Is there such a thing as over tilling garden soil?

[Dewayne mater]

Feldon:

When you say tilling further compacts the soil, are you talking about mechanized (rototill) tilling? Being a small urban gardener, I have small enough space to hand till with a pitch fork. I can't see how doing that would compact this soil? I like to do it once a year just to till in leaves, compost, etc. Not sure how that is a bad thing?

Dewayne mater

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

Feldon:

When you say tilling further compacts the soil, are you talking about mechanized (rototill) tilling? Being a small urban gardener, I have small enough space to hand till with a pitch fork. I can't see how doing that would compact this soil? I like to do it once a year just to till in leaves, compost, etc. Not sure how that is a bad thing?

Dewayne mater

I'm talking about using a machine like a rototiller. The vibration of the machine causes the deeper soil to compact.


Hand-tilling would not compact the soil unless you're walking in the bed.

[bughunter99]

Originally Posted by Rock Hill Farm

I Agree, Horse manure takes to long to break down, and by the time it does, it has been rained on so much it actually loses it's potency thru leaching. Another thing a lot of people overlook with Horse , cattle, and sheep manure is.. Medications. Higher end Horses, Cattle (Dairy), and the occasional sheep require regular medications for various ailments and supplements. Some of these medicines and supplements are synthetic I Think and never break down. Many Plants will pick up these residues unknowingly as Nutrients. Then geuss what? Your eating them in some form or another in your Produce. So when I go to pick up a load of Dung, I always ask before i load it, if meds were used. If so, then that manure goes in a seperate area for flower garden compost.

I agree with all of this and will add that even if you have no concerns about secondary exposure to animal medications, remember that if the animal consumed hay that was treated with the herbicide aminopyralid, that herbicide STAYS ACTIVE even after digestion and for more than a year in the animal's manure. Thus spreading that manure over your soil may just impede most things other than hay from growing there. Many lawsuits about this out there already. Whole farming operations affected.

Stacy

[nnjjohn]

I disagree Anything about electric or gas tiller machines is a plus for cultivating MOST beds that been compacted over the winter and or walked on and compressed. I want to mix peat moss with hard soil and I'm not going to risk doing it the heart attack way using hand tools lol.. With the electric tiller, I don't even break a sweat and it does a much more professional job Than anybody using hand tools. I started this thread to find out the number of times or what time of year before planting do others till their soil beds. The only time I will use a hand tool for my beds is when digging for planting or hoe for hilling plants or removing weeds.. or when after having to walk in a bed ..I may want to loosen wear I compressed the bed around my plants. Once you try a tiller, you never go back to hand tilling

[Stvrob]

my roto tiller broke down 10 years ago and I don't miss wrestling with it at all. Of course my native soil is fine sand, so its easy for me to say.

[Worth1]

I love my dual rotating tine tiller.

It breaks up soil that is already as hard as a rock.
It mixes compost into to soil and ran at a shallow depth breaks up cracks and takes out weeds.

Worth

[Redbaron]

Here is the best study available on the differences between conventional no-till, organic no-till, conventional tillage, and organic tillage. This is a 30 year side by side study. (although no-till methods were not added until 2008)

Rodale Institute Farming Systems Trial

[swamper]

to summarize quickly tilling has two adverse effects on soil structure which combine to form an Ap horizon in overtilled soils.

the first is simple compaction from the mechanical action.

Second: when soil peds are broken up by tilling, subsequent soakings with water can differentially move finer soil particles downward where they can form a dense layer that limits root growth just below the zone that was tilled.

Advice add more organic matter and till only when needed.

[efisakov]

Farmers that cut grass few times in a season, by the end of the season do till it. They often use fields to grow two different crops. They may till it twice.

[nnjjohn]

Maybe over tilling can be a problem using big equipment on a farm but, my question was for small 10 x10 sq.ft residential garden beds..when the soil needs reconditioning and composting before planting.

[Tapout]

It's possible to overtill. Then again its possible to undertill. Tilling is prepping the soil with amendments. If your soil doesn't need anything its best left untilled, but this is rarely the case.

[Worth1]

Till baby till.

Worth

[luke]

Heavy clay soil here, and I've ammended my soil with a sand a wood chip mixture for the past three years. I add lime in the fall and till, and then add the grit mix in the spring before planting by tilling. My soil is now at the consistency that I have been trying to get it to.

Late summer will be the time to do a soil test, and ammend based on the test. I expect the nitrogen will be somewhat depleted, and will probably have to add more lime.

So the short answer -- I till 2x a year. My kids helped me do it for the first time this year, so even if it is bad for the soil, we'll keep doing it to keep them in the garden.

[Cole_Robbie]

Let me bump this thread with a spin-off question: Is there such a thing as over tilling soil...in a high tunnel? My earlier answer was that overtilling is when you create wind and water erosion, but that doesn't happen inside the high tunnel.

I finished making the third of my three raised beds last night in the high tunnel. I tilled about 10-12 inches down, then mounded about that much dirt over the tilled row for the raised bed. It was a lot of tilling.

[Redbaron]

No-till baby, no-till!