[Donnay]

Hi,

Can you please tell me when is the best time to rotivate. Are you best digging over in autumn and rotivating spring or can you rotivate any time and don't need to dig over if rotivating??

Sorry if it sounds a stupid question but not been doing this long!

[BobE]

Others have said this.


http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=69910.0

[mumofstig]

Depends, do you have a hard pan about 6 - 8ins down which stops the soil draining and is difficult for roots to grow into?

If you do, then it is probably best to dig deeply during Autumn/Winter, to loosen the hard pan, and rotovate in Spring.

[Eblana]

I personally would recommend deep digging in Autumn/Winter and then rotivating in spring.  Last year I rotivated three beds and left them for the winter the rest I just dug and left.  When spring time came the three that I had rotavated were solid where the winter rains had created a hard pan across the top of them and they seemed to have much more weeds. I had a terrible time trying to break them up and had to re-rotavate them.   The ones that were left just dug, were rotavated in spring and broke down beautifully for me and were much less weedy

[compostqueen]

You don't have to rotivate at all. It's not compulsory 

[m1ckz]

ive just dug some of mine ,,then put horse muck on top which was rotvated in,, i then put a layer of muck on top ,  that will stay like that till spring

[mumofstig]

You don't have to rotivate at all. It's not compulsory 

Granted, but as the OP asked when to rotivate rather than if to rotivate it would seem rude not to tell him 

[ghost61]

As to the best time, not 6.30 on a Sunday morning like one of our lottie holders!   

[m1ckz]

best time of the day ,,he he heeeee

[compostqueen]

You see what I mean, nothing good ever came from rotivating    Antisocial bunch 

[goodtogrow]

Taking my cue from mum, and trying to answer the op, the best time to rotovate depends on the soil, which may mean that the best time is never, 'cos it don't need it.

Tom

[GrowinGrowinGone]

It depends what kind of soil you have, it may not need it.  And if you have couch grass in it, don't ever do it till you got rid of it all.

[seaside]

Whatever method is employed, it's always a good idea to think of what pests have been around in the Summer, and what is the best time to disturb their plans for bunkering down. That, more often than not, means Autumnal digging, with another light going over in the Spring. And if one prefers to hand dig, it's a lot easier to do the main dig in Autumn than in the Spring when the soil is heavy.

[JayG]

A lot depends on what sort of soil you've got - if mine were a heavy clay I'd be digging as much organic material I could get my hands on in autumn to try to improve it.

I actually have sandy soil, and there is no point either digging it or adding manure in autumn because the winter rain would wash it all away, although I am now pondering the value of lightly forking over the top 6 inches once or twice in winter given that this year I have added pea thrips to my list of bugs which overwinter in the soil........