Panned Soil

, beAs you can see, the recent heavy rain followed by sun has baked this soil surface into a hard crust (pan). This is partly because there is little structure in the soil to resist this, but mostly because it was broken up too finely before planting.

This pan needs to be broken up immediately, since it is preventing oxygen getting down to the roots. And roots cannot take in water without oxygen, contrary to what we might suppose. It is also preventing other essential gaseous exchange.

A Dutch hoe is an ideal tool to use, since this will also kill off any small weeds which might be gaining a hold.

To give a soil more structure, we can add organic matter to it in spring. This will be broken down by the soil micro-organisms to form humus which has the effect of sticking the finer particles together to form larger ones (crumbs). Not only do these allow gases to access and leave the soil more easily, but they also resist this panning.