Page 21 - Simply Vegetables Autumn 2021

his crops were of a good quality and
it was fairly weed free. He uses raised beds with no supporting boards and has paths of woodchip. He makes sure his compost heats up to kill any weeds seeds and stacks manure to make sure it is well rotted to reduce weeds. He applies about 50mm of compost / organic matter each year either in the autumn or before planting if the area is being cropped in the autumn which many areas are.
Charles Dowding has run an experiment of two beds one being dug and the other no-dig for over ten years now at two different gardens. I have set out below some of the results and further details as you can see the no- dig has higher overall yields.
The experiment started in 2007 at Lower Farm and then continued at Homeacres Charles Dowding’s new garden. The yields given below are for the years 2007 to 2020 and covers both gardens, it shows the weight of vegetables harvested from both plots which measure 1.5 * 5.0 metres (7 square metres).
A fairly impressive 100kg difference over 7 years not to be sneezed at, do
we have any members that would like to run a similar trial? It would be nice to have some figures to compare.
Each plot has the same amount of organic matter added, in the dug plot it is dug into the soil on the no-dig it is spread on the surface. Both plots have the same treatments and grow the same crops.
I feel the dig / no-dig debate will continue for sometime to come!
2007 to 2020
Dug plot – 1131.15kg No-dig plot – 1248.16kg
The figures for just Homeacres are:
2013 to 2020
Dug plot – 754.81kg
No-dig plot – 854.53kg
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