Soil tillage is capable of influencing its structure both positively and negatively.

Positive are those made with soil in tempera able to form a gromerular structure, that is with rounding grains of soil of different size, in which there is a good ratio between macropores able to contain air and micropores with capacity to retain water.

Tillage carried out with wet soils, due to soil compaction, or carried out with very dry soils are negative because they result in excessive refinement resulting in the absence of gromerular structure.

Using the flame heat treatment with the technique of the false sowing, it can be produced minimal working of the ground (3/4 cm of ground worked).

This technique allows to maintain the natural stratification of the soil preserving its capillarity and air content while respecting the presence of organic substance that otherwise, with deeper workings, would be dispersed. The first surface layers of the soil are heated for a few seconds by a considerable amount of heat (temperatures below the combustion chamber reach about 600°C) and this allows them to be disinfected and sterilized, eliminating the possible presence of insects, Fungal diseases, viruses, fungi and harmful bacteria.

The greatest evidence of soil destructuration is found where continuous traditional tillage is carried out (15-20 cm of tilled soil), as in the case of protected horticulture with repeated-cycle vegetable production.

By using flame heat treatment with the false seeding technique, minimal tillage (3/4 cm of tilled soil) can be produced.

This technique makes it possible to maintain the natural stratification of the soil by preserving its capillarity and air content while respecting the presence of organic matter that would otherwise be lost with deeper tillage. The first superficial layers of the soil are invested for a few seconds by a considerable amount of heat (below the combustion chamber temperatures of about 600°C are reached) and this allows their disinfection and sterilization by eliminating the possible presence of insects, fungal diseases, viruses, fungi and harmful bacteria.

The use of minimal work on the land from resolution to another serious problem that has occurred in recent years, during the summer periods.

As a result of global warming, both the air and soil inside the greenhouses (especially in the tunnels) reached very high temperatures during the day that fell only a few degrees during the night (considering that the optimal thermal values are to be found in 22-24 °C during the day and 16-18 °C at night, with RH below 60%).

Deep working of the soil, 15/20 cm, following a production cycle, destroy the soil’s own capillarity and oblige, after the sowing phase, to carry out a considerable wetting phase, from 75 to 90 minutes, in order to have a correct presence of water on the surface.

This considerable amount of water leads to the creation of a wet reservoir in the worked soil layer, a situation which is corrected in spring and autumn but proves dangerous in summer with high temperatures.

The effect that is induced in the soil is that of sunburn (even in the absence of covers covering the surface).

The high temperatures of the air, and thus of the soil surface, and the simultaneous presence of water in the worked layer, cause a thermal energy accumulation (temperatures of 30-35 °C can be reached)

The lack of evaporation of the water present below the surface layer of the soil maintains this energy accumulation that causes the necrosis of the plant in the post-germination phase (sprouting).

See also: DISERBO DI PRE-SEMINA DELLA COLTURA O FALSA SEMINA