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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] roto crutch

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: Barbara Money <bmoney9@verizon.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] roto crutch
  • Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2010 17:25:20 -0500

This past spring, I hand-forked new sections to enlarge the one-year-old existing wide-row. I removed clumps of stuff, mostly weeds and some grass. Before that it had been a horse paddock, with some sand/small gravel added to keep it from being too muddy for the horse. We shoveled aged manure onto the bed areas, and most of them got tilled in. The turnips and beans were the only direct seeded crop in this area, and the turnips did poorly (lots of leaves but wormy, and the few turnip roots were very late--a 50-day crop took 3 months). The other stuff did well, tilled or not. I don't think I could have direct seeded the turnips unless the seedbed was fine enough. How do you break up the mulch with no-till? Does no-till also mean no-hoe? I use a hand cultivator or small hoe, doesn't go real deep. Not saying I'll till again, I really would rather not, knowing the need to keep soil layers.

Oh, and tilled or not, I had few weeds, just a few perennials that came up here and there.

Barbara M
Foster, RI

--
"Animals Are A Gift"





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