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Annapolis Valley Nova Scotia

Anybody doing it?

5/9/2013 9:04:33 PM

Ireland

Works better on Light soils according to my crop soil lecturer at college.
Heavy soils need the tilling and id be inclined to till heavy ground as the air needs circulating to lower layers or else roots become asphyxiated and we dont want that.
This might help a bit
Micheál

5/10/2013 2:41:33 PM

Colorado

nope=tillaholic here

5/10/2013 3:34:37 PM

Piqua, Ohio

I tried it, the roots don't seem to travel very deep.

5/10/2013 9:21:34 PM

Rhode Island

the no till advantages fall far behind the advantages of a good deep tilling or sod busting.

5/11/2013 8:14:41 AM

Anamosa, IA [email protected]

Notill is great for production agriculture but it takes quite a few years for it to develop its full potential. Also, farmers aren't trying to get 50 tons of crop per acre, like we are with our small patches. We make up for the damage that tillage does to soil with huge additions of organic amendments at rates many times greater than what farmers can do. Still there are advantages to limiting tillage as much as practical. I try to prepare a small "core" area for the plant in the fall and wait until later in the spring to make one tillage pass ahead of the growing plant. I haven't gotten a huge pumpkin yet, but I am seeing improvements in my soil over 20 years ago when I tilled several times per year.

5/11/2013 2:42:17 PM

Bristol R.I. USA

I can't see how it really is possible to not till a patch. It's tough enough to get the winter rye down with a tiller I can't imagine how it would be trying to get that stuff down without a good tilling never mind trying to mix the soul and all amendments. It doesn't seem possible.

5/11/2013 4:29:52 PM

nOVA sCOTIA

use the tiller to chop and the pitchfork to mix everything else! It's called physical labour and it works:)lol

5/11/2013 5:24:59 PM

BC, Canada

No till? All the time - for the fruit orchard and the berry vines and the Ribes beds and a lot of the landscape shrubs, rotos etc. We all do it, but it is according to the area or crop.
In new hard earth I think you need to till to get the organics in there. Iowegian said it well. Good post.
I have a lot of sand, almost pure in places. For the garlic I can almost push a bulb in with my fingers and then cover it with several inches of grass and maple leaf mulch. It definitely yields some great bulbs the following year.
Following up on Iowegian's post, what I wanted to say is that the formula often used to explain soil uses time as one of the factors. Some of my sandy garden beds now have ten years of mulching and are so soft I can't easily take a tiller through them so, yeah, no till there and it makes for great root crops. The harder newer and clay areas get mixed real good.
I have to get a broad fork.

5/11/2013 6:06:45 PM

Nottingham, UK

My rye gets dug in by hand and its a lot of work, cutting down, turning over, breaking up clumps, covering and then mixing again after two weeks. I'd till if I had one but have to make do without it.
I wanted to follow the Wallace method of turning in rye just as needed but without tilling it just aint possible.

5/11/2013 6:13:23 PM

Paradise Mountain, New York

A lot of things have to happen all season long for no-till to work. My neighbor who milks over 900 cows did no-till corn last year. He planted over 200 acres of no-till corn and just after a month, plowed it all up and started over. This was the second time he tried it. He told me he will never ever do it again. Biggest problem is, soil has to be warm enough early and you have to have the right amount of moisture in the soil with warm nights as well.

5/11/2013 6:24:10 PM

SW Ohio

We have been using no till for about 25 years in our farming operation. Can't imagine going back to working the ground now. I have not tried it with pumpkins as yet but have been thinking about if it would work.

5/11/2013 7:38:09 PM

The bottom of New Jersey

Some great posts here - I agree completely that it depends on your soil and the circumstances. Clay soil, which I have, is a tough transition to no-till and I honestly can't see myself going that way any time soon in the pumpkin patch. "Conventionally" farmed no-till fields (corn/soybeans) become like pavement around here with very little life in the soil. However when I walk back in the woods where it has never been tilled or messed with, I can push my hand into the ground 4 or 5 inches easily and it is all beautiful soil. The way you go about it is just as important as the soil you have to start out with. Hmmmmmm, maybe I will try it soon...........

5/12/2013 8:28:43 AM