fall plowing vs spring plowing

I"m sure this topic has been discussed before, but I"m not sure what search terms to use. I have a Deere 40U and a 1-bottom plow I use in my garden. The garden is about 75"x100" and what I have been doing the past few years is to plow in the fall to turn everything under and let it start breaking down, and then in late April or early May plow again and run a disk through it.

I have been getting a lot of weeds, and I was wondering if maybe I should just plow in the spring because when I plow the second time maybe I"m flopping the seeds from the previous fall back to the top. I"m not a farmer, I have never been a farmer, and I don"t know a lot of older farmers to ask this of.

Any tips or ideas? How did they use to do it "back in the day"?

Thanks,

andy b.

I can't explain the weeds but we never plow twice.

Plow in the fall disc in the spring to keep the trash on the bottom.

Hi Andy b: I would NOT use the plow (moldboard) in the Spring. I'd only use a disk in the spring when the ground is dry enough to not make mud-balls. Another way to say it: Any tillage should not result in lumps that get hard after they dry up. This is not much of a problem with Fall plowing IF you live far enough North that all ground freezes up hard. That freezing breakes down mud-balls you might make in the Fall. You likely were turning back up weed seeds in the Spring with a plow. Putting a spring tooth type drag tends to level out what the disk turns over which might help make an easier job of planting in a garden. We used a mulcher with a small drag to get soil ready in our garden years ago. Good luck.. ag. Ps Gotta be garden forums with pictures someplace on the web?

THANKS guys!!!! Your replies will save me some time and probably some weeds. I think part of it is just that I love driving around on the old tractor, so any excuse to use it is a good one.
We get plenty cold enough over here in eastern PA, so I'll run the plow through the garden this fall and use the disk in the spring.

I also have a cultivator I could run through after the disk to really knock things down, but the disk leaves a pretty smooth surface as it is.

Thanks again. I'll have to post a photo after I run the plow next weekend.

I'll also check for any gardening forums to see what they have to say regarding the weeds. Generally I seem to find any answers related to old tractors or using them right here on this forum though.

andy b.

Can depend on your climate or soil type, but as Agpilot says for me as well.

Spring plowing _always_ brought up a thick crop of weeds back in the day when dad did some of that. Be 10 times the weeds you'd see from fall plowing.

Plowing is primary tillage, only do that once, 'here' in fall is much better.

Disk or field cultivator is secondary tillage, that levels out the rough surface primary tillage did.

Harrow is for fine leveling, and for killing off very very young weed flushes. If you see green weeds, too late...

So, 'here' you plow in fall. You field cultivate in spring. (Or disk, but in our clay a field cultivator does much better - real farmers parked the disks in the grove and only use for special occations in this yellow clay.)

If you spray for weeds and want to plant early to get max yield, you have a harrow on the back of the filed cultivator, and plant right after field cultivating.

If you prefer organic type of farming, you wait a week after field cultivating, and then harrow with a serperate harrow. Hopefully it rained a bit right after field cultivating, and you will have _many_ tiny whitish weed seedlings coming up. The harrow will kill them,and not go very deep to bring up more weed seeds.

Then you can plant into the freshly worked, level ground.

Should rain or timeliness or whatever prevent you from planting, you need to harrow about every 7 days to keep the weed flushes down.

For organic type deal, harrow about 7 days after planting a corn or soybean crop - or just before they emerge. This will kill another little weed flush, and not hurt the deeper, stronger crop sprouts if you are careful. Of course, this is for grain crops, your tender garden crops this part won't work so well - would for a sweet corn patch tho so I included it.

--->Paul

--->Paul

Buy a harrow, use that multiple times if you like to just drive around. It will help with the weeds a lot more than repeating the disk or field cultivator, which will bring up new weed seeds - as I mentioned in the other message.

There is a real pattern, and timeliness, to controlling weeds if you don't spray, it takes attention to detail. You can't put harrowing or the like off for 2 days & expect good results, once the weeds get big enough to see them, you lost the battle in spring & need to start over.

The harrow will work over only an inch of soil, and get a lot of weeds out of that layer where small-seeded weeds love to grow. Go back in with a disk or field cultivator, and you only stir up a new layer of weeds that were dormant 3-4 inches deep - and _they_ will sprout and take over in a week....

Primary tillage.

Secondary tillage.

Harrow as needed to kill weeds, but very very much sooner rather than later. It's a timing thing.

Note that big weeds, perannuals like thistle, will love the harrow and laugh at it, so you need good control of those weeds in other ways. It's a constant battle.....


--->Paul

As Paul stated you can not harrow enough before emergance of the plant, that being said, as an organic farmer, my best friend is the rotary hoe. In a normal year{what ever that is]my crops are just as clean as any in the county, last year however it was so wet I did not even get a hoe hooked up to the tractor. Even though I cultivated a minimum of three times and some fields four the weed pressure was bad.

well... "here" (Long Island) I"ve never seen anyone plow in the fall. you need some cover for the ground to prevent erosion- both wind and rain. if you got a spring crop, you plow in the spring. for fall crops like rye or wheat, plow your stubble in the summer- but fall is the time to get something growing. for a garden "here" the only thing i"d do after a frost is remove trellises etc. and maybe spread some leaves/compost/etc.

course, if you live where there is reliable snow cover all winter long, you don"t need to worry about the dust blowing.

Thanks Paul (and the rest of you)! That really gave me a good overview. Yes, we do put in a nice sweet corn patch, so I will use your advice. I guess I need to hit the early spring/late winter auctions and look for a nice harrow. And yes, if it is an excuse to run the tractor every week before the grass needs mowing it is a good reason to get one in my book.

andy b.

disk and plow in the fall. use a disk to cut up stalks and vines, then plow. In the spring use a light digger (is that what you mean by "Harrow"?) to level and bust up lumps. You could use a disk, but be careful-a disk will pack the ground more in the spring.
Brian(MN)

75 inches by 100 inches?

I'd just use a hoe.

Allan

75 inches by 100 inches?

I'd just use a hoe.

Allan

in the garden we plow whenever we get to it, haven't noticed a difference in weeds from either spring or fall plowing. No matter what you do the first few inches are gonna be full of weed seeds and they are designed to withstand almost anything and only sprout when conditions are ripe....

Out back I fall plow sod. Corn and bean stubble get plowed either spring or fall. If the corn is picked or combined I prefer to leave it over winter to help it start breaking down before I turn it under.

Either way everything only gets plowed once then disced a coupla times before planting. I have a springtooth harrow but haven't used it for years, usually only get it out to bust the crust if the disced land gets rained on or to scratch in any grain I decide to broadcast seed.

Yeah, I think some of the guys got a little confused. My garden is just barely 6 feet by 8 feet. By the time I let the clutch out on the tractor I am already done with one pass of the plow.

Seriously, I don't know why the board software put in double quotes instead of single. Rest assured, my garden is 75 FEET by 100 FEET and will probably be a little wider this year. I have to plant enough to feed the d@mn groundhogs.

andy b.

I dont like fall plowing as it increases the possibilities for erosion. Other than that, i like it. BUT, As was said, If I fall plow, I need to be double discing as soon as I would be plowing. I like fall plowing other than what I stated above, cause I can be spring discing MUCH earlier than I can be spring plowing.

THERE IS, a window in which if I get out early enough during a period between freezing and spring rains, that I can get into spring plowing plenty early. BUT, If I cant get it done during that brief window, Then the spring rains come, and im fighting getting it down for a month, or better.

If I had had the plowing down in the fall, AND, I had missed that small window in the spring, At least, I could do the fighting with a disc much more successful than doing it with a plow.