Waterlogged Ground

[Arnie]

Hi Everyone

A number of allotments on our site are underwater by at least 3 to 4 inches and have been for a couple of weeks, at the moment I am OK as I am on higher ground, but the ground is so wet its a waste of time trying to do any work on it.
What is worrying me is if we have more rain over the coming months what will this do to the ground and what will it take out of the ground.

I have manured my plot but I feel that all this rain will by spring have washed all the goodness away.

What would you do

Regards

Arnie

[Shallot Man]

Would seem that all the worms on your site have been drowned. Wonder how that will effect your crops next year.

[Urban Fox]

worms can live underwater for quite a while. They'll probably move out of the waterlogged area to other allotments.

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/search/WormNotes3.html

But, don't worry - they'll be back

[PLUMPUDDING]

Some of my crops, particularly brassicas have not done as well as usual this year - they are much smaller than usual. The garden is not waterlogged, but I think all the rain has washed the nutrients out. I had added compost and fertilizer as usual.

Next year I'm going to give the whole garden extra fertilizer, top dress with compost or well rotted manure if I can get some and might cover between the plants with cardboard or some other cover, and see if that produces better results.

After this year's bad harvests and seeing the waterlogged fields and farmers not being able to get their machinery onto the land I expect the price of our food to rocket next year, so it will be even more important for us to grow as much as we can. Don't know about the wheat though!

[Primrose]

I've already spread over all the dug-out compost from my compost heap so I fear the benefits of that have already been leached out. And with this week's rain I fear a further leaching will be happening. I'm not going to try andameliorate the process until just before next Spring's sowing time as it will probably be time and effort wasted. I was hoping to avoid having to buy any more bags of composted manure for next Spring but fear I will now have to.

[Urban Fox]

Just a thought...

[quote]<<<<What is worrying me is if we have more rain over the coming months what will this do to the ground and what will it take out of the ground.>>>>[/quote]

would the use of a green manure help? I grew phacelia last year. It grows pretty quickly and as a bonus is great for the bees. I know it is probably too late for this year. But it might be a solution for the future.

[quote]>>>I was hoping to avoid having to buy any more bags of composted manure for next Spring but fear I will now have to.>>>[/quote]

Plants like this will take up the the nutrients in the soil and lock them into itself. rather than leach away with the rain. Then at least you can compost them and reintroduce the nutrients back to the soil rather than having to buy more manure.

[robo]

i was worried i had put to much manure on our plot ( 15 c.m. ish) but seems i have no need to be concerned i might even have to put more on