How to disc a garden when your tractor isn't running

[arabianequine]

Not trying to give you any more ideas but read the title and was thinking you need to get the horses out and working.

 

[EweSheep]

Quote:
Thanks, rebelcowboysnb, I filled out their application for a price quote and other information. I had no idea that that could be done. Joe
BTW, my son was top of his class in mechanical engineering at Purdue. I've told him that his mother must have been stranded on a road somewhere with a broken down car, a mechanic happened by, she had no money, ... All he says is, "Oh, thank God!"

 

[mississippifarmboy]

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I only plow about 6" to 8" deep. About once every 5 years or so I'll run over the entire garden with our old flat bottom breaker to make sure the dirt isn't packed and is sort of loose & open to around 18" deep. I personally believe in our area it's better not to mix the layers too much as we have mainly red clay soil here on the farm. We work hard composting and building up the soil and doesn't make a lot of sense to turn it too deep. The area the garden spot is in wouldn't grow much of anything at one time due to over farming and over fertilazation, lack of rotation, erosion, etc. It's taken us years to get it to a natural productive state. I compost everything I can year round and add it into the garden every spring and fall. I also haul as much natural manure in as I can get from a couple of neighbor's barns and broadcast it over the garden and disc it under every fall. It's still very much a work in progress.
This last year we raised enough to feed and can for three families. My Mom and my uncle help with the garden and we all share the stuff we raise. We raised green beans, Cherokee speckled beans, butterbeans, tomatoes (Four different varieties), okra, yellow squash, zuccinni squash, potatoes (Both Irish & sweet potatoes), catalope, watermelon, onions (Multipling green & yellow), butternut winter squash, sweet & field corn, black eyed peas, and I know I'm forgeting a few things. The kids planted a few sunflowers & gourds in the skips too. Plus we have pecan trees, plums, figs, apples, peaches, pears, cherries, grapes, muscadines, sceptidines and a persimon tree. planing on planting more grapes, a paw-paw tree and several other fruit trees this winter.

 

[Rozzie]

Moment of AHA there until I remembered that putting a hitch on my car voids the warranty...

Ah well. I'll have to settle for getting someone to come out with a Rototiller...

 

[EweSheep]

The reason I asked why is because of our farmers out there really put their plows deep in the ground. Maybe because we have clay soil.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

"Hardpan- A hard layer of soil a few inches under ground level as a result of constant shallow plowing"

If you plow 6 inches deep you make room for roots an drainage 6 inches deep an turn the soil under that in to a solid impenetrable mass.

I would rather keep that solid impenetrable mass as deep as my equipment can make it to allow for roots an drainage.

Clay is the biggest contributor in hardpan so if you have a lot of clay its a big issue.

 

[woodmort]

You live in Mississippi and don't have a mule?

 

[Rammy]

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I thought it was against the law not to have a mule!! Not to mention not having a gun rack in your pick-up!!

Rammy

 

[EweSheep]

No gun rack in your truck, well, put it on your mule!

 

[muddstopper]

Quote:
The hard pan 6 inches below the soil isnt actually caused by shallow tillage. It caused by constant the compaction of the tractor as it drives across the soil. A good fertile soil is actually built from the top down. Stop and think about it, all the leaves, tree limbs, animal manures, ect, are deposited on top of the soil for natual decomposition. Turning all the living matter under to a depth that is below the areobic zone (oxgen laden top 6 3/4 inches of the soil), results in makeing the soil less likely to drain off excess water and less likely to remain fertile. Clay soils are usually characterized as haveing a very high Cation Exchange Capacity, there by haveing the ability to hold tightly to any available nutrients instead of releaseing them easily to the plants growing there. Pulling up more clay thru deep tillage and consequently burying any accumilated organic matter only compounds the problem. Burying the organic matter to a depth below the areobic zone, reduces the amount of microbial life that can feed on that matter and release the stored nutrients contained in said organic matter. Recycled nutrients from the organic matter is much easier for the plants to use than the nutrients obtained from the base soil. The best way to reduce the hard pan is to keep the tractors off the ground, but this isnt practicle in this day and age. Good fertility managment and proper limeing and reduced excessive nitrogen use will improve soil structure without the need to run aripper hipper thru the graden plot.