Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: lesley1322 on May 06, 2010, 17:20
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ok so this might sound like a really daft question but how do i dig to get a fine tilth...??
I'm new to allotmenteering and all of my neighbours seem to have really fine perfect soil & everytime i dig mine it just ends up being in massive hard clumps which then dry & are impossible to break down. (maybe i am just not strong enough?!)
my allotment hasnt been dug for a few years & i am just using a fork to double dig. am i doing something wrong or is it just because its not been dug properly for a while?
Any tips on how to get fine soil would be greatly appreciated...
Thank you in advance :)
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lots of digging, bashing clumps down with a rake, or even running through a large hole riddle. Lots of hard work involved im afraid
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lots of well rotted manure on it (after its been dug), leave for a few weeks then dig it all in and it will be loose underneath
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Lots of hard work iam afraid, dig it over and bash those clumps with the fork, then dig it again and bash, then rake it off :) if its like my soil when you get a good tilth and it rains after, it makes a hard cap, which is sorted by a quick hoe around!
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read my mind lesley. I was about to ask the same question. I prepared a bed for sweetcorn and dug in well rotted manure but it looks awful. waiting for the nature to do miracle in a couple of weeks time to make it perfect tilth. :)
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You only really need a small amount of your plot as a fine tilth, and that is where you are sewing seeds, even there you can get away with a seed drill filled with multi purpose compost.
If you sow the seeds at home and are planting them outside later then you don't really need a fine tilth.
Don't panic, the soil will gradually get better over time as you work it, don't expect miracles all at once. Keep adding organic matter, as much as you can and in no time you will notice the difference.
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Give it three years of hard work/cultivation/digging/organics/frosts etc and it will begin to look like your neighbours' plots. Give it another five and it will look even better.
In the meantime you'll be producing some great stuff even if the soil looks like the somme.
First earlies in a well dug/composted patch followed by leeks will really cause you to 'work' the soil and might accelerate the process a little.
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the only way i know of getting a tilth on hard dug ground is to catch just as it dries on the top after some rain, then i rake it over., i use a wooden hay rake so i can cover a large area quickly
johnhar :)
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we dig in october 1st and leave big lumps
then rotavate twice, january and march,
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I don't dig at all so no big clods to break up :D
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Dig over and let the frosts do some of the work for you.
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I haven't got one myself but quite a few people on our site use azada-type tools and they seem to work well at breaking up clods, better than bashing them with a rake or cultivator cos they're heavier and sharper?
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Rotovate ;)
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It's not everyone who likes rotovators. I hate them actually - the racket drives me mad this time of year :D You don't need graded grains for growing veg, unless of course you intend to show your carrots and beetroots with roots a mile long :D
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My new lottie is a pain to dig....it's been rotovated for so many years there is a dead stop hard pan at one spade depth >:(
All I can do at the moment is to get the fork into it and wiggle a bit...I hope eventually to loosen it. The OB next door digs rather than rotovates and showed me how deep the top soil is once through the hard pan. So I know the extra work will be worth it in the long run :)
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thank you everyone for your replies... looks like i will have to just keep at it i guess & it will eventually get there.
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your soil will break up as you grow and harvest your veg. If you add manures and home made composts, leaf mould etc, spent growbags and the contents of your pots etc it will get better year on year. Oh I forgot to mention green manures :)
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Dig and rotavate I think..... don't rotavate the same bit every year..... my plan for the future is to get to the point where the big rotavator goes over the ground in a spud year but gets to go down a long way as it trenches in, then the small one goes over it in onion and root years but nothing goes over it in squash, bean or brassica years.....
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I don't dig at all so no big clods to break up
Me too! :D
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I got given a load of gardening vouchers for my birthday this year and bought a Wolf Soil Miller. Basically a rotovator and hoe all in one on the end of a long handle.
So far I have only used it for single rows but it certainly knocks down lumpy soil into something like a tilth. Not fine enough for fine seeds like carrots but more than enough for planting out or any of the larger seeds.
I found it best to use it just after rain, rather than when the lumps were hard.
The only downside I can see is the cost. The best I could get was about £32 from Longacres online, and then you have to buy the right length handle as well, about another £10.
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I've one of those as well.
It works great after i've raked all the large lumps/stones to one side.
Good bit of kit.
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A mini tiller such as a Mantis or Honda FG110 does a great job in this respect and saves you lots of time and effort in many lightish tasks. Treat yourself!
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Agree with so much that has been said. I dont have a rotavator, nor can I afford one. So digging and then I use a "soil miller" . The best bit of equiment I have ever bought - it has interchangeable heads too. I dig, then, soil miller. When I want to plant seeds, I give a really good go with the soil miller and low and behold - a fine tilth.
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After the initial double-dig of an area (including breaking up the lumps as much as you can), I would suggest:
(a) add plenty of compost/manure most years, to build up the organic matter (dig it in a bit, or just leave it on top and let the worms dig for you);
(b) never walk on the soil where things grow - so you don't need to dig it again;
(c) if the soil structure is too coarse for sowing seeds, use a bit of seed-raising mix or general purpose compost in the rows
Fine tilth is a bit over-rated. Your soil needs to provide structure to hold the plants, food and water. If it does that, the size of the lumps doesn't matter too much.
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As a couple of people have alluded to, no dig beds help a lot, but you can end up with the opposite problem and have soil too loose for brassicas! Adrian's post pretty much says it all, except I wouldn't bother with double digging unless there is a drainage problem. :)
After the initial double-dig of an area (including breaking up the lumps as much as you can), I would suggest:
(a) add plenty of compost/manure most years, to build up the organic matter (dig it in a bit, or just leave it on top and let the worms dig for you);
(b) never walk on the soil where things grow - so you don't need to dig it again;
(c) if the soil structure is too coarse for sowing seeds, use a bit of seed-raising mix or general purpose compost in the rows
Fine tilth is a bit over-rated. Your soil needs to provide structure to hold the plants, food and water. If it does that, the size of the lumps doesn't matter too much.
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I found that you do need a fine tilth for carrots
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My chinese rotovator digs to about 15 inches which is deep enough for me, and produces a lovely fine tilth.
So my plan has been formed as such:
Rotovate everything that is empty in late autumn and cover for the winter.
Rotovate beds with winter crops as soon as they are all empty and cover until needed.
I have found that the beds I rotovated and covered last october were perfect for sowing into this year.