"Don't pulverize the soil...."

[JDgreen227]

Despite all the compost, leaves, sand, etc. I have worked into my garden plot, there are still many places where the soil continues to clump up when I till it. No matter how many times I run the tiller over the soil, even when it's bone dry, the clods as shown in the picture simply will not break down. I have read online that if you have a garden you should not pulverize the soil, but to me having the soil pulverized would be ideal for growing because I wouldn't have to waste so much time raking and trying to level out the seedbed.

Is there any real reason NOT to have well pulverized soil? Thanks for your input.

 

[bilrus61]

What tiller are you using? Is it a walk behind or a tractor 3 points? Go slower, lower the rear gate/drag door. Till when its dry on the top crust but still moist a inch down. Maybe grow a cover crop like Buckwheat or what we grow, sunflowers. Till them in when they are about 2 or 3 feet tall.

 

[boggen]

not a green thumb. but soil looks good to me? why all the fuss to have like a powered dirt? so it takes a day or 2 longer for seeds to grow up out of the soil. the plants will still grow good. and water will still penetrate the soil and slowly trickle down through the soil.

 

[uglyboywith11fingers]

When we had a garden plot, I'd get clumps like that if I got over-anxious and tilled in the spring when the soil was still too moist. The clumps were hard to get broken up after that.

Pete

 

[oldballs]

All I can say is....roto-tilling at the wrong time is a disaster....at least with my walk behind....never had a tractor tiller. As others mentioned above, getting an eye for when it is dry enough and wet enough is the answer. Although my main garden has been amended for forty years, it can still be screwed up by tilling at the wrong time. But I still consider myself an amateur. I clean up surface debris (burn it or haul it off to a burn pile) in the fall....till once; then till once in the spring.

But now with the Kubota, I've got a single moldboard plow and a midddle buster to help turn stuff over that I'm experimenting with. After that treatment tilling still is in order....at the right time. Yet I still use a rake and hoe quite a bit. The main garden is only 50 x 100 and fenced.

Maybe BP (member) and others can add more to this, since it is so important.
I think Mz Stout would advise to garden without tilling.

 

[Western]

JD, I have never heard "not to over pulverize dirt" before. I don't see how that could possibly effect anything negatively, sure wont "kill" the amendments or nutrients I wouldn't think. I have had higher clay content dirt that would "ball up " like your photo, no matter when you tilled it, but I agree that the timing (wet/dry) makes it less or worse.


Have you ever got it to a fine mix? has it got better since you started adding compost? lumps getting smaller over time?

 

[flusher]

Pulverizing by repeated rototiller will eventually destroy the soil microstructure and make it drain poorly. That said, my 87-year old neighbor has been putting in veg gardens successfully for most of his life. He discs the garden in March with an offset disc, spreads worm casings, and then rototills these into the soil thoroughly. He uses driplines under black plastic to keep the weeds down and reduce evaporative moisture loss.

Good luck.

 

[downslope]

The reason not to pulverise the soil is because it breaks down soil aggregates into smaller particles and encourages clumping, poor drainage and crusting of the soil surface, etc. Excessive rototilling can be notorious for this as well as tilling when wet.
DO NOT TILL WET SOIL. Slightly moist below the surface yes, wet, no.

For transplants you do not require a really fine seed bed. For direct sowing of small seeds only the surface has to be relatively smooth. Something like a meeker harrow with offset rows of small disks and a smoothing board can do this. On larger vegetable farms they might use a power harrow before seeding.

HRB 303 - Rigid Power Harrows - KUHN North America.com

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Since all I have is a shovel and the tiller, I used the shovel the first time I prepped the bed, and have been using the tiller ever since.

I till the scraps and compost in in the fall, and then dump the leaves in a layer across the garden to keep the dust and erosion down. I scatter fireplace ashes over those throughout the winter.

Spring comes and I till all the broken down leaves and ash into the soil. Usually takes two passes to get the organics thoroughly mixed enough to plant seed.

Both spring and fall tilling is needed to combat the intrusion of blackberry briars.

Never had any soil break down from over tilling. Have gone from powdered clay to a good humus rich soil in a couple of years. And I can attest that you do NOT want to till when it's wet unless you're planning on raising adobe bricks.

 

[Bird]

I don't know now much tilling is "excessive" tilling, but tilling was so easy with the tractor that I tilled my garden after every rain as soon as it was dry enough. I also tilled it in the Winter if weeds or grass started showing up. And the finer I could pulverize it, the better. I also had one of the best gardens in the area.