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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: Uriel <uriel@nasalam.org>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] composting, no-till, etc
  • Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2006 03:44:37 -0500

I agree with the philosophy of not tilling the soil, but I wonder how far we follow "nature's example" by allowing organic matter to stay on top and not put it into the soil. Do you go so far as to not disturb the soil to plant seeds? Do you just broadcast them by the many thousands like nature does and hope some come up? I think it realistic to recognize that we are farming the soil and expecting to harvest food from it in greater quantities than nature would normally produce. We are already disrupting a natural cycle. We need to find a balance that works with nature while also meeting our needs.
Uriel / SW Missouri

TradingPostPaul wrote:
I think you'll agree that no method works for everyone whether it's
building adobe or hog calling. Ken's point is no-till works, period.
There's a right and a wrong way to do anything. If I do no-till and don't
get good results, it certainly doesn't mean no-till didn't work. It means I
didn't *make* it work. There's a great deal more to it than just not
plowing and cultivating. Good growing has a learning curve. It takes time
and practice, and certainly good information. And I think that's true of
all agricultural practices.
As they say, the Devil is in the details.


paul tradingpost@lobo.net

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes. --Henry David Thoreau *********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 7/5/2006 at 11:28 AM Greg and April wrote:

A couple of small disagreements.

First. Nature does till, just not the way we do. Moles, gofers,
shrews, rats, mice, earthworms, rabbits and a host of other animals and
insects bring dirt ( including subsoil ) to the surface and take organic
matter below the surface. I could show you some big rocks in my sisters
yard that had almost been buried by the action of gofers in the last 3-4
years.

Second. Not everyone will have the same success with the same method,
and saying that someone failed and the system didn't, is disrespectful. Some methods work for some people, other methods work better for other
people. So just because No-Till didn't work for someone, is by no means
any reason to say someone failed. Even the son of the Japanese farmer (
I couldn't even begin to spell his name ) that made a No Till method
popular couldn't get the same results that his father could.

Greg H.
----- Original Message ----- From: Ken Hargesheimer To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 17:36
Subject: [Livingontheland] composting, no-till, etc


Dear oganicites,

As far as I am concerned, there is no debate concerning, organic,
no-till, mulching, etc. I have seen this in 7 states and 18 countries and
there is no place on earth that organic, no-till is not the way to do it.

All the technical talk is worth little; what happens in the garden/field
is what is important. Nature does not plow or dig, add amendments, etc. I am a "neighbor" to 20 villages on www.nabuur.com and one guy today said
that since there are different climates and conditions they need to see
what works. No, organic, no-till works everywhere. I know a farmer in AR
who did it for five or so years and stopped. The system did not fail; he
failed. It works!!


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