Quote:
Originally Posted by FourOaks
You till your beds?? That I did not know.
Thinking back, when you mentioned your tiller (on the other forum) I kinda wondered what your were tilling.  |
I do till the beds once before fall and spring planting and once after to till the leaf mulch and any weeds in. The rest of the season I use the broadfork to loosen deeply right before planting. The corn/winter squash areas do not have raised beds so they get tilled, although I do broadfork and amend the planting holes for the squashes.
I've read two schools of thought about post-season tilling of mulch. One advocates leaving it on to keep winter weeds out, keep moisture in, let the leaves decompose naturally and prevent roiling up the soil structure. Another view is that leaving mulch on all winter harbors insects with the possibility that they're worse the next season, or at least they start messing with things earlier.
After trying both ways I've gone with the post-season tilling. For me it has resulted in a big decrease in early flea beetle populations, a later start to squash bug problems and faster decomposition of the leaves.
I'd be interested in hearing from others their views about the till/no till thing.
