Topic: No dig

[mormor]

Is impossible to get long straight carrots and parsnips with no dig method?  If so how?  Please!

[mormor]

Help!  Of course I mean is it possible!!!!

[Tee Gee]

I don't believe in the " No Dig" method but if I did as in your case, I would sink my spade in to the full depth of the blade and move it back and forwards to make a 'Vee' trench .

I would do this along the length of the row then fill the trench with sifted compost.

Then I would sow my Carrots/Parsnips into this!

I hope that helps!

[alkanet]

i think the "No Dig" phase  comes after the "Several Years of Dig" phase to work properly

[Silverleaf]

If it wasn't for no-dig I wouldn't grow very much at all on my heavy clay since I'm not physically able to dig it, even in the approximately four seconds of the year where it's not either soaking wet and sticky or baked hard.

My dad used to grow carrots in old plastic dustbins filled with compost/soil, with the bottoms cut off.

I've also heard of people making holes in the soil with something like a broom handle, one for each carrot, and filling with compost similar to Tee Gee's trench idea.

[squeezyjohn]

Absolutely Alkanet!

There's no way my allotment would have been 'solved' by no-dig with it's huge network of deep nettle, mares tail and dock roots that would come up through carpet and several feet of manure.  However I do believe in minimising soil disturbance once you've got it nice and clean and then feeding the soil by placing the compost or manure on the top to suppress weeds and let the worms take it down ... that does really work whether or not you 'believe' in it - it also promotes not standing on your beds so you avoid compaction which is always good practice.

After my first year's battle with the perennials I have been no-dig ... and it's incredibly productive - no raised beds or anything fancy like that - just well defined paths.

You can certainly grow good straight carrots etc. in that kind of soil - I've had some fantastic root veg this year in beds undug for 2 years.  Stones will obviously cause misshapen stuff - I also top fed well rotted manure to mulch the carrots and didn't get any forking which is often reported when manure is dug in during the same season.

Good Luck

Squeezy

[mormor]

Thanks for your comments. My plot has been cultivated (by me) for 10 years so docks and nettles are no problem.  But the trench idea sounds good. And we have limitless stable manure from our neighboring riding school.  So I’ll have a go. (Maybe I should say that carrots and parsnips to date tend to be “interesting” and not long and straight!)

[mrrigsby]

Use a crowbar to make holes 2ft deep, 4ins diameter at the top, fill holes with good quality compost mix. Sow 5  parsnip seeds to each hole, then thin to leave strongest seedling. Treat as normal during growing season and you will have beautiful straight, long parsnips. The only problem you'll have will be getting them out of the ground.

[ancellsfarmer]

Having "enjoyed" Wealden clay, Hythe beds (silty with aggregate pebbles) and now heathland sand (Wet heath), but in cultivation for a century or so, I think you should trial and select varieties that suit your underlying soil type. Unless you need show produce or to win a wager, there is no benefit in size especially. A good crop will be one that thrives, grows steadily and matures consistently. In the above soils, clay produces stumpier types, the Hythe tends to drain poorly, causing root rot below 4"in autumn. The Nantes type suit it though. The sandy heath grows carrots quickly so successions are the way to plant for maximum yield.
I had a mate who was into monster veg for bragging, he filled 40 gallon drums with sharp sand based compost. The drums were stood on end  in "saucers", and regularly fed best bitter. If needed filtering first! Immensely long carrots with a peculiar flavour!

[Clayhithe]

I started my veg beds 20 years ago by stripping the turf and raking the soil.
They have never been dug,  except to lift parsnips and carrots and leeks.
I've never walked over them,  either

As part of the rotation the bed which had roots last year is used as a sort-of windrow compost heap (except that I never turn (or even touch) it).   By next Spring,  when I move the remains of the 'compost heap' to the next bed,  it leaves another 6 inches of crumbly,  worm-worked soil:  perfect for the brassicas,  next in the rotation.

No-dig really does work:  provided you never walk on the bed.
And you don't need deep layers of compost.
Just stop digging

[hannah.louise.uk]

Isn't no dig based on raise beds which are filled with compost? Like others say I guess it would work once all your beds have already been worked, with stones and weeds removed.

[Robert_Brenchley]

It can be based on raised beds, but doesn't have to be.

[kGarden]

Isn't no dig based on raise beds which are filled with compost? Like others say I guess it would work once all your beds have already been worked, with stones and weeds removed.

Personally I think better to properly dig and cultivate the soil, deeply, to start with - which sorts out any hard-pan, if there is one, and gets the sub-soil opened up and compost added, so the micro-organisms can start work etc.  I think if you don't do this it inevitably takes years for nature to do it on its own ...

... but an alternative is to use "Lassagne" method.  Put cardboard on the ground, to smother the weeds (but thereafter it will rot, obviously) and then layer compost / manure on top.  Plant into that. Never dig ...

[Clayhithe]

Isn't no dig based on raise beds which are filled with compost?

Not necessarily.
No-dig means,  literally,  no-dig.  Just don't dig the soil (unless you want to lift carrots or parsnips).   If you leave the soil alone and don't walk on it the beds become deep.

Like others say I guess it would work once all your beds have already been worked, with stones and weeds removed.

For me,  it worked from the beginning.   Removing stones and weeds is an on-going,  continuous process,  not a one-off.

[Digeroo]

For me it worked well to start with.  But now I have ended up with a surfeit of stinging nettles and dead nettles.  Now having to go back to digging.  Not keen on Roundup. 

Other weeds are smothered by manure, but the nettles love it.   

I have found that most of the stones have worked themselves downwards, so they are becoming less of a problem.