Alleviating soil crusting

[qualicumtom]

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.

 

[Gary Fowler]

We used to use the rotary hoes (rolling finger tines) to break the crust on soil planted in cotton but never used it on other crops. I think your only option is to increase the sand and organic content of your garden to alleviate the crusting problem. I put in all the hardwood leaves from the fall gathering and till them in. Brother in law also used pine needles for mulch and incorporates them into the soil. He has been doing this for several years and his soil is now very black and rich. I just started with a garden last year so I have a ways to go. My soil is also heavy with clay and rocks so it will be a while before I get enough organic material into the soil. I also plan to put in a dump truck load of river bottom sand to loosen up the clay so it will absorb more water.

 

[qualicumtom]

Hey Gary,

Any problems with using the rolling finger tines, other than of course bits of chaff and such getting stuck in there?

I thought about the sand idea myself, but you'd need a pretty huge quantity to cover 5 acres, and I fear that it would cost me a pile of money and just turn the soil into concrete. I already try to collect all the leaves that I can this time of year for that purpose, and mulch the ground where the higher value crops go in--mostly leaves from my apple and cherry trees.

-M.

 

[jenkinsph]

Will follow this thread to see what answers others have. The first thing that comes to mind would be adding organic matter to the soil if you can. I have a couple of acres on a property that I have been adding leaves and pine needles to for about three years now. It will take me another five years or so to build this up the way I wan't but it had less topsoil on it than anything I have ever owned. I get paid to haul away leaves and pine needles so that covers the cost of hauling but I don't have enough time for this to do it all at once.

Are you doing this commercially or for as a homeowner with a small garden?

 

[qualicumtom]

The prairie boys will probably scoff at saying 5 acres of veggies is a commercial venture, but yeah, commercially. I figure if it takes up all my time and pays the bills that we can call it such!

 

[jenkinsph]

Hey Gary,

Any problems with using the rolling finger tines, other than of course bits of chaff and such getting stuck in there?

I thought about the sand idea myself, but you'd need a pretty huge quantity to cover 5 acres, and I fear that it would cost me a pile of money and just turn the soil into concrete. I already try to collect all the leaves that I can this time of year for that purpose, and mulch the ground where the higher value crops go in--mostly leaves from my apple and cherry trees.

-M.

Sounds like you are on the right track might need to figure a way to get paid for hauling to cover costs. I get $9.00/yd for dump fee on yard waste such as the leaves and needles. I only haul in what is suitable for my uses, any junk goes to a landfill.

 

[oosik]

Be somewhat careful on the amount of pine needles added to your soil. Here the only trees are P. pines and the soil is black as the ace of spades. Also the soil is VERY acidic and to get any kind of garden I have to add a significant amount of lime/pot ash or anything else to neutralize the soil. Have no problems with surface crusting - very little clay and even less rain.

 

[jenkinsph]

The prairie boys will probably scoff at saying 5 acres of veggies is a commercial venture, but yeah, commercially. I figure if it takes up all my time and pays the bills that we can call it such!

Five acres of veggies can darn sure keep you busy.

 

[jenkinsph]

Be somewhat careful on the amount of pine needles added to your soil. Here the only trees are P. pines and the soil is black as the ace of spades. Also the soil is VERY acidic and to get any kind of garden I have to add a significant amount of lime/pot ash or anything else to neutralize the soil. Have no problems with surface crusting - very little clay and even less rain.

Good point about the acidity, varies with your locale. My soil was too basic, over 8.2ph so the pine needles and leaves are helping to lower the ph.

 

[DJ54]

I'd go with the sand, if applicapable. With organic matter being at 15%, it is literally gluing the clay particles together. Ideally, in strictly clay ground, organic matter should be at 5%.

Also believe I'd forgo the shallow tilling, and just disk. I'm guessing your crust is about as thick as the depth you tilled. Plant in a little courser earth, then use a cultivator, not a tiller for weed control.

And possibly tilling the earth too early could be part of the problem too. I know we all seem to be chomping at the bit to get things out early, but tillage too soon when wet will cause you headaches all summer. I've been trying to get this point across to a buddy of mine for the past 4 years, but yet he gets out there when it's too wet, then complains all summer.

He also tills it until it's practically like flour, thinking this is the perfect seed bed, only to be disappointed when it gets hard as a brick.

I used a rear tined tiller to go between rows of the potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and other items my old David Bradley could not straddle to cultivate, once it got too high/wide. The difference in hoeing out a few weeds a few days after a rain made a believer out of me.

I would like someday to get a 3pt, tiller for the only reason to incorporate plant matter, and manure in the fall, before planting the cover crop.

 

[qualicumtom]

Crust only goes down an inch and a half. I usually try not to get the soil too fine, but with carrots and beets I thought that you kind of have to pulverize it.

I try not to make the mistake of going into the field too early, or else, yeah, the crust goes down to the depth of tillage. Also, yeah, I use cultivators in between the seeded area, but for blind cultivation on a crop planted at a depth of 2 inches using s tines is kind of out of the question!

 

[oosik]

Last time I checked my soil ph was somewhere between 5.5-6.0 Hey, when I was young and in my prime...... we had a garden, 60 x 120 and just recalling the amount of time spent weeding still makes my back hurt!! Ha, ha I tried doing the garden with the tractor and finally ended up disking everything in. Between the deer, pocket gophers, raccoon and birds I found my easiest solution was concentrating my efforts on pine tree management.

 

[qualicumtom]

Well hey, at least the deer taste decent. We used to have so many pheasants around here that they'd root through the soil nicely enough to stop the crusting, but it seems that they ate all the **** seeds, too.

 

[DJ54]

If you're growing root crops, THAT is definitely the place to put some sand. You don't have to do the whole thing at once. I'm sure you rotate your crops, and if you plan ahead, add the sand to that section for that, or next year.

On the other hand, don't do like my buddy, and add way to much at one time. He added approx. 8-10 tons of sand in a 6,000 sq.ft. area, and put like an 18" thick layer of composted horse manure on, then tilled it in as dep as the tiller would go. We got a good soaking rain later that day, then as normal, a few days later it appeared dry enough to re-till and plant. When he pulled into the area, his 5300 Deere sank into the front hubs... Then promptly called me to complain..., LOL... I keep telling him everything in moderation. He's trying to get his soil amended to the point it took many of us more than several years to reach optimum levels.

The world of instant gratification doesn't seem to work to well with Mother Nature...

 

[DJ54]

And as for the deer, if you'd like to see pics of the experimental hedge fence of sunflowers I planted this year to keep the deer out, I'd be more than glad to post them. Happy to report I had a 100% sucess rate at keeping them out..!! For the smaller critter's, a double strand of electric fence did the trick.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Hey Gary,

Any problems with using the rolling finger tines, other than of course bits of chaff and such getting stuck in there?

I thought about the sand idea myself, but you'd need a pretty huge quantity to cover 5 acres, and I fear that it would cost me a pile of money and just turn the soil into concrete. I already try to collect all the leaves that I can this time of year for that purpose, and mulch the ground where the higher value crops go in--mostly leaves from my apple and cherry trees.

-M.

The problem with using them with young plants on thick crust is that it would flick out the plant along with the crust. The plant needs to have a tough, resilient stem,like cotton and deep root system otherwise the tines destroy the plant. We grew cotton and soybeans mostly and it would not work on the soybeans. Only used it once per season when the new plants were about 3-4" high and soil was crusted over. They would flick out a small percentage of the plants but would bust the crust so we could then cultivate it would ripping them all up.

 

[qualicumtom]

Oh okay, because I figured I'd be using it preemergent to soften the ground and allow germination. I've read that they are finicky on beans, especially in the crook neck stage.

As for the flicking problem, perhaps it's not a bad idea to run the thing through the field before it dries out to a crust? That way you could mellow the surface and yet not lob clods about.

 

[LindenBruce]

How about tilling in some Perlite? Should do you just fine without changing the soils PH levels. B.

 

[DJ54]

Are you limited to space, where you couldn't space the beets & carrots out to 3' rows..?? I used Lilliston's years ago cultivating corn for a farmer I worked for part time, and they did an awesome job. Talked my buddy into buying a like new, 2 row set I saw on CL for cheap. It took him until late summer to get around to using them, instead of the CA Allis to cultivate, and wished he'd been using them all along.

That, and maybe get in the rows a little sooner, before it gets to the hard baked crust condition.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Oh okay, because I figured I'd be using it preemergent to soften the ground and allow germination. I've read that they are finicky on beans, especially in the crook neck stage.

As for the flicking problem, perhaps it's not a bad idea to run the thing through the field before it dries out to a crust? That way you could mellow the surface and yet not lob clods about.

I had forgot about doing it prior to emergence. We did that also if we got a hard rain right after planting and it formed a thick crust. You do have to get to it prior to the crook neck stage or it breaks off the plant top, but it saves more than it kills so I suppose it is good for that condition also.