A no-dig experiment.
30 years ago I had an allotment at Halls Farm, I dug a row of potatoes and had 2.5 Kg of potatoes off one plant in the row. The rest of the row was 1.5kg per plant. The only difference was I accidentally left a pile of horse manure on the ground and planted in it.
At home I had a pile of well rotted horse manure and planted a tomato plant in it. I never knew about pinching out side shoots and had a big bush full of a bumper crop of tomatoes.
The seed was sown, compost=bigger crops.
30 years later I had a second plot at Halls farm. I came across a utube channel of Charles Dowding who used no-dig cultivation. The idea of using a mulch of organic matter appealed to me because of my previous experience.
I endeavoured to give it a try and compare it to digging in manure. If it was disappointing I would dig the manure in the following winter.
The first years comparison of the two gave similar results crop wise. Nodig is said to improve in subsequent years and give heavier crops.
The deciding factors was therefore on which of the two was easier to manage. Digging was not the issue, I actually enjoyed digging my plot in the winter!
Nodig had the major disadvantage of needing hugh amounts of compost to get started. That was the only disadvantage!
Going to the stables and digging out the manure is hard work, but it replaces the digging. The advantage was good crops, with potential for bigger crops in subsequent years.
Also there were hardly any weeds to contend with except for the mares tail and also the bindweed which has become much less of a problem this year (75% of my plot had been covered in bindweed). The weeding was much easier, weeds pull out easily when other plots ground is set like concrete in the heat. You also hand pull out without using a trowel large chunks of root.
The reason is the mulch retains moisture so you do not need to water so often, the manure is always moist a few centimetres below the surface. This results in easy weed root extraction and happy plants.
Seed bed preparation is a doddle, just rake over the surface, the lumps have been broken down by rain over the winter.
With planning you can get two crops a year, the soil is fed with lots of organic mulches which allows you to do this whilst improving your soil.
Adding organic matter to your soil can increase yields by about 45%, nodig can gradually add another 5 to 10% to this.
How to start nodig
Dig out as much couch grass bindweed docks and dandelions as possible.
If the ground is weedy:
Place on the ground several layers of overlapping cardboard with tape and staples removed. Not the glossy cardboard it may contain plastic.
Cover this with 10 cm of well rotted material if the ground was weedy or 5 cm if the ground is clean.
Plant or sow into prepared bed.
Why not try it on a small piece of your plot, its adds an interest to experiment.
If you want to see a no-dig plot then your welcome to look at my plot, but please do not walk on it!
If you want to know about the science behind no-dig just ask me.
Kevin plot 53
How to grow strawberries
Strawberries prefer a sunny spot with a fertile well drained soil, they prefer a slightly acid soil but will do well in non acidic soil.
Strawberries are hungry crops so prepare the ground well with a bucket of well rotted compost/manure per square metre/yard for all types of strawberries. Then for summer strawberries fork in 2 ounces of general fertiliser into the soil for the same area. For alpine strawberries wait until about 3 weeks before planting to rake in 3 ounces of general fertiliser for the same area.
Single crop strawberries can be raised from runners from existing stock. Allow 4 runners per plant and pinch out the growing tip of the runners once a plantlet has formed. Either peg the plantlet down in the soil or a pot of compost. When the the plant has rooted sever the plantlet from the mother plant.
Plant the plantlet as early as possible between July and September. Earlier planted plants will crop heavier than later planted plants. Plant perpetual strawberries no later than August.
If planting strawberries in March/April remove the flowers the first year to allow the plant to develop.
You can cloche your plants from early February if you want to have an earlier crop. Varieties consist of early, mid season and late cropping varieties.
Plant plants 455 (18 inches) apart with rows 760 mm(2 1/2 feet) apart. Water the plants in and during dry weather.
Feed the plants with sulphate of potash at the rate half ounce/15 gms per square yard/metre in January to encourage flower bud formation ( I use wood ash).
For single cropping varieties when the berries form scatter a few slug pellets. I used nemaslug this year a few weeks prior to this as it takes a week to start working. So far very little slug damage, just a few berries. However this is a dry period.
Place straw or black polythene under plants to protect the berries from the soil.
Cover the crop to protect the crop from birds, they take a lot of the berries.
After cropping remove the straw and any dead leaves and burn it, rake the ashes into the soil.
Alpine Strawberries
These are very small fruits, strawberries with a very fine taste. They are perennials but best grown as annuals and grown from seed or plants bought. I have grown these very successfully in a hanging basket. They also look good as well as taste good.
You can sow in seed trays in September, prick out the seedlings and overwinter in a cold frame planting out in April or May.
Alternatively under glass sow between February and April, planting out in April/May. Plant the plants 12 inches(30cm) apart. Autumn sown plants will need protection against a frost in May if they are in flower. They will stop fruiting if the soil dries out.
Single cropping strawberries last about 5 years becoming less productive and are suspectable to viruses. It is therefore a good idea to replace about a quarter of your plants on in a mature bed and raising new plants to be planted in a new prepared bed. They are most productive in their second to third year. The berries then get smaller in subsequent years.
Things to sow in June
Sow each fortnight beetroot, French beans, early carrots, kohlrabi, early peas, lettuce, rocket, turnips, endive, radish, spring onions to avoid a glut and then nothing for these crops
Sow
French and Runner Beans
Maincrop peas
Beetroot
Carrots
Turnips
Swedes
Cauliflowers
Chicory
Endive
Kohlrabi
Sweetcorn
Squash
Courgette and Marrows
Plant out
Broccoli
Calabrese
Brussels sprouts
Summer cabbage
Pot grown runner beans, dwarf beans and tomatoes can be planted out after hardening off ( putting plants outside on favourable days so that they get used to the wind and sun without giving them a shock from bad weather)
Your leeks may well be ready now, when about pencil thickness. You can use the ground released from your early potatoes
Kevin
30 years ago I had an allotment at Halls Farm, I dug a row of potatoes and had 2.5 Kg of potatoes off one plant in the row. The rest of the row was 1.5kg per plant. The only difference was I accidentally left a pile of horse manure on the ground and planted in it.
At home I had a pile of well rotted horse manure and planted a tomato plant in it. I never knew about pinching out side shoots and had a big bush full of a bumper crop of tomatoes.
The seed was sown, compost=bigger crops.
30 years later I had a second plot at Halls farm. I came across a utube channel of Charles Dowding who used no-dig cultivation. The idea of using a mulch of organic matter appealed to me because of my previous experience.
I endeavoured to give it a try and compare it to digging in manure. If it was disappointing I would dig the manure in the following winter.
The first years comparison of the two gave similar results crop wise. Nodig is said to improve in subsequent years and give heavier crops.
The deciding factors was therefore on which of the two was easier to manage. Digging was not the issue, I actually enjoyed digging my plot in the winter!
Nodig had the major disadvantage of needing hugh amounts of compost to get started. That was the only disadvantage!
Going to the stables and digging out the manure is hard work, but it replaces the digging. The advantage was good crops, with potential for bigger crops in subsequent years.
Also there were hardly any weeds to contend with except for the mares tail and also the bindweed which has become much less of a problem this year (75% of my plot had been covered in bindweed). The weeding was much easier, weeds pull out easily when other plots ground is set like concrete in the heat. You also hand pull out without using a trowel large chunks of root.
The reason is the mulch retains moisture so you do not need to water so often, the manure is always moist a few centimetres below the surface. This results in easy weed root extraction and happy plants.
Seed bed preparation is a doddle, just rake over the surface, the lumps have been broken down by rain over the winter.
With planning you can get two crops a year, the soil is fed with lots of organic mulches which allows you to do this whilst improving your soil.
Adding organic matter to your soil can increase yields by about 45%, nodig can gradually add another 5 to 10% to this.
How to start nodig
Dig out as much couch grass bindweed docks and dandelions as possible.
If the ground is weedy:
Place on the ground several layers of overlapping cardboard with tape and staples removed. Not the glossy cardboard it may contain plastic.
Cover this with 10 cm of well rotted material if the ground was weedy or 5 cm if the ground is clean.
Plant or sow into prepared bed.
Why not try it on a small piece of your plot, its adds an interest to experiment.
If you want to see a no-dig plot then your welcome to look at my plot, but please do not walk on it!
If you want to know about the science behind no-dig just ask me.
Kevin plot 53
How to grow strawberries
Strawberries prefer a sunny spot with a fertile well drained soil, they prefer a slightly acid soil but will do well in non acidic soil.
Strawberries are hungry crops so prepare the ground well with a bucket of well rotted compost/manure per square metre/yard for all types of strawberries. Then for summer strawberries fork in 2 ounces of general fertiliser into the soil for the same area. For alpine strawberries wait until about 3 weeks before planting to rake in 3 ounces of general fertiliser for the same area.
Single crop strawberries can be raised from runners from existing stock. Allow 4 runners per plant and pinch out the growing tip of the runners once a plantlet has formed. Either peg the plantlet down in the soil or a pot of compost. When the the plant has rooted sever the plantlet from the mother plant.
Plant the plantlet as early as possible between July and September. Earlier planted plants will crop heavier than later planted plants. Plant perpetual strawberries no later than August.
If planting strawberries in March/April remove the flowers the first year to allow the plant to develop.
You can cloche your plants from early February if you want to have an earlier crop. Varieties consist of early, mid season and late cropping varieties.
Plant plants 455 (18 inches) apart with rows 760 mm(2 1/2 feet) apart. Water the plants in and during dry weather.
Feed the plants with sulphate of potash at the rate half ounce/15 gms per square yard/metre in January to encourage flower bud formation ( I use wood ash).
For single cropping varieties when the berries form scatter a few slug pellets. I used nemaslug this year a few weeks prior to this as it takes a week to start working. So far very little slug damage, just a few berries. However this is a dry period.
Place straw or black polythene under plants to protect the berries from the soil.
Cover the crop to protect the crop from birds, they take a lot of the berries.
After cropping remove the straw and any dead leaves and burn it, rake the ashes into the soil.
Alpine Strawberries
These are very small fruits, strawberries with a very fine taste. They are perennials but best grown as annuals and grown from seed or plants bought. I have grown these very successfully in a hanging basket. They also look good as well as taste good.
You can sow in seed trays in September, prick out the seedlings and overwinter in a cold frame planting out in April or May.
Alternatively under glass sow between February and April, planting out in April/May. Plant the plants 12 inches(30cm) apart. Autumn sown plants will need protection against a frost in May if they are in flower. They will stop fruiting if the soil dries out.
Single cropping strawberries last about 5 years becoming less productive and are suspectable to viruses. It is therefore a good idea to replace about a quarter of your plants on in a mature bed and raising new plants to be planted in a new prepared bed. They are most productive in their second to third year. The berries then get smaller in subsequent years.
Things to sow in June
Sow each fortnight beetroot, French beans, early carrots, kohlrabi, early peas, lettuce, rocket, turnips, endive, radish, spring onions to avoid a glut and then nothing for these crops
Sow
French and Runner Beans
Maincrop peas
Beetroot
Carrots
Turnips
Swedes
Cauliflowers
Chicory
Endive
Kohlrabi
Sweetcorn
Squash
Courgette and Marrows
Plant out
Broccoli
Calabrese
Brussels sprouts
Summer cabbage
Pot grown runner beans, dwarf beans and tomatoes can be planted out after hardening off ( putting plants outside on favourable days so that they get used to the wind and sun without giving them a shock from bad weather)
Your leeks may well be ready now, when about pencil thickness. You can use the ground released from your early potatoes
Kevin