qualicumtom
New member
Hey everyone,
I'm pretty sure I'm not alone here as being the only one who has to deal with a horrendous crust every spring. How does everyone else deal with it?
Here in Vancouver we end up getting about 50 inches of rain (almost all of which during winter and early spring), and my heavy clay soil with an organic matter content of ~15% gets a really bad crust every time that the rain comes in after rototilling. I've switched to the more traditional, and slightly less intrusive, method of plowing and discing before rototilling shallowly (as opposed to only rototilling) to try to help alleviate the problem, but to no avail. The soil is too heavy to ever consider a minimal tillage system for vegetable production.
I'm currently using a mutivator and lilliston rolling cultivator between the rows, and it does most of the work between and around transplanted crops, however growing carrots and beets is more challenging as the lines are spaced one foot apart on the bed, as opposed to 3' for potatoes, cabbage, etc. There isn't the option of utilizing other lighter soil in the city as the nice fluffy soil is covered in subdivisions and townhouses, but I have heard that a lot of growers utilize rotary hoes and or finger tines--what's the low down on these implements? They're an exceedingly rare sight around here.
I'm pretty sure I'm not alone here as being the only one who has to deal with a horrendous crust every spring. How does everyone else deal with it?
Here in Vancouver we end up getting about 50 inches of rain (almost all of which during winter and early spring), and my heavy clay soil with an organic matter content of ~15% gets a really bad crust every time that the rain comes in after rototilling. I've switched to the more traditional, and slightly less intrusive, method of plowing and discing before rototilling shallowly (as opposed to only rototilling) to try to help alleviate the problem, but to no avail. The soil is too heavy to ever consider a minimal tillage system for vegetable production.
I'm currently using a mutivator and lilliston rolling cultivator between the rows, and it does most of the work between and around transplanted crops, however growing carrots and beets is more challenging as the lines are spaced one foot apart on the bed, as opposed to 3' for potatoes, cabbage, etc. There isn't the option of utilizing other lighter soil in the city as the nice fluffy soil is covered in subdivisions and townhouses, but I have heard that a lot of growers utilize rotary hoes and or finger tines--what's the low down on these implements? They're an exceedingly rare sight around here.