This week on the farm we participated in a pop quiz. After mastering bed preparation from our one beds, we expanded our skill to the rest of the farm. Each group was assigned a new E or P bed to work on. The assignment of the pop quiz was to prep the bed for planting. This entailed weeding, double digging and amending the soil.
Starting the pop quiz required a lot of weeding. In my bed it took an entire class period just to get the garlic out! After the invasive weeds were extracted from the beds we were ready to double dig. The purpose of double digging is to improve aeration in the soil improve soil drainage and assist root penetration. Initially we dug up the first 12 inches of the first 3 square feet and set it aside. Then using a spading fork we loosened 12 inches below the trench. We then dug up the next 12 inches of the next 3 square feet and filled in the first trench and aerated the bottom of the second trench. This process is continued to the end of the bed.
After double digging the beds we had to amend the soil in order for it to contain optimal nutrients for crop growth. We used our calculations from the soil testing to determine how much we needed. The results of the soil tests told us to add 3.6 lbs. of alfalfa meal to make up for the lacking 2.4% of nitrogen. Looking forward, our pop quiz beds are ready for planting; a task we will accomplish this coming week.
-Ella 
No comments:
Post a Comment