It is necessary to break the crumb(puddling) after ploughing because Puddler is used for preparation of paddy fields with standing water after initial ploughing. It breaks up the clods and churns the soil. The main purpose of puddling is to reduce percolation of water, to **** weeds by decomposing and to facilitate the transplanting of paddy seedlings by making the soil softer.
The steps involved in puddling are:
saturating and flooding the soil.
plowing the supersaturated soil;
plowing or harrowing at progressively lower water contents.
Advantages of Puddling:
(i) Less power is required for tillage.
(ii) Puddling hastens transplanting operation easily and smoothly as well as the establishment of seedlings.
(iii) Puddling creates an impervious layer below the surface to reduce deep percolation of water and to provide soft seed bed for planting paddy, wheat, onion etc. Puddling increases the moisture retention capacity of a soil.
(iv) Puddling is an important method of controlling some weeds such as Cynodon dactylon, Cyperus rotundus etc.
