Thank you to you all for your very interesting comments.We also have very heavy clay soil so will give it a go and see how we get on. Anything to save backs!
Right then. I am afraid that we are retired from livestock farming now, but we did enjoy it and neither the livestock or the plants are reared organically. We certainly don't go mad on the chemicals but we do use them on occasion. In 'sadly defunct The Grower' magazine there was once a cartoon set in a large glasshouse where the owner is saying to the visitor 'these call these our Rolls-Royce lettuce because they have been sprayed 47 times. That is not us.
That is good news about clay soil, I have got the wrong info about no-till there somehow. I don't use beds but I do use permanent rows which I do not walk on. Because my sight is bad that is better for me and I don't think narrow raised beds to be a goer really. A diary farmer friend retired soon after we gave up livestock and borrowed our little tractor (shown in the flickr link) to clean out his listed buildings which he had used as deep litter for calving. He brought me some trailer loads of VERY well rotted manure which lasted a while. Since then I have bought no manure or compost but I make compost on a grand scale - also shown in the flickr link. I don't lay down compost at all in the Autumn, just going over the rows regularly with the Canterbury how. I put a layer of compost on the row just before planting/sowing and this is having an excellent effect on soil structure and depth. When we came here in 1985 ADAS came and tested the pH of the land amongst other things which came out at 4.5 it has improved a bit over the years but we don't see many worms. I ma working on it and the topsoil is quite deep now. Having said that while we were looking for land we looked1 at some LSA holdings which were being sold at St. Neots in Cambridgeshire. The soil there was Grade 1 and about 3 foot deep. Unfortunately Christine could not get a teaching job there so that fell through.
I'm afraid I have gone on a bit but I am famous for it.
I think I'm perhaps more chemical free than organic, I can't be sure all my manure is organic and most of my seed is not labelled organic. I do try to avoid chemical fertilizers, but I don't know if the bone meal or F.B&B are organic .
Malcolm Brown2: You probably know this but mushroom compost from mushroom growers is slightly alkaline - I think it contains gypsum - so might suit your soil. It was cheaper than most composts last time I looked.
Verdun: Have a look at Charles Dowding's web site. He has compared no dig side by side with traditional digging, on his heavy clay plot which was very badly compacted, so the comparison is pretty scientific. His results do not agree with your statements, which I suspect are assumptions rather than based on controlled tests. He has no problem with root veggies. My own comments apply to my heavy clay soil, and I can assure you the mulch is much warmer and not as wet as bare heavy clay soil. This year supposedly slow seeds - parsnip, salsify and root parsley - germinated surprisingly quickly. I cannot speak about other soils.
Regarding the compost layer, and warmth, I think you are confusing the situation by thinking about the soil below the compost layer. That will indeed be cooler than otherwise. But, the point is that the compost where you sow the seeds is warmer than the soil would have been without the compost, at least in the case of a heavy clay soil. So the correct comparison is seed surrounded by compost warmed by sun, versus seed surrounded by soil warmed by sun. Your statements about mulch slowing down the appearance of what I assume are perennials does not contradict what I have said. Incidentally sandy soils are known to warm up quicker. My perennials such as Lemon verbena are very slow to reappear, due to my heavy cold soil. And yes I have rhubarb plants which I planted in undug heavy clay soil, with heavy layers of compost each year. They are as happy as pigs in muck, and very prolific.
Posts
Thank you to you all for your very interesting comments.We also have very heavy clay soil so will give it a go and see how we get on. Anything to save backs!
Right then. I am afraid that we are retired from livestock farming now, but we did enjoy it and neither the livestock or the plants are reared organically. We certainly don't go mad on the chemicals but we do use them on occasion. In 'sadly defunct The Grower' magazine there was once a cartoon set in a large glasshouse where the owner is saying to the visitor 'these call these our Rolls-Royce lettuce because they have been sprayed 47 times. That is not us.
That is good news about clay soil, I have got the wrong info about no-till there somehow. I don't use beds but I do use permanent rows which I do not walk on. Because my sight is bad that is better for me and I don't think narrow raised beds to be a goer really. A diary farmer friend retired soon after we gave up livestock and borrowed our little tractor (shown in the flickr link) to clean out his listed buildings which he had used as deep litter for calving. He brought me some trailer loads of VERY well rotted manure which lasted a while. Since then I have bought no manure or compost but I make compost on a grand scale - also shown in the flickr link. I don't lay down compost at all in the Autumn, just going over the rows regularly with the Canterbury how. I put a layer of compost on the row just before planting/sowing and this is having an excellent effect on soil structure and depth. When we came here in 1985 ADAS came and tested the pH of the land amongst other things which came out at 4.5 it has improved a bit over the years but we don't see many worms. I ma working on it and the topsoil is quite deep now. Having said that while we were looking for land we looked1 at some LSA holdings which were being sold at St. Neots in Cambridgeshire. The soil there was Grade 1 and about 3 foot deep. Unfortunately Christine could not get a teaching job there so that fell through.
I'm afraid I have gone on a bit but I am famous for it.
I think I'm perhaps more chemical free than organic, I can't be sure all my manure is organic and most of my seed is not labelled organic. I do try to avoid chemical fertilizers, but I don't know if the bone meal or F.B&B are organic .
Malcolm Brown2: You probably know this but mushroom compost from mushroom growers is slightly alkaline - I think it contains gypsum - so might suit your soil. It was cheaper than most composts last time I looked.
Verdun: Have a look at Charles Dowding's web site. He has compared no dig side by side with traditional digging, on his heavy clay plot which was very badly compacted, so the comparison is pretty scientific. His results do not agree with your statements, which I suspect are assumptions rather than based on controlled tests. He has no problem with root veggies. My own comments apply to my heavy clay soil, and I can assure you the mulch is much warmer and not as wet as bare heavy clay soil. This year supposedly slow seeds - parsnip, salsify and root parsley - germinated surprisingly quickly. I cannot speak about other soils.
Regarding the compost layer, and warmth, I think you are confusing the situation by thinking about the soil below the compost layer. That will indeed be cooler than otherwise. But, the point is that the compost where you sow the seeds is warmer than the soil would have been without the compost, at least in the case of a heavy clay soil. So the correct comparison is seed surrounded by compost warmed by sun, versus seed surrounded by soil warmed by sun. Your statements about mulch slowing down the appearance of what I assume are perennials does not contradict what I have said. Incidentally sandy soils are known to warm up quicker. My perennials such as Lemon verbena are very slow to reappear, due to my heavy cold soil. And yes I have rhubarb plants which I planted in undug heavy clay soil, with heavy layers of compost each year. They are as happy as pigs in muck, and very prolific.