Coring v. boring!

In answer to a comment against the previous post I need to explain the difference. Apologies to Dave and I was aware I perhaps didn't explain this properly.

Coring is taking out a plug of sand with a 3" dia drainpipe to the depth you need. Some growers take the whole plug of sand out by plunging the drainpipe down 3 or 4 times until you reach the bottom. Very often they will finish off by 'boring' this hole out slightly bigger at the top to 4 or 5" dia.

Boring is done by simply plunging your stout 6' long crowbar to the bottom of the sand and boring your hole by turning the crowbar round and round so you end up with an inverted conical hole. You don't actually take any sand away but compress it away from the hole.

Coring probably allows you to get more holes in a drum but boring means you can probably only get 5 maximum as once you have bored one hole you can distort this when you come to bore the next one. Personally, I would recommend boring all your holes before you start filling as you can go along them again and just open them out and make sure they haven't gone out of shape. This takes some doing and you have to be careful. The sand needs to be just the right consistency to do this, with the right amount of moisture to stop it all collapsing. I shall illustrate what I mean in April when I do my carrots.

However, this weekend is parsnip hole time, and contrary to what I've just said I shall still be coring first, then boring. As i've never had a problem with fanging roots on parsnips I shall continure with this method. Parsnips seem far more robust and when they germinate they just want to send that tap root down as quickly as possible.