To prevent soil capping can I.....

[Cosmo and Dibs]

To prevent soil capping can I cover the dug over soil with something called 'loam'? There is a huge pile of the stuff available free of charge on the allotment site?

It seems good quality stuff.

Will it prevent the soil drying out?

It wont hurt my soil, will it?

[SarzWix]

No it won't hurt your soil. So far as I am aware 'loam' is just the term given to good topsoil that has a good balance of organic matter, clay and sand. So it probably would help with the capping where you're sowing seeds. Sprinkling MP compost over your seeds instead of soil will help too.

[NOG]

You will only get soil capping where you contuinually rotovate to the came debth year after year.

Loam is soil made up of sand (40%), silt (40%) and clay (20%)...so it is great to grow in.

My rule of thumb is
A, is it Organic?
B, is it Free?

If A=Y or B=Y or A+B=Y Grab as much as you can get and dig it in.

[Two_Sheds]

Soil capping occurs on sandy and silty soil (like mine).
It's only a problem for carrots really - they can't break through it, so I sow them into a drill topped with multi-purpose compost.

[Cosmo and Dibs]

Thanks a lot!