[andyk]

just been down the plot for an hour, the trick of keeping going over it with the rotovator has worked, i last turned it over last friday i walked over it today and only got three or four hand fulls of growing weeds out of it and the soil is looking realy good its that fine its like walking in sand,
now its time to feed it i was thinking of useing mushroom compost as i can put in on as soon as i get it. with horse or cow muck i would have to leave it to rot down a bit. i keep thinking of putting something in but on the other hand it may be better to leave it until spring that would give me time to get the beds in the right place. anyone know a good place to scafolding planks from?
i also have two trees to get rid of both have been cut back in the past and are growing back what i was going to do was cut them back to ground level and but something on them to speed up the rotting i have been told that jeyes would do that  
any ideas welcome
andy

[WG.]

i also have two trees to get rid of both have been cut back in the past and are growing back what i was going to do was cut them back to ground level and but something on them to speed up the rotting i have been told that jeyes would do that  
any ideas welcome

Jeyes would surely do exactly the opposite?  Surely it is a disinfectant and so would kill any fungus?  Commercial timber operations use a solution of urea on coniferous stumps - this speeds up decay I believe.

[shaun]

I would dig the trees out mate it takes forever and a day for them to rot down,if you can borrow a block n tackle fasten the 2 trees together and dig around one 1st to loosen it and start pulling on the block n tackle in the end one will give up then you just have one to dig one out.unless you can fasten the chain onto something else and do the same thing,
good to hear the rotavator method of keeping the weeds down is working I swear by it.
spread muck over the top and leave it until the spring to turn it in with your machine
this muck was a few years old and i done this in june

[Sadgit]

I dream of soil like your Shaun....

[Aidy]

Couple of things to remember Andy, weeds at this time of year will be slower to germinate, and mushroom compost is very alkaline. Oh one thing, our soil is very sandy so any nutrients you put in now will be washed out by spring, if you look around the site most (80% or more) wont chuck muck on until spring. I tend to use the free stuff to act as a mulch over winter then turn it in around feb ready to top dress it in march witht the rotted stuff. I was peeping at your plot tuesday night, if you dont mind me saying so you need to get the fork in and get rid of the roots, it might look good now but trust me come june and you will have a fight on and you cant get the rotovator in beteween crops when there are growing, spend some time forking through and get rid of as much root as poss.
Edit: Also with the rotovator you will be turning the weeds seed bank over, you will be amazed at the amount of seed ready to pop up. I have been using the same system now for a whole year, thought I had it cracked but was amazed by the amount of weed that came up even tho like you I rotovated it and even dug it before crops went in.

[andyk]

dont think the fork would lift anything now as i have been to full depth with the rotovator it is still getting turned over so any more roots should be lifted only roots that will need some spade work are the ones from the trees
andy

[WG.]

Just rake off any roots which rotovator brings to the surface