Topic: Rotavators

[bugboy]

Are they a good thing or a bad thing, on an allotment ? Should you dig by hand or let the machine do the work ? Myself...I cannot stand the things ! What do you think ?

[legless]

as far as i can tell most people think its bad for an allotment as it damages the soil structure if used too much. on a larger scale as market gardeners my parents swore by the use of one.

i think i'll dig by hand happily as the therapeutic nature of digging is part of the reason i want the allotment in the allotment in teh first place! (she says that now but i'll let you know if i change my mind when i start!)

[digger]

Hi

I dug once but not again it takes too much time. I now use a rotovator/cultivator which I hire for about £35 and do the whole plot in a day. Get the biggest you can the smaller ones are no good and bounce off the ground if you have any compacted soil or weeds. You need to go over the gound several times to gte a good seed bed.

[Hugh_Jones]

I don`t think rotovation actually damages the soil structure - what it does is to hasten the oxidisation of humus in the soil. Some 50 years or so ago Rothamstead Experimental Station researched this on 3 identical plots of which one was hand dug, one was rotovated, and one was ploughed and harrowed.

If memory serves me right the results were that manure applied to the hand dug plot showed traces for 5 years, that in the rotovated plot for 2 years, and in the ploughed plot 3 years.

Rotovation is certainly easier and quicker, but unless you have access to unlimited supplies of manure digging is undoubtedly more friendly to the soil and the crops.

[ina]

My experience with rotovating part of the lottie was that after heavy rain the soil closed up and a crust formed on top, while the non-rotovated part did not have this problem. Is this what is meant by rotovating being bad for the structure of the soil? -Ina