Tillage & CultivationUnit 1.2 | Part 1 – 41
Lecture 2: French-Intensive Method of Soil Cultivation
Lecture 2: French-Intensive Method of Soil
Cultivation
A. The French-Intensive Method of Soil Cultivation
- Development of the French-intensive system
a) Defined as a method of gardening that features handworked, deeply dug beds amended
with compost and other organic inputs, carefully managed and planted at an “intensive”
spacing to maximize production and minimize weed pressure
b) Based on a system of intensive gardening started in the 1500s and popularized by Parisian
market gardeners in the 1800s into the early 1900s, which featured practices that date
back centuries (see Supplement 2, Origins of the French-Intensive Method)
c) Popularized in the U.S. by English gardener Alan Chadwick at UC Santa Cruz, Covello,
Green Gulch, and other gardens that he started
d) Renamed “biointensive gardening” by former Stanford Research Institute scientist John
Jeavons and popularized via his How to Grow More Vegetables books
e) See also French Intensive Gardening: A Retrospective in Resources
- Primary features of the French-intensive system
a) Deep cultivation with hand tools: Cultivation depths may be as great as 24 inches; this
process distributes organic matter and mineral amendments through the soil horizons,
and eventually increases topsoil depth. Deep cultivation allows for greater vertical
development of crop root systems, affording higher density planting and thus higher
yields per surface area of land.
b) Concentration of organic matter and mineral amendments into permanent growing beds:
High application rates of mineral and organic matter amendments rapidly improve soil
physical and chemical properties. Compost application rates may range from 10 to 20
tons/acre/year (0.5–1 pound/square foot) for maintenance purposes and up to 2 pounds/
square foot for soil development purposes.
c) Use of fully mature particulate compost: Allows for immediate nutrient availability to
crops and affords a more rapid spring turnover from cover crops to planting cash crops
d) Permanent growing beds and pathways: Permanent cropping areas and pathways restrict
traffic and soil compaction to pathways and allow for more rapid development of soil
fertility in the beds
- Implements used in French-intensive soil cultivation (see Appendix 2, Garden-Scale Tillage
and Planting Implements)
a) Primary cultivation tools: Spade, fork, U-bar
b) Applications and effects
i. Spade: Used in single and double digging to remove and shift soil
ii. Fork: Used in double digging to fracture surface and sub-soil layer; to incorporate
mineral and organic matter amendments into surface soil following deep digging; to
incorporate amendments into the surface of improved soils when deep cultivation is
no longer necessary
iii. U-bar: Used for rapid and course tillage to 16 inches in situations where deep
cultivation is no longer necessary or desired
c) Secondary cultivation tool: Bow rake
d) Applications and effects
i. Rake: Used to shape garden beds after primary cultivation and reduce, when
necessary, the surface soil particle size in preparation for planting seeds and seedlings