January 12, 2017

Good morning, Double digging is the process of digging down the depth of two shovel depths. The idea is to give roots as easy environment to grow. Frequently when instructions for double digging are given they are explicate about not mixing the 2 layers. This has always baffled me. Why not, what would be the problem.

Depending on the crop these lower level soils minerals and nutrients will be brought to the surface.

This is very easily done with tap rooted crops like alfalfa. When the plant is tilled in these “lower” soil nutrients are distributed towards the soil surface. By mixing these levels would eliminate the “middle man”. This could be beneficial to shallow crops such as lettuce or broccoli.

I used to double dig when I lived in other places, in Alpine it really is difficult to double dig 12 inches of soil over a layer of caliche.

I often wonder what my crop production could be if I really had soil. A neighbor has enough soil where he piles up mounds and gives the soil away, the piles disappeared anyway.

It is this shallow soil that is a challenge to keep things hydrated during a heat spell. With lots of organics in the soil and mulching the surface, this hydration thingy is some what mitigated. I still wonder what it would be like with 2 feet of soil depth. Just the water holding capacity would be immense.

In the northwest where there is irrigation canal water most farmers are on a 2 week water rotation. Meaning they water every 14 days. With my shallow soils, I would be done during that time span. I water every 3 days. Last July I bumped up my water time and the evaporation / transpiration amount was extreme. I could barely keep my head above”water” so to speak. So much of my fruit blossom drop was a hydration issue. All driven by exceptional heat (that is for Alpine). What we experienced in July is a common thing in East Texas. Having not been able to have the joy of experiencing a summer there, I am told at a minimum the gardens go dormant. Just like what happened last July.

My game plan is to make sure EVERYTHING is mulched. I noticed everything that was covered fared better than uncovered. It is my intent to cover even the squash during the heat of the day. Most cucurbit flowers start closing around 10 AM. Which is when the mercury starts rising. At a minimum this would halt some of the squash wilt and thus help shade the soil better. It is amazing how little soil cover there is with a flaccid squash leaf.

I have no reason not to expect another hot summer especially if what we are experiencing now continues. We could have May/June surprise rain events, we can hope, it has happened.

I am going to plan for the worst case and with any luck I will be surprised. Hopefully I learned from last July.