Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Intensive organic no-till for vegetables

When you build healthy soil in permanent beds, then you have soil that
doesn't get walked on and compacted and doesn't need periodic digging or
tilling in following years. Permanent beds with narrow aisles make twice as
efficient use of space as single tractor rows, and can easily double
production in a given garden area. Permanent beds let you plant closely to
shade the soil and weeds, which conserves moisture and cuts down weeding.
Close planting is more effective in weed control when you plant early,
midseason, and late varieties in the same beds. Less irrigation is needed.
This can double total production again for the entire growing season. 

Season extension techniques can make better use of early and late crops
needing protection. Mulching may add to weed control and moisture
retention. Permanent beds periodically need surface replenishing with
compost or other amendments, but no tilling. Cover crops and/or green
manure legumes may be incorporated as space allows. Labor is still involved
with seedlings, transplanting, composting and/or mulching, and harvesting.
But tilling and weeding is almost totally eliminated along with the costs
and labor that go with them. Expensive equipment is no longer needed so
that doesn't come out of profits. It's realistic to get four times the
production from a given area without increasing labor and costs. And the
difference between gross and expense is net profit. And of course,
retailing direct keeps more of the food buyer's dollar for the grower. 

It's true that without machinery this is limited to a couple acres, more or
less, unless extra help is added. But with lower inputs and costs, it's
quite possible to make a good living on that amount of land. Crops other
than vegetables can be grown differently as needed. But large farms for
mass vegetable production wouldn't be needed if millions of families used
intensive organic no-till for themselves and for market growing. 

With some variations this is the system being practiced by Eliot Coleman
very successfully. Each of these techniques have been documented and
demonstrated in many places, but using them in combination can make market
growing a very rewarding - and sustainable - occupation. 


paul tradingpost@lobo.net
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