plowing

[tortoise]

How does plowing kill microorganisms in the soil? And by kill, what percentage of the microorganisms are affected and how long until they recover? This seems implausible to me!

I plan to use chickens in the future. We don't have them (or the land) yet. I'm in zone 4. We still have about 2 feet of snow on the ground. We'll move May 1. It is likely we will still have snow then. The farmers here are snowplowing their fields to try to get an earlier start to the season!!!!

 

[Hinotori]

I hope to be able to rototill much less once I have garden areas well established. Our soil is just mostly rock with clay so I have to till in organic matter. Ive been doing some raised beds as well. Later on those will be for early crops when it's still to rainy for planting in the ground.

I'd love to just have to plant and mulch instead of till

 

[baymule]

@tortoise turning the soil under smothers out the beneficial bacteria and microorganisms. I think they are in the top 6-8" of the soil. I don't think (JMO) plowing kills ALL of them, but it more than likely puts a hefty dent in the population.

When you have poor soil, it takes awhile to build it up to where you don't have to till anymore. In my perfect world, I would have 4 garden areas. One for spring, fall, chickens and fallow-rotating them as the season ended, with the coop in the middle.

 

[tortoise]

I was not able to find reference to plowing as killing microorganisms. I was able to find quite a few sources that mentioned increased plant matter in the top 20 centimeters (edited, I mistakenly wrote 50!) of soil in un-tilled managed crop land had higher microorganism counts (excluding protozoa, which were unaffected.)

It seems that the concentration in microorganism count is due to distribution of organic material. When plowing distributes plant matter deeply, one could theorize the microorganism count would be the same quantity but distributed over a greater area, having a lower density. Soil incorporates air pockets, I cannot understand how turning soil would "smother" bacteria.

Edited to add source: https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/sssaj/abstracts/61/1/SS0610010152

 

[Hinotori]

Most of the books I have talk about plowing killing worms and other small organisms, nothing mentioned about the micro-organisms. Don't really want to kill those if it can be helped. I was pulling weeds in my strawberry bed today and was getting several worms with each one pulled up.

One thing plowing does here is open you up for thistles. Lots of thistles. I learned that two years ago.

 

[Marianne]

I never plow or till. I'm definitely in the no-till group. My first garden here was on top of compacted, crappy soil. I put down a layer of straw, then a layer of aged, composted manure and more straw. No chickens that year to do my 'tilling'. I thought I'd have to chisel a hole to plant anything, but it wasn't too bad. The following year showed better soil structure underneath, and so on.

You can smother whatever grass and weeds are there by covering with cardboard, etc. Then all that will be 'green manure'. Plant and mulch, mulch, mulch. It works here, anyway.

 

[k15n1]

The potential garden locations is listed on soil survey as "chetek sandy loam", "magnor silt loam", and "Menahga loamy sand". That means nothing to me!

Sandy loam is the key here. Surveyors named soils based on where they first found them and those names seem fairly specific and are used, I think, for understanding the finer points of soil composition and geology. Farmers I've talked to describe their soils with clay, sand, and loam. You can measure those components based mainly on size, and figure out where you are on the triangle (see link). I think the order of the words is a clue to how much of each component you have.

http://www.oneplan.org/Images/soilMst/SoilTriangle.gif

I'd guess that sandy loam is a light soil and prone to wind and water errosion. Probably very well drained, too.

We have silty clay loam, which is fairly well drained but somewhat prone to errosion. I moved here for the soil, mostly. It's prime except for the errosion risk.

 

[k15n1]

In my own garden, the soil was rock hard, poor and would hardly grow weeds. it is a strip between the driveway and sidewalk, cut into beds by brick walkways. I double dug, added compost and covered with paper feed sacks to keep the weeds down. I cut holes in the paper to place my plants in the soil. For soil that wouldn't grow weeds before, loosening the soil and enriching it with compost made them take off, growing leaps and bounds. I dug up the garden for several years and now I just mulch with grass clippings, compost and loosen the soil with a spading fork.

What I do in my small space wouldn't work for you in such a large space. So...do you have chickens? It is a little late for this year, but fence the garden area, turn the chickens out in it all winter and pile leaves, grass clippings and vegetable matter in it. The chickens will scratch it all up, poop and eat weed seeds. Maybe you could have two garden areas, plant one and turn the chickens in the other one. Alternate back and forth.

Where are you located and what is the climate?

Chickens are my project for this year. I've been wanting them for quite a while but I think the stars are finally aligning... I plan to fence in several paddocks and rotate them so that they don't destroy any given plot. Maybe I should make the garden one of the paddocks.... Still, that'll be for next year.

I'm in SE MN.

 

[pepper48_98]

I think rotating the chickens to two different areas is a great idea. I think I will make portable panels out of 5X20 horse panels and just move them when I want to rotate. One area for the summer garden and another spot for fall.

 

[Marianne]

My hens (and now goats, too) always do the fall cleanup in the garden. A little light tilling, bug patrol, little light fertilizing, it's perfect. I wish I had enough room for two gardens with the coop and compost area in the center. Easy rotation with hens on one side one season, then the other the next.

We have a half dozen cattle panels to use for portable chicken paddocks. Worked in theory. We put chicken wire on the panels so small-ish chickens couldn't get through and maybe cats wouldn't climb over, snap clips to hold them (carribeaners). By the time we were done, they were so heavy and awkward that they're just leaning against the old garage now. We did use them briefly, but we sure weren't moving them around much.
I still have an eye on a different area for a garden, but to clean it up, I'd use the hens and a portable coop. That's where things get dicey around here. The man can speak volumes just by giving me 'the look'.