Autumn Digging Of Soil

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

After harvesting, you can be puzzled by the autumn digging of your site. Many summer residents believe that it is impractical to hold it and prefer to refrain from it. Nevertheless, the autumn digging has a number of advantages, which will be discussed below. It is necessary to carry out such a digging very carefully, especially if young shrubs and trees grow nearby. In order not to cripple them, you need to show maximum attention

Why do you need autumn digging of soil

The benefit of the autumn digging is that it allows you to carry out high-quality cleaning of the soil from annoying weeds. And the rhizomes of perennials will help eliminate deep development. They can then be selected, dried and burned, or dumped on a heap. By the way, this method also perfectly helps in getting rid of annual weeds, the seeds of which often freeze strongly in winter in well-developed soils. That is, in the spring on the site, they will no longer germinate. Of course, it is unlikely that it will be possible to completely eliminate the weed, but it is quite possible to significantly reduce its amount.

Also, the autumn digging to a large extent contributes to the improvement of the quality of both air and water soil regimes. And the soil will ripen much earlier in the spring.

Not the last place during the autumn digging is also given to the elimination of pests and all kinds of diseases. The fact is that various viruses that have made their way into the soil feel great in dense compressed soil. But if the whole soil is properly deployed, then the unbroken soil clods with the first drop in temperature will immediately freeze pretty much, and a fairly solid part of the pathogen will die in the winter frost. Of course, frost alone without additional disinfection is not able to save from all soil diseases without exception, but this measure will help to significantly facilitate further work.

In addition, the autumn digging of the soil greatly contributes to getting rid of many garden pests. And while larvae and adults can often be handpicked from the soil, pupae and tiny pests will die as soon as the temperature drops.

Autumn digging of the soil will bring a lot of benefits to both heavy soil and chernozem soils, where every year the arable layer should be deepened by twenty-five to thirty centimeters.

In general, the results of the autumn digging of the soil are much better than the results of its spring tillage. And this digging will significantly facilitate spring work, because it is much better to immediately start planting plants, having previously slightly processed the area with a rake.

Impact of digging

Decent results without digging can show beds with only a small number of crops. As a rule, in most cases, vegetation prefers carefully fertilized, well-loosened and decontaminated soil with good aeration.

After digging, the earth freezes a little deeper, which allows it to become much cleaner. Moreover, soil absorption is also significantly improved - autumn and spring precipitation, as well as melt water, will penetrate into the soil much faster.

It is impossible not to mention that loose soil provides any root system with the opportunity to fully develop, moving for water and nutrient compounds in the right direction.

Fertilizing the soil for digging

Carrying out autumn fertilization of the soil has a rather favorable effect on a wide variety of crops. By the way, for most of them, autumn fertilization is a must. Digging the soil allows the fertilizer to mix well with the soil and to a much better degree fill it with various nutrient compounds.

In upside-down soil, valuable organic fertilizers such as compost and manure are superbly roasted. And in parallel with their introduction, liming of soils is often carried out, as well as the introduction of mineral dressings.

Soil digging tools

Of course, the main tool for the autumn digging is a shovel. The best choice is a sharp and strong enough bayonet shovel.

You can also use a pitchfork - they are very convenient for removing large clods of soil from the hard earth layer. By the way, the technique of digging with a pitchfork has almost no differences from the technique of working with a shovel.

A cultivator or walk-behind tractor will significantly facilitate and speed up the digging of soil. Only the use of these assistants will require certain fuel costs.