Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Steve Diver <steved@ipa.net>]

Hello Harvey -

An important aspect often missing from email discussion on
farming and gardening is scale of production, equipment 
matched to growing systems, and cropping systems 
rotations and planting / weeding schemes. 

It is hard to grasp the feasibility of no-till unless
the cropping system is descibed as well.

Gardeners raising on a few beds have more options than 
market gardeners raising on 1-3 acres vs truck farmers 
raising on 25-30 acres vs row crop farmers raising on 
a few hundred acres.  

It also depends on "where" you live in terms of climate,
rainfall, and soil type.   

A no-till field trial in Iowa in 2006 using the roller-crimper 
found that no-till soybeans grow poorly under droughty 
conditions such as any non-irrigated row crop farmer 
would encounter while irrigated tomatoes grown on smaller 
plots did great. 

Many no-till farms that focus on biological farming are using 
aeration -- a type of partial soil coring or slicing with 
limited distubance to the mulch cover -- to mix composts, 
soil amendments, and crop residues into the top soil layer 
to promote bioreaction, mineralization, and soil humus 
formation.   

The old analogy that is still very useful for understanding
the reason for partial aeration or even full tillage is the 
fence post.  

The fence post does not rot several inches below ground or 
several inches above ground, but it does rot at the ground 
level where all the biological action is taking place. 

Proper tillage combined with biological farming practices
that include cover cropping, compost application, and 
rock mineral amendments is still the basis of broadscale 
eco-farming, sustainable farming, and organic farming.  
This system has been been the basis for building and 
improving soils and increasing soil organic matter.  There 
is plenty of data that shows an *increase* in soil organic 
matter and soil quality with proper tillage and humus 
farming practices.  

Gardeners can apply deep mulch for no-till and surface 
apply composts under the mulch system, especially in
cominbation with irrigation.  The mulch is a protective, 
moist, and biologially diverse cellulosic environment that
worms love to inhabit. As worms mix and aerate the surface 
layers together the compost comes in contact with the soil.  

In other instances where worm populations might not be very
substantial, the compost is nevertheless protected from the 
hot, drying sun with its UV rays that can harm compost biology.
The surface applied compost, protected under the moist mulch, 
undergoes a natural process of mineralization that provides  
soil fertility and enhances soil microbial activity.  

Hope that helps, 
Steve Diver 



-----Original Message-----
>From: Harvey Ussery <huboxwood@earthlink.net>
>Sent: Sep 1, 2006 2:44 PM
>To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: [Livingontheland] No-till manure application
>
>I'm starting an article on soil building and care for Mother Earth News. 
>I plan to stress the minimizing of tillage, which is where my own 
>practice is going as well.
>
>A question: How does the incorporation of manures work in completely 
>no-till systems? As manures dry out, their nitrogen content is converted 
>to ammonia, which is lost to the atmosphere as a gas. So is it possible 
>to prevent this nitrogen loss by mulching the manure heavily enough to 
>keep it moist? Presumably the nitrogen would then be washed down into 
>the soil with each rain, where it would be available for soil micros and 
>plant roots--and the organic matter would be incorporated over the 
>season by earthworms and micros.
>
>One could ask the same question about compost.
>
>How about it, you no-till specialists: How to apply manures and composts 
>in completely no-till systems?
>
>Thanks.
>
>~Harvey
>-- 
>Harvey in northern Va
>www.themodernhomestead.us