When We Do and Do Not Broadfork (and how we make that decision)
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- We do not use the broadfork everywhere on our farm anymore but it is necessary in some beds sometimes. Growing in compacted soil is just simply a good way to have poor yields and non-vigorous plants. The broadfork helps to break up that compaction and, by golly, eventually render itself obsolete. Pretty neat, but also pretty necessary for some growers depending on your situation.
Hi Fam! So, this week on the farm is nuts. I swear to myself that I will sit down after this video is uploaded and write out all of the things we have started and seeded and planted and composted and all that stuff for our organic certification. I get that need to detail these things... doens’t make it any less fun, though. I try to make it fun by procrastinating. That’s how that works, right? Anyway, click all the links, please!
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I'm new to the broadfork bought one last fall. Been going thru a couple beds so far! Very cool tool!
Just what i needed to know, thanks!
I've got a lot of spring to catch up on too! 👍😊
I enjoy all of your stuff 🙂
A new subscriber here. A new gardener as well and a granny lol. Thanks for the teaching ❤
Great information. Best decision we made was to move to the broadfork. Soil got healthier and plants got healthier. Being in NE Wisconsin our clay soils need all the help they can get. Lots of compost coupled with broadforking has left us in a great place.
That's great! It's all about context, right? Some soils may never really need it. Others may never NOT need it.
DeWit makes an ultralight ergonomic broadfork which would work well for established beds and I have used it for initial tillage in loamy soil. Certainly not for hard clay, but a remarkable tool.
Broadforking is great. But it’s and even greater amount of work. I stick to using the rotary plow along the sides and call it good.
When should you typically broadfork? Only in spring? Only when replanting a bed? What about during plant growth?
I think when there are few or no plants in the bed and when the soil is not soaking wet (especially if clay). For a new no-till garden I also think it can be a good idea to fork after applying compost or biochar to the bed to let some (but not all) of the compost wiggle down into the cracks
Another great informative video! Thanks Señor Jesse. I was wondering if you made a video regarding clearing out a bed and prepping it for the next crop using a no till method. If so, could you please provide a link to that video. Thanks again for what you do. Keep up the awesome work! 🌱✌🏼
Thank, Oscar! Look back through my videos. I did one last year on no-tilll bed flips but I plan to do a few more this year--it's a huge subject!
I'm lazy. I plant potatoes or tomatoes to loosen soil.
Worked fine so far.
Great info, thaks!
So is a broadfork no till?
Jealous that you have dirt to work. We are still buried in snow in WI. We will get there soon!
Haha! Blessing and curse--I always plant a few things a weee bit early and have to battle the cold with extra row cover for an week or two longer than necessary just cuz I got antsy!
Do you broadfork your paths as well? My paths are very compacted and I don’t plan on changing them.
We have been in problem areas where water builds up but not everywhere.
Dang it i cant help decompacting my soil by hand
How wide is that broadfork?
Not wide enough! We bought it 8 years ago before we went to 30inch beds. 20" I'm pretty sure. That said, it does a nice job
Rough Draft Farmstead so do you really need one as wide as the whole bed or does one pass in the middle do it properly?
I don't think so, no. Wouldn't hurt but I don't think it's necessary
Rough Draft Farmstead thanks for replying, love your channel and podcasts. Enjoying seeing you grow. Pun intended 😂
Haha thank you and thanks as always for watching!
Sounds like utopia soundtrack
There's a 'time to ALL seasons'. I think we should STOP boxing ourselves in with all these METHODs and do what a particular 'planting area' needs to perform at it's best without 'Apologies'! This is getting a bit ridiculous within the 'Gardening' community! Sometimes you need to 'TILL' while other times it's best NOT TO; sometimes you need to GET RID OF THE PESTS, while other times maybe it's not a big deal! It depends on your 'End Goals', if your growing to sell, you have to pay attention to pests eating your profits but if it's just food for your immediate family maybe it's okay as long as you meet your storage goals...