Is Double Digging Worth All The Extra Effort?

 


Many gardening sites recommend double digging especially when starting a
new garden bed.  Sounds like a whole lot of work but I'm no stranger to
hard work!  Think I'll give it a try this year even though some claim
it's worth the extra effort while still others claim it really has very
little advantage to the average home gardener. My thoughts are based on
the fact that the root system is the heart of any plant.  Take good care
of the root system and the plant should get a great start in it's new
home.  My plan is to remove the first foot of soil with a spade and then
use a spading fork.  I'll thrust the fork down another ten to twelve
inches and rock it back and forth to loosen the sub soil.  After the
whole plot is double dug,  I'll then rototill the bed,  add some slow
release organic fertilizer and rake it into the top 3" of soil.  I only
plan to double dig once.  After that,  hopefully the earth worms
combined with the addition of compost will to the job for me in the
future.  I have a lot of leaf mold from last fall to mix in also.  If I
get tomatoes the size of basketballs,  I'll then know that double
digging wasn't all in vain........LOL

Rich

 

On 2/28/10 9:19 AM, EVP MAN wrote:

Since you are planning on using a rototiller anyway, I would use it
instead of spading.

Rototill the surface to the depth of the tines on a spading fork,
working the entire area.  Then, using a spade or even a shovel, remove
the tilled soil along a "path" the length of the area but only the width
of one pass of the rototiller, piling the soil on an adjacent untilled
area.  Use the rototiller in the resulting trench.  Remove that tilled
soil, placing it next to the soil already removed.

Then move the tilled soil (first pass) from the adjacent area into the
bottom of the first trench, stirring superphosphate or bone meal into
it.  Use the rototiller in that second trench.  Then move the tilled
soil from the bottom of that trench onto the top of the first trench.
Work your way across the area until you have a final trench.

Move the piled soil from the first tilling of the first trench to the
bottom of the last trench, remembering to work some form of phosphorus
into it.  Finally move the piled soil from the second tilling of the
first trench to complete the filling of the last trench.

This is called double spitting, a "spit" being the depth of the tines of
a spading fork.  You can even do this while tilling deeper than one
spit.  This moves the surface soil down below and brings lower soil to
the surface.  You will find that the results will last many, many years.
 However, you will find that the surface of the soil becomes higher than
it was.

If you wish to add amendments (e.g., compost, peat moss), do so during
the second pass of the rototiller.  The results will then be in the top
layer of soil after all the moving is done.  A smaller amount of
amendments can be applied during the first pass, but that will not be as
beneficial.

The reason for placing bone meal or superphosphate into the bottom spit
is that phosphorus tends not to dissolve and travel through the soil.
Thus, it needs to be placed where roots will find it.  Mixed thoroughly
into the soil of the bottom spit, there will be some at the boundary
between the top and bottom spits for young or shallow-rooted plants.

If your soil is heavy clay, broadcast a generous amount of gypsum on the
surface before the first pass of the rototiller.  After the first pass,
water the area thoroughly and then allow it to dry somewhat.  Then
repeat the first pass.  You don't want to till any soil that is wet.  In
particular, clay soil should be only slightly moist; otherwise, you will
make the soil structure worse, not better.

--
David E. Ross
Climate:  California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening diary at <http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary>

 


Thank you David for some very good and detailed information :)
........... Rich

 

On 2/28/10 12:37 PM, EVP MAN wrote:

You're welcome.  I only wish I knew all this before I planted my own
garden some 36 years ago.  Today, I do the equivalent but for each
planting hole I dig.  What a pain!!

--
David E. Ross
Climate:  California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening diary at <http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary>

 


White_Noise_1@webtv.net (EVP MAN) wrote:


    I guess it depends on what you're starting with. My wife and I did
that to our gardening areas in 1997-98. It was a lot of work, with hand
tools, even in our easily-dug FL sand. Doing it again, I'd till the hell
out of it with the machine while it's still easy to start. Cut in loads
of whatever amendments would keep the soil light and loose, build raised
beds, sell the tiller on Craig's List and spend the money (AWA the rest
of your gardening life) in pursuit of organic compost. We grow veggies
in 7 nominally 3' x 8' raised beds. Five have a surface about 10"-12"
above the natural grade and the other two at least 8". We dug only the
areas where the beds actually are. If all of that digging was
beneficial, it was to remove native tree roots and retard their
intrusion into the garden.
--
the Balvenieman
Running on single malt in U.S.A.
Peninsular Florida,
USDA zone 9b