Trouble with tilling?

Fresh-turned soil often creates a plow pan in the garden that limits yields

You've got spring fever. You want to get your tiller out, gas it up, check the oil and head for the garden. The smell of freshly tilled soil is just what you need to get over your "sickness." Before you get started I would like you to rethink your spring garden soil preparation habit.

When you till your garden at a depth of 6 to 8 inches each year, a "till pan," or -- as they say in the field of agriculture -- a "plow pan" develops. This pan is a hardened layer of soil that develops just below where a plowshare or tiller tine reaches into the soil.

This hardened pan becomes somewhat impervious to plant roots, restricts the growth of roots and thus reduces garden plant yields.

If you have used your garden plot for several years running, a plow pan may have developed under the topsoil in your garden. In order to get rid of this pan layer, put your tiller back in the garage and get your favorite shovel. Do a few stretching exercises and get ready to double-dig your garden.

In order to double-dig your garden, dig up a shovel full of soil and place it next to the hole you have dug. Dig a row across the width of your garden. Now go back, and dig up another row of soil and place this on the soil you dug up in the first row.

You should have a trench now about two shovel faces wide. This trench will be the depth of the face of your roundpoint shovel. Now go back to the area where you dug up the first row and dig up another spadeful. In essence you are going the depth of two spade faces. Usually this will result in turning the soil to a depth of about 12 inches to 16 inches.

I know it is a lot of work, but you will be pleasantly rewarded by increased yields and plant vigor in your garden. Once you have double-dug your garden, you can go back to using that tiller for several years.

If you are fortunate enough to have a tractor at your disposal, you can get the same effect as double digging, if you pull a subsoiler plow through the garden several times. This plow will go through the plow pan and break it up. Plant roots will now be able to penetrate the plow pan and you will see better yields from your garden.

Check soil pH

There are some other things I would like you to think about when preparing your garden soil this year. If you haven't added lime to your garden in several years, you may want to take a soil sample and check it for pH. You can either get an inexpensive test kit at your local garden center, or take the soil sample to your local university extension center.

If you find that the soil pH is below 6.2, then add some lime to your soil. Use pelletized lime because it is easy to spread, doesn't create a lot of dust during application and activates very rapidly.

If your garden has a lot of clay, then apply gypsum to your garden. Use a rate of 40 to 80 pounds per 1,000 square feet of garden surface. The gypsum will help break up the clay, while making no change in soil pH.

I would also work into the soil a 3-inch to 6-inch layer of peat moss. This peat moss will help break up the clay, while adding much needed organic matter to your garden's soil.

Double digging, along with the addition of lime, gypsum and peat, are not things needed for your garden soil each year. But if you're like me, you get into a rut and just till your garden each year and start planting. Maybe this is the year you get out of the rut, check your garden soil to see if it needs lime, organic matter and gypsum, and also give it a good double-digging.

Send your gardening and landscape questions to Paul Schnare at P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699 or news@semissourian.com.