lockdown in paradise !

Hi we are blessed at the particular period of lockdown to have been in the midst of what I can only call amazing weather, even by our normally good standards. This has allowed me to really get some good work done completing my raised beds and allsorts of other works. What I am doing this year is still growing my tomatoes in open ground. To prepare the soil for my tomato bed I have dug the soil by hand instead of my usual use of the rotavator and here is the real point of my post. One does not really get an idea of the damage using a cultivator to prepare their soil until after years of doing so they dig the soil by hand! The compaction of the soil is really bad and to be honest had I known just what I was doing I would probably have just tried to use the spade and fork over the machine. I will say it saves the back ... but you do a lot of damage to soil structure and I am sure it cannot be a good thing. Anyway it is a lovely morning so time to be out there again stay safe and enjoy.

Yes, over time a rotavator can create a 'pan', which is a compacted layer of earth underneath the bottom level of the cultivated layer and which can become impervious to drainage (depending on soil type, of course)

I reckon it just destroys the soil structure fullstop Yorkie. My soil is a nice fine, probably too fine, soil which if dug properly hold air and drains. Take a cultivator to it and that structure is lost the soil slumps when wetted and does not hold the air then of course you get drainage problems. One other major problem I have is that the topsoil is very shallow in places and below the topsoil is a dense sandy clay like subsoil which is impervious so waterlogging is even more of a problem. Had I not decided to go no dig I would have given up the rotovator and dug down and broken up the subsoil a bit and added manure and tried to create new soil.

I can understand why you use your tiller... which I suspect would do exactly the same as mine does. I use the word cultivator or rotavator it is an MTD 450 Pro so does what any of them does. I fully agree with what you say I though. I have a big'ish veg plot about 20m by 25m and digging by hand was not on my agenda  but having seen what a machine does to the soil it makes you wonder should I have attempted a different way? I turned over an area of 7m by 2m in a little under a couple of hours with my digging fork to grow tomatoes on this year... I like the look of it so much I have decided to keep it as a future no dig bed 

I can understand why you use your tiller... which I suspect would do exactly the same as mine does. I use the word cultivator or rotavator it is an MTD 450 Pro so does what any of them does. I fully agree with what you say I though. I have a big'ish veg plot about 20m by 25m and digging by hand was not on my agenda  but having seen what a machine does to the soil it makes you wonder should I have attempted a different way? I turned over an area of 7m by 2m in a little under a couple of hours with my digging fork to grow tomatoes on this year... I like the look of it so much I have decided to keep it as a future no dig bed 

Quote from: Yorkie on April 15, 2020, 09:19

Yes, over time a rotavator can create a 'pan', which is a compacted layer of earth underneath the bottom level of the cultivated layer and which can become impervious to drainage (depending on soil type, of course)

I reckon it just destroys the soil structure fullstop Yorkie. My soil is a nice fine, probably too fine, soil which if dug properly hold air and drains. Take a cultivator to it and that structure is lost the soil slumps when wetted and does not hold the air then of course you get drainage problems. One other major problem I have is that the topsoil is very shallow in places and below the topsoil is a dense sandy clay like subsoil which is impervious so waterlogging is even more of a problem. Had I not decided to go no dig I would have given up the rotovator and dug down and broken up the subsoil a bit and added manure and tried to create new soil.

If you’re going no dig can I ask why you are digging? I understand you say there is a hard pan but I’m sure over time with no dig & yearly mulches of well rotted mulch it would rectify itself, wouldn’t it?

If you’re going no dig can I ask why you are digging? I understand you say there is a hard pan but I’m sure over time with no dig & yearly mulches of well rotted mulch it would rectify itself, wouldn’t it?
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I have gone almost no dig but for this year only because of the time I have been spending prep'ing beds I needed somewhere to grow my tomatoes I grow quite a number of plants probably thirty this year. So I have had to dig the ground over it is so badly compacted and there was not enough compost to cover that area 14 sq m . However now I have done this I will be keeping that area as a no dig bed next year. There is no way I could have planted out toms in that ground the winter rains really hammered it.
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Good luck & hopefully from now you can keep no digging  save your back