Fall tilling, spring tilling...

[PaulF]

Or both or neither? Yesterday the entire garden space got completely cleaned up, all the dead and dying plant material was either put on the compost pile or disposed of. Then the entire space got tilled.

The question is, should I fall till, spring till, both or neither. My reason for fall till is to incorporate the newspaper/straw mulch into the soil to add to the organics of the soil. In the spring, my non-tomato portions of the garden get another light tilling to smooth things off for row crops.

Too much tilling tends to compact the soil and remove oxygen. For some reason I have a need to turn the dirt over and make it look nice. What do you think and what do you do?

[amideutch]

If you are applying inorganic ferts to the soil initially and during the course of the season then tilling in the fall would work.

If you are growing your crops organically and using microbial biofertilizers, studies have shown that soil disturbance through tilling can dramatically affect the functioning of Mycorrhizae and other beneficial organisms in the soil.

In my raised bed at work after pulling the plants at the end of the season I cover it with horse manure and compost, lightly rake to even out and that's it till next spring when I plant. I've been doing this for the last 5 years.

Ami

[beeman]

Originally Posted by PaulF

Too much tilling tends to compact the soil and remove oxygen. For some reason I have a need to turn the dirt over and make it look nice. What do you think and what do you do?

I till in the fall, then cover the whole area in black plastic, bury the edges to stop the wind lifting it. Then all it takes is a light rake over before planting in the spring.
This stops snow and rain compaction, kills off any surface weed seed and does no harm to the bacteria in the soil. I incorporate compost before tilling to ensure it gets well mixed in. I grow some remarkable plants

[gssgarden]

Ami, Do you ever til your raised beds at all?

What i did a few years ago was dig a trough, put some fresh horse poop in, cover it up, and let it sit for a couple months before tilling in the spring.

Greg

[amideutch]

Ami, Do you ever til your raised beds at all?

Nope. My bed has not been tilled or turned in the last 5 years. Every fall after I remove the old plants and clean out the weeds and grass (not much) I cover it with horse poop, compost, and horn shavings and that is it. During the course of the winter it gets snowed upon, rained on and frozen. Come May I set out my plants and innoculate them with myco's using my dip and that's it.
I water it with a soaker hose I run down the row next to the plants.

Ami

[KarenO]

For me it depends. I do not till my raised beds, there is no need as they are not walked on. For the in ground garden, it is cleaned off in fall as far as dead plant material which is composted. Then I add manure, wood shavings, compost, peat, leaves, whatever there is just on top. that is left on over winter, we have generally a heavy snow cover which keeps it from blowing away. freeze-thaw cycles which would help with compaction from walking are not very effective under the insulation of a thick snow cover so we do till, once in spring to stir up the soil and mix in the organics as well as to achieve a tilth suitable for making furrows for seeds.

I believe it depends very much on your geography and your soil conditions. This works here on a rich but heavy and easily compacted clay loam soil. My other beds are mainly compost with minimal actual soil which is never walked on. This is very different than the open garden.

Karen

[Redbaron]

I never till for tomatoes peppers broccoli sweet corn, melons, things like that. In the fall I'll plant a winter cover crop or winter crop.

Now there are very rare occasions I might lightly till the very surface of a very small spot. Usually for starting a seed bed that will be transplanted later. Say onions from seed for example. The seeds are so tiny it is easier to start them outside in a seed bed that is very crumbly and fine. But for the majority of my tilling I use earthworms. They know what they are doing and work for food. Pretty good deal in my way of looking at things.

[joseph]

I till all crop residues into the soil in the fall. If I am planting early spring crops like peas, lettuce, spinach, etc then I plant directly into the soil as soon as the snow melts. I don't have to worry about the soil blowing away, because we don't have a lot of wind, and I typically have snow cover all winter, and then weed cover after that. If I have to wait long enough for the soil to dry out in the spring before tilling, then I might be months late planting the early crops. I till again in late spring, after the soil dries out, before planting crops like tomatoes or melons.

[Lindalana]

If I could I would not till. But I rent my land from village from April to Nov, and village tills it spring and fall. Am still coming with ideas what can I do at winter time to keep it covered. Am still waiting for soil test to see what is what but am gardening on pretty sandy soil so any organic matter disappear fast... twice a year tilling is just wrong....

[joseph]

Originally Posted by Lindalana

twice a year tilling is just wrong....

That makes me glad that I till 5-6 times per year: Twice in the fall if possible, and 2-3 times in the spring prior to putting in late planted crops like tomatoes and squash. And that's not counting the routine cultivation that goes on all summer long for weed suppression. I really like working with my brother's sandy soil because it is so agreeable and not-muddy but I prefer working in clay for purposes of soil fertility and ease of irrigation.

No worries about fertility for me... My heavy silty/clay soil grabs hold of every cover-crop of weeds or crop residues that I till under. In any case, my tilling is just a skim along the surface. It does little to change the deeper soil where most of the plant roots, animals, and microbes live.

In my climate, winter wheat and winter rye make great cover crops. Sure it would take a lot of seed to plant a community garden, but it germinates a few days after rain, and it grows all winter long in my climate, even under snowcover.

[Lindalana]

Joseph, am curious... why do you want to do this much tilling? What do you see improving?
For me, I like sustainable, hands off gardening the most. My perennial garden is shady, on clay soil, done by sheet mulching, no watering or fertilizing. If worms could do it for me why should I bother?
For veggie gardens, I do have winter rye seed but village tilling on Nov 1 does not leave much time for me in zone 5. I tried a winter mix last year and everything germinated well but got killed only couple of weeks later...

[joseph]

I am unwilling to poison my fields, therefore, tilling kills weeds. Tilling chops coarse plant material into finer particles. I do not clean my garden in the fall. The corn patch, and the squash vines, and everything else gets tilled in where it grew. Tilling kills weeds. Tilling is culturally favored in my area: "Good farmers till". I earn prestige by tilling. Tilling kills weeds. Tilling prepares seed beds and simplifies sowing. I can plant about 300 feet of row per minute in a tilled field. It would take all day to plant that many seeds properly in a non-tilled field. Tilling kills weeds. Tilling makes transplanting trivial: In tilled ground I can plant a flat of 72 tomato plants in about 2.5 minutes. In non-tilled ground I wouldn't even have the first hole dug by then. Tilling makes it possible for me to dig root crops. Non-tilled in my heavy clay is much different than non-tilled sandy soil. There are plenty of times that I have abandoned crops because the ground was too hard for a digging fork to penetrate. Tilling loosens up dense soil. Tilling kills weeds and gophers. Tilling feels great: When I am done tilling a field I know that I have accomplished something. It might be wrong, but at least it's a bold wrong that is admired by my peers and neighbors. What's not to love about being admired for a vice?

I love my permaculture food forest. But as far as I can tell, that's no way to grow any type of annual or any type of staple crop other than nuts. Yield from one annual plant in my tilled fields is about 20X what one plant of the same variety yields in the food forest. If I had my own land, rather than renting, and if I lived on it and could keep animals, I would convert just about all of it into a food forest and abandon the tilling.

Freshly tilled garden:

[Worth1]

Joseph I love it.

Lest we forget it is our own right to do as we wish in our gardens and our lives not to be infringed on by others beliefs.
I shouldn't have to explain to anyone why I like my coffee sweet other then I simply do.
I like tilling too.

Worth

[bjbebs]

I also till both fall and spring. Cover crops go in as spaces empty,both grain rye and buckwheat.
Leaves and horse manure follow. These practices have made a large garden spot into an enormous raised bed. Good soil structure doesn't happen overnight, but once there gardening is sure fun.

[TomNJ]

Aside from the need to soften and fluff the soil for seed germination and root crops, I till to add organics at the root level in the soil. If one doesn't till, how do we incorporate compost, cover crops, and other organic garden debris deep into the soil where it can decompose and the plant roots can benefit? Serious question - I'd like to learn.

TomNJ/VA