In Reply to: Stirring up the soil posted by Oldtimer on March 24, 2004 at 09:02:42:
A shallow cultivation may damage a few surface roots, but the plant adapts. Snap beans (green and yellow) send out a lot of surface roots so I till carefully, but hey, they do all right even if I'm rough. I love green an yellow beans, corn, chard, and acorn and hubbard squash.
Remember, if your plants are already setting fruit, or starting to, a shallow cultivation isn't going to do anything other than inspire more plant growth so don't. I forgot to mention: as they start to set their fruit you could stir in a bit more fertilizer. After that, you don't need to stir.