. This may be acceptable for lawns, but for gardens it is advised to break up this compacted zone. Insert a broad fork or digging fork deeply into the soil at 6â intervals to break up any compaction and to allow air and water below the depth of tillage. Breaking this up with a fork permits the roots of plants to grow deeper than the tilled area, and also allows plants to find water and nutrients deep in the soil. Loosening allows for better percolation of rain water and irrigation. -- McGowan's Drinking Guide (Translated from the original German. It's complicated, OK?) Drinking Problems Symptom Fault Action to be Taken Everything has The pub is Panic. gone dark closing -- "For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death." - Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962 In 1992, 2.2 billion pounds of pesticides were used in this country - eight pounds for every man, woman, and child. -- Are you better off than you were 30 years ago? 10 years ago? 1 year ago? Thank Reaganomics/Thatcherism, a.k.a. Voodoo economics :O( -- - Billy Dept. of Defense budget: $663.8 billion Dept. of Health and Human Services budget: $78.4 billion Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953 |
Rototilling
In article ,
Nad R wrote: Tilling is a good way in my book for first time ground prepping. After that no more tilling is needed ever. Be it for new lawn or garden. "Double digging" is certainly to be recommended for a new garden, as it speeds up the development of the bed, but it isn't necessary otherwise. Rototillers create a hardpan, a layer of compacted soil, at the bottom of the tilled zone. This may be acceptable for lawns, but for gardens it is advised to break up this compacted zone. Insert a broad fork or digging fork deeply into the soil at 6 inch intervals to break up any compaction and to allow air and water below the depth of tillage. Breaking this up with a fork permits the roots of plants to grow deeper than the tilled area, and also allows plants to find water and nutrients deep in the soil. Loosening allows for better percolation of rain water and irrigation. -- If you like weekends (8 hr./day & 40 hr./week), then thank a labor union. They paid for it in blood. Real working class heros. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair Taxes Citizen$ --- Government --- Corporations --- Top 1% --Where the money went -- Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the forest and the outlaw. - Henry David Thoreau -- - Billy Dept. of Defense budget: $663.8 billion Dept. of Health and Human Services budget: $78.4 billion Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953 |
Rototilling
On Apr 25, 8:29*am, Billy wrote:
Bull, why do you use so many words to say nothing? Damn, if your not the pot calling the kettle black! |
Rototilling
On Apr 25, 10:33*am, Billy wrote:
Rototillers create a hardpan, a layer of compacted soil, at the bottom of the tilled zone. ....leastwise that is what ya read in your eco-fringy blogs right? and as for the worm mulch you so worry about , your chickens kill more earthworms than that tiller will. |
Rototilling
In article
, Gunner wrote: On Apr 25, 10:33*am, Billy wrote: Rototillers create a hardpan, a layer of compacted soil, at the bottom of the tilled zone. ...leastwise that is what ya read in your eco-fringy blogs right? and as for the worm mulch you so worry about , your chickens kill more earthworms than that tiller will. As I understand it. Tilling or plowing at a constant depth will create a hardpan. Thatıs why God created a chisel plow. Some folks try not to create one in the first place that is cheap and eco-warrior friendly. -- Bill S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden "The best fertilizer is the gardener's shadow." - Anon |
Rototilling
On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 14:52:46 -0400, Bill who putters
wrote: In article , Gunner wrote: On Apr 25, 10:33*am, Billy wrote: Rototillers create a hardpan, a layer of compacted soil, at the bottom of the tilled zone. ...leastwise that is what ya read in your eco-fringy blogs right? and as for the worm mulch you so worry about , your chickens kill more earthworms than that tiller will. As I understand it. Tilling or plowing at a constant depth will create a hardpan. Your understanding is incorrect, it's not even logical. What you refer to as a "hardpan" is not created by tilling, the more compacted soil was *always* there, it's a matter of relativity; tilled vs untilled and the point where one ends and the other begins... there is no logical way that tilling will *create* "hardpan" below the tilled depth, only if the "hardpan" faeries dance a jig below ground while wearing vibratory boots. If the soil has poor drainage due to compaction that's a whole nother issue... perhaps one should till deeper, or farm a different location. Another thing to consider, annuals do not have roots that go very deep nor should they, which is why farmers plow/till only to a certain depth each year depending on which crop, and in fact what you call "hardpan' helps to retain more nutrients and moisture for the crop. |
Rototilling
On Apr 25, 11:52*am, Bill who putters wrote:
In article , *Gunner wrote: On Apr 25, 10:33*am, Billy wrote: Rototillers create a hardpan, a layer of compacted soil, at the bottom of the tilled zone. ...leastwise that is what ya read in your eco-fringy blogs right? and as for the worm mulch you so worry about , your chickens kill more earthworms than that tiller will. *As I understand it. *Tilling or plowing at a constant depth will create a hardpan. *Thatıs why God created a chisel plow. * Some folks try not to create one in the first place that is cheap and eco-warrior friendly. As "MAY" fit your thinking, right? Change "will..." to "might..." and you just might be correct, perhaps, maybe and yet, still never be. I find no fault with what Sheldon says here. The fat butt being pulled along behind that tiller is going to compact that soil more than those blades ever will in your little pea patch in the world. Your world just doesn't fit mine BWP, regardless of how many times you and Bro. bill tell me it must be so. Too many variables that prohibit such an overly broad generalization. |
All times are GMT +1. The time now is 07:18 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
GardenBanter