(birds chirping)
- I'm sharing with you some striking differences
I'm noticing on the two trial beds here,
which are now in their 10th year of cropping. This bed
I dig every December and incorporate the compost.
That's traditional digging in the UK at least.
And this one, the same amount of compost goes on top.
That's the only difference.
And from then on there's no feed or fertiliser used here.
The only application of fertility, if you like,
is compost once a year in December.
The watering is the same.
That's very pertinent this year.
We use the same timings, the planting is the same,
the harvesting is the same on the same day,
same plants, everything the same,
except for the digging or no dig.
And this morning I was picking cucumbers,
I've got ridge cucumbers there
which followed peas and cabbage.
Everything you can see in these beds
is a second planting made in the summer.
We don't add any more compost for that.
And that has followed harvests which were 44 kilos,
there on the dig bed,
and 56kg here on the no dig.
We notice pretty much every year,
well actually every year in 17 years of doing this,
because I was doing it in my previous garden as well,
that the no dig bed gives more harvest, around 10%,
and that's for less work
because you don't need to do the digging,
and also there are more weeds on the dug bed.
And what I noticed this morning was the cucumbers,
picking these and that is today's harvest,
and this followed the harvest of just two days ago
which was also four, so really good harvests.
And this morning on the dig bed,
which also has two cucumber plants,
there were no cucumbers, and previously there were two.
So in the last say five days of growth
that one's given eight cucumbers, that one's given two.
Now that's just one result in isolation.
But what is really striking me
and has been for a little while,
is the mildew, so much more mildew on the dig bed.
Why?
It opens a bit of a debate on, you know,
where does mildew come from?
This is powdery mildew, which is a dry mildew,
it can be caused by lack of watering,
but both beds receive the same amount of water.
I think it is to do with the soil
and the health of the plant.
Because, for example, in my polytunnel
I've got two melon plants side by side, different varieties.
One has almost lost its leaves, so much mildew,
and the one right next to it has no mildew or very little.
So mildew is not like potato blight,
it doesn't just transmit from leaf to leaf
and land willy nilly.
It's that the leaf of a plant needs to be weak enough
that the mildew can get into it.
And I think that's what's going on here.
These plants are just not quite so strong.
Why?
That's what I'd love to know for sure.
I mean, I suspect it could be because
in digging you're breaking the mycorrhizal network,
those kinds of things.
There's something about moisture retention.
You know, I think this year why
it's maybe showing up more strongly under dry conditions.
See these celeriac on the dig bed.
I water them, but they just don't grow.
And then look at these.
These celeriac were transplanted at the same time,
same date of sowing, March.
Same date of transplanting, late May.
Dig bed very small, except the two edge ones, interestingly,
which possibly could be because they can feed
into the mycorrhizal network in the pathway, maybe.
And these ones are pretty strong,
again, though, stronger on the edge,
There is moisture in the pathway,
which is an advantage of not having wooden sides,
Because your plants can then feed into the pathway.
And the leeks also, to my eyes, they look different
although they haven't been in the ground for long.
They were transplanted after potatoes.
We had around 13 kilos of potatoes there on the dig bed,
and around 13 kilos on no dig, about the same this year.
Potatoes is one thing that sometimes
does better on the dig bed.
This year it was about the same.
That's why it's fascinating doing this trial
year after year after year, and we build up a profile.
You can see the results on my website.
There's a page dedicated to it.
We'll put the link in the description.
What I'm seeing with these leeks, to my eyes,
is there's a slightly more grey on the dig bed,
with a slightly metallic colour to the green leaf,
than those more luminous and vibrant green.
And I've tried to photograph this difference,
it doesn't always show up.
But I would say these are definitely
bigger already.It's really interesting.
You know, I think to do with the moisture again.
I think with no dig, just the plants have better access
to what moisture is in the soil
through mycorrhiza network not being disturbed.
But wouldn't it be interesting
if more studies could be done on this line?
I don't have the resources here to, you know,
follow this up in laboratories and things,
but I'm sure somebody might do that.
Let's hope, because the implications are big,
particularly with a lot of dry weather
happening all the time.
(water spraying)