permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Market Farming] new venture
Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:50:10 -0800
From: Lawrence F. London, Jr. <lfl@intrex.net>
Reply-To: Market Farming,  micro to broadacre 
<marketfarming@lists.ibiblio.org>
Organization: http://market-farming.com  --  Venaura Farm

Allan Balliett wrote:
> > You have to bottom plow the winter before you do any subsoiling and 
> > tilling.
> > This is a must. If you have most any type of clay, plowwing in winter 
> > will allow
> > time for it to freeze and break up before Spring. This is way better 
> > "rototilling" than
> > with mechanical means.
>
>
> 1st off - by winter before, do you mean 'fall' before? 

In the late Fall _when soil moisture is exactly right_ and _in close 
proximity to
freezing weather. You don't want to plow then have the sun bake the freshly 
plowed exposed
soil into hard clods or hardpan.

> Or do you mean 
> winter? 

Can be very late Fall or early winter or even later as long as you have 
adequate days
of freezing weather to recondition the soil by "freezing it out".

> For example, in BD, some of the older books recommend plowing in 
> February to reduce weed germination.

In sandy soil maybe but never in clay or clay loam soil, _ever_;
would be too late for freezing out and you would end up with very hard 
unworkable
soil to garden with that year. You'd have to start all over with plowing in
the following Fall-early Winter.

> I do not go into the fields when 
> the soil is wet. For this reason, winter plowing in this area is quite 
> difficult (too much rain/too much snow)

Plow when the soil is very low in moisture and in late Fall or early Winter 
very close to
days with freezing temperatures.

> I have subsoiled in old pastures very readily without plowing first. I 
> subsoiled because I had no desire to invert the top layer, especially in 
> this area where a 8 inch divit will generally give you 2 inches of RED 
> CLAY.

Plowing is something you want to do infrequently but it is absolutely 
necessary
to recondition soil and put it in shape where subsoiling and tillage tooling
(and rototilling and hilling/bedding) is best accomplished.
You have to invert the top layers in order to do this so you want to do it 
right the
first time and hopefully not have to plow again.

> I'm interested in hearing what your experience is. -Allan

Which is (see an earlier lengthy post to sanet from me about this):

See the piles of manure/compost and rock dust in background of the pix of the 
Howard
Rotavator, http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/farmpix/HR.jpg?
I apply this material in 50" strips in rows in my gardens; this is where the
raised beds will be. The soil in this area has already been plowed the Winter 
before.
The materials (rock phosphate, greensand, manure, compost and extremely fine 
rock dust)
are spread in wide rows with a skid loader. Then these rows are tilled with a 
tillage tool
(spring tooth harrow/cultivator) and could be subsoiled then also. The Howard 
Rotavator is
then used to thoroughly rototill soil, manure, compost and rock dusts 
together. Then the
rows are gone over several passes with disk bedders or hilling discs to make 
giant wide tall raised beds
with deep ditches along their sides. A properly prepared and fertilized bed 
of this sort could then
go a hundred years without further attention other than hand tilthing. This 
is real notill gardening.
Bite the bullet the first time and use the right implements to best advantage 
to prepare and amend the
soil and shape the beds then grow crops in them for 100 years without further 
tillage. Add compost,
phosphate, manure as needed to the surface and tilth it in with a fork. Smith 
and Hawken once sold
an Alan Chadwick tilthing fork; I have one of these (its like a digging fork 
the size of a border fork).

Onward.

LL
--
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
Market Farming Forum
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/marketfarming
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--
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
Market Farming Forum
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/marketfarming