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Sieving soil - compaction?
Jordan Carter
Posts: 81
Hi everyone,
I posted a similar topic a few weeks back but would like to bring it up again to get some definitive answers.
I have purchased a rotary sieve and have been sieving the soil on my allotment with a few helpers, to the depth of double digging.
I am worried that once it rains, all of the sieved soil will become compacted as it will be so fine. I plan on planting green manure as spoon as I've finished seiving. Is there a risk of ruining the soil by seiving it? It seems like the best way to get all of the roots out and it is covered in couch grass and bind weed. Any experience in sieving?
I've already sieved a fair volume, so hopefully I haven't ruined the soil....
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Posts
As long as you are adding organic matter, worms will thrive keeping the soil aerated (plant roots need air as well as water and nutrients) and the soil will look after itself. Mulching the surface with composted manure will allow as natural a cycle as is possible with cultivated soil. Nature does perfectly well without our help but when we cultivate crops, we must add back the nutrients which we remove in the form of crops and the best known way of doing that is by mulching with compost and manure. Worms pull the organic matter back down into the soil and digest it. The worm casts they produce are considered the perfect plant food.
Great, so the green manure is obviously organic matter so this should help. Thanks for the advice
You can use the roots you sieve out to make something similar to a comfrey brew. Soak them in water until they become a stinky horrible sludge with all the roots rotted down so they can't regrow. These can then filtered out and put onto your compost heap, the liquid can be diluted and used as a plant food.
green manure only grows on the surface, the roots only go down so far, you need to be mixing in organic matter - manure (the stuff from animals) or compost as you turn the ground over otherwise you're wasting your time double digging.
Hi Jordon we did the same with our new allotment,a field to begin with,we de-turfed it made large raised beds and i sieved all the beds using a big bread basket i fixed to 4 legs to shake the soil and de-weed ,and it worked very well, hard work but the result was really good,we then covered it all in 4/6 inches of manure and left it to the worms , the result was worth it ,your going the right way as Bob T/|G said hard work but you will be very happy once the allotment is in action god luck matey,nice and sunny erein Norfolk.
Thanks for all of the replies.
Treehugger80 - I understand that green manure only browns on the surface, but surely once it has been dug in and the worms begin pulling it down, this is no different to using manure? I'd prefer not to use manure and obviously green manure is a much less expensive option.