No Dig Survey? + results

[JDParticipant]

Hi Charles
Have you ever undertaken any sort of survey with your no dig forumites? I’m just curious whether the majority have the same sort of growing conditions or whether we’re pretty scattered across the board. For example, do most no diggers have clay soil because it’s heavy and they hate digging it? Do most live in areas with fairly regular rainfall so the compost topping stays dampish? Have many tried to be no dig, and then given up because it didn’t suit their conditions?(More difficult to ascertain!) etc.
As I say, I’m just curious but I’d love to know.
To start the ball rolling, I’m in Cambridgeshire on an alkaline sandy soil and with a pretty dry climate (it’s rained about five days this year). I’ve been no dig for 8 months so far. One thing I have been finding because it’s been SOOOO dry is that its difficult to re-wet the compost mulch when watering.
Regards
Jan

[charlesModerator]

An interesting question Jan and I look forward to hearing more, with photos if possible!
On your dry and sandy soil, rather unusually for the UK I imagine that slugs are not an issue? In which case you could mulch larger plants with hay/straw/strulch. The latter has good writeups but I have not used it.
Because of this year’s drought I mulched celeriac 6 weeks ago with medium length cut grass, now hay, and have not watered them, so far so good. I would never do this for salads.
Mostly compost ticks the boxes, and yes when dry it takes a while to re-wet. Water a little until run-off, leave 15 seconds then rewater etc. Worth wetting thoroughly.

[JDParticipant]

I’ve had slugs in my cabbages but mostly not a problem this year. Moles have been more evident. Have used the sheep’s wool slug deterrent around susceptible plants and (apart from the birds throwing it everywhere) I’ve not had a nibble. Had another person on site say she’d tried it unsuccessfully last year. Most of the other allotment holders have been dousing slug pellets pretty heavily around peas/beans/lettuces, so sadly it looks as though we still have them here!
Maybe you could put a survey on your main website with boxes for people to tick??
Jan

[margiekParticipant]

Hmm, well I’m thinking of taking this approach – but theres Northern [Blackpool!] and then there’s Northern & at 800ft in the Cairngorms in the North of Scotland it will be interesting to see how things proceed. Gardening or farming is tricky here, with late [and early] frosts & snow compensated by very long daylight for a brief spell. Looking forward to not spending time digging.

[JDParticipant]

Good luck!
These are some pics from the new allotment mentioned earlier with sandy soil, very little rain and also three quarters of it is under the canopy of an oak tree. Just been told that I can move to the adjoining plot which has more sun (hooray) but it will be a shame to move after all the work. Hopefully the mole won’t come too!
Jan

[charlesModerator]

margiek I do not envy your climatic restrictions! Use fleece a lot in spring, directly on top of plants.
And JD that is highly impressive. Makes you not want to leave, I can imagine.

[RonParticipant]

Just completed my first no-dig trial of early potatoes at our allotment in Bristol. We chose eight varieties with five seeds of each. The ground was firstly cleared of any weeds, being this was fairly compacted it needed forking to loosen the soil and I was then able to use a dibber for each seed hole. The seeds were planted, covered over, watered in and then earthed-up using compost made on site throughout last winter.

No other water was applied throughout growing except for rain which was scarce in June. Altogether, 46.29kg have been produced from the beds, with variety Jazzy being the best at 8.91kg and Accord the lowest at 4.5kg. Overall, very little damage from slugs etc.

Certainly a lot easier this way and more productive than in previous years. Our main crops of Majestic and King Edwards have yet to be harvested but all are looking healthy.

[charlesModerator]

Ron thanks for posting this and well done on your cropping.I am pleased to hear that Jazzy was productive as it’s supposed to be partly a waxy salad variety, and they tend to be lower yielding.
Do keep us posted on the last two.

[RhysParticipant]

Ron, lucky you getting great yields of potatoes using no-dig, it is the one vegetable I find challenging to replicate the results of digging a trench, possibly as I usually filled the trench with manure and comfrey leaves to surround the tuber with goodness.

This year was completely arid in NW London from sow date to harvest of first earlies, save a monsoon in May of 4 inches in 36 hrs. I watered regularly, but the yields were dreadful. At least with Foremost, I know it was not the seed potatoes as five 12 litre pots sown with one tuber each yielded 2lbs+ from mid May to mid June.

Four years ago, I grew earlies in the same spot and had good yields, the last time that area was dug.

I am trying maincrop this year too, so I hope they are better….

[Louise TuffinParticipant]

I did my first lot of no dig potatoes this year on a bit of land that has not grown anything bar weeds for the last 6 years. It has a lot of horsestail in it as well. From 22 seed potates(10 charlotte and 12 Foremost) I got a total of 22kg of potatoes. I covered to whole area in 6-8 inches of rotted manure and nestle the potatoes in, really sitting on the surface of the ground, and then covered rows in thick mulch of spent strawberry compost from a local fruit farm. I harvested each variety in about 20mins, great, and no damage from garden fork as not needed. Horsestail still coming through but just pulled out when seen and not really a problem

[RonParticipant]

Hi Louise.
This was a great result, I’ll certainly pass on details of your efforts to others faced with the same overgrown problem.

[HawfinchParticipant]

Hi Louise,

encouraging results, but it seems clear one needs a lot of compost and manure to be succesful this way. I tried the no dig approach to growing potatoes this year with not much success using the Bill Brandt method, Bill is an American no-till regenerative farmer in the US. He spreads a layer of compost in which he places the potatoes and them covers them with a thick layer of straw. I probably didn’t spread enough compost or straw, looking at how much you spread. 8 inches or 20 centimetres is a lot, it would basically use up my entire store of compost/manure. Better get composting.

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