Hilling

Hilling 

an agricultural method of managing row (field), vegetable, fruit, and ornamental crops; it consists in heaping small lumps of moist soil against the lower parts of plants and simultaneously loosening the soil. On soils with a shallow plowing horizon, hilling increases the volume of loose soil in which the root system of plants develops. Under conditions of excess moisture, the furrows and ridges that are formed upon hilling drain the waterlogged soil well and ensure aeration and warming by the sun’s rays.

Hilling is used to protect plants against winter cold and autumn and spring frosts, to increase the soil temperature in the northern and middle vegetable-raising zones in the case of heat-demanding crops, to protect plants against windfalls, to control pests (the fly Myiopardalis pardalina Big., the cabbage-root maggot, and the clearwing moth Synanthedon tipuliformis Cl.) and diseases (wire stem of cabbage and tomatoes), and when reproducing cuttings of currants and gooseberries. The time for hilling and the extent to which it is done depend on the characteristics of the plants and on the soil and climatic conditions. Hilling is done by tractor-drawn hillers after rain or watering.

V. M. MARKOV