In this article, I will tell you about autumn tillage, why it is needed and what it includes.
Soil restoration
The richer the harvest that we happily gathered from our beds, the poorer the land on which it grew-this is the law of balance. The use of mineral fertilizers alone will not solve this problem.
As practice shows, the systematic use of exclusively mineral fertilizers does not increase, but reduces the level of soil fertility, worsens its structure, while the yield, of course, becomes worse and worse. What happened?
The answer is simple: the use of mineral fertilizers must be combined with the use of organic fertilizers, only in this case the benefits of both will be maximum. The application of organic fertilizers ensures long-term soil fertility, so it can be carried out once every 3-4 years, on heavily depleted or newly cultivated soils – every other year.
Improvement of soil structure
Autumn is the best time to adjust the soil structure on your site. On heavy clay-in addition to organic fertilizers, ash, sand, compost or leaf humus are applied. This will help make the ground more loose and permeable.
Sandy soils do not retain moisture, so it is difficult for plants to get nutrients. Make well-rotted compost, leaf humus or ordinary sawdust-this will help to retain moisture and provide the plants with food in an accessible form (water solution). Acidic soil, if necessary, must be neutralized, for this purpose make chalk, dolomite flour or lime. You also need to do some digging.
Soil digging depth
Usually it is enough to dig to the depth of a bayonet shovel. Don’t forget: the deeper we dig, the more moisture the earth will accumulate over the winter. Therefore, places for sowing early crops should not be dug to such a depth, 14-15 cm (5.5-5.9 inches) is enough-after the snow melts, these areas will dry faster.
In agriculture, another method of autumn tillage is used, which is the sowing of manure. Loosen the soil, sow green manure. After 4-5 weeks, their roots are cut off and that’s it. The rest of the work is done by microorganisms.
Of course, we have not considered all the methods of autumn tillage – only the most common ones. Each farmer has his own opinion, so he is free to choose any of these methods or use his own. Important result: autumn tillage should bring her undoubted benefits: restore fertility, improve the structure and help to accumulate enough moisture for the winter.
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