Never Plough Snow Under

[Adeptandy]

Forget ploughing!!!View attachment 640222

Dragging this one back to life, the sprayer was applying liquid N

Still not convinced it was a good idea, anyone happy to defend ?

 

[Old McDonald]

They just need some bacteria around, which will be the first things to start recolonising a sterilised soil.

Are you suggesting that we can actually sterilise our soil if we plough at the "right" time?

 

[Pigken]

Is it not just yellow snow which possible contains bacteria,

 

[Simon C]

Are you suggesting that we can actually sterilise our soil if we plough at the "right" time?

Sorry, "sterilise" is an exaggeration, out of the hundreds of thousands of different species of bacteria in the soil, there will be some than can cope with the change in their environment. The way to look at it is any thing we do to the soil which is unnatural will create an unnatural biological profile of our soil life. Ploughing is unnatural and so will change what is living in the soil, ploughing down snow and thereby freezing the soil to plough depth is doubly unnatural. What is left living will have a head start over everything else that would naturally be there, and so will dominate for a long period after.

It's the same as having a bonfire on grassland, the heat and the effect of the oxygen being sucked out allows just a few anaerobic bacteria to survive which then effects what grows above ground, which is usually a load of weeds. This effect can often be seen for up to 5 years after the fire.

 

[Agrivator]

I still think its to do with the snow's bacterial content rather than the freezing effect.
The soil at about a foot depth may stay unfrozen with a snow cover. But when the snow and frosted surface eventually thaws, the latent heat of evaporation draws heat out of the lower soil profile which can then freeze. And this has happened since soils were first formed so soil life will be perfectly adapted to it.
A physicist would correct my poor description of the thermal effect, but it is well known that underground pipes which remain unfrozen during snow cover can freeze up when the thaw comes - unless they are buried deep enough to escape the effect.

 

[rob h]

so never mind theory and grandad says no. have trials been done to give actual evidence that it decreases yeald. must say its not somthing we do often but have done in the past and never noticed any yield drop over land that hadent had snow ploughed in

 

[Kiwi Pete]

so never mind theory and grandad says no. have trials been done to give actual evidence that it decreases yeald. must say its not somthing we do often but have done in the past and never noticed any yield drop over land that hadent had snow ploughed in

Would largely depend on the next crops, moisture and temperature between the ploughing and when seeds are sown.
And how many more passes, and with what, and what it weighs..

Lots of variables - a crop that has no relationship with AMF would be less effected >when you annhilate them< than a crop that does need it.

 

[betweenthelines]

What a load of old wives tales!

For a start, most snow, ploughed down or not, isn't actually frozen, so I expect that a lot more land gets ploughed when the top of the soil is frosted than when there is snow on the surface. Ground under a blanket of snow is usually warmer due to snow's insulating effect-so would ploughing snow down warm up the subsoil?

In places like Canada (and parts of Scotland) the winter frosts go down several inches so all land is frosted without having snow or frozen ground ploughed down

Finally, snow is just another form of water, so should we not plough moist ground?

As for "soil needs different microbes in different parts of the world" I'm not even going to comment!

 

[KMA]

Reckon it's more because they didn't fancy slogging through snow behind a horse/ sitting exposed on top of a cabless tractor in cold, wet, shitty weather than anything to do with the soil and the 'yield' thing was just an excuse that would be forgotten about as soon the weather improved and the ploughing was done.

No experience of ploughing decent ground but reckon turning over frozen clay wouldn't be much fun either.