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livingontheland - [Livingontheland] intensive, no-till organic/ Ken Hargesheimer on Raised Bed Agriculture

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] intensive, no-till organic/ Ken Hargesheimer on Raised Bed Agriculture
  • Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 19:22:38 -0700


The thing about intensive, no-till organic and the practices that
make it
is that it all works together. One or two books or one or two practices
won't work. Close optimum planting, mixed planting, or interplanting won't
work right with single tractor rows. Deep beds won't produce all they can
without being constantly covered all season with growing plants. Tilling
and cultivating the beds every year will degrade soil organic matter too
fast to keep it producing all season. And so on.

The best yields and lowest costs are gained with this combination of best
practices:

1. deep, humus-rich soil that doesn't need annual tilling, absorbs
rainfall, retains moisture, drains excess, and cuts irrigation costs
2. permanent beds that use space much more efficiently than wide-spaced
tractor rows, remain uncompacted by footsteps or machinery, and concentrate
amendments, mulch, water, and labor in growing beds instead of walkways
3. intensive, mixed planting that keeps something growing in all beds all
season, reduces losses to pests and shades soil to reduce weeding and
conserve moisture
4. no-till that reduces need for weeding, protects soil biology and
structure, and eliminates the cost and labor for tilling equipment and
moving drip lines
5. permanent mulch that continually fertilizes by sheet composting, reduces
weeding and conserves moisture
6. drip under mulch or other irrigation that reduces evaporation
7. season extension techniques that further increase production without
raising costs

Despite recent growth in organic vegetable production, it remains a
tiny
fraction of the market. Organic growers commonly practice soil improvement
to raise production, and local marketing to keep more of the selling price.
But too many struggle with excessive labor and costs and low profit
margins. Many are still using row cropping with tillers or tractors and
strugling to make it pay. Some rely on value-added products, CSAs, and
upscale niche markets. Too often the organic grower must work an outside
job just to pay bills. But for growing to be sustainable, it must also
sustain the grower financially. Growers need to make a good living and need
to reach the mass market with healthy food at affordable prices.
Growers who profit most with a combination of best practices produce
more
by using space more efficiently, and do it with less work and lower cost
without machinery. These methods make it more practical on a commercial
scale. Beyond organic soil building, this includes permanent mulched beds,
intensive planting all season, and season extension techniques. Some of
these are time-honored techniques developed in the gardens of Old World
countries and brought to the U.S. long before the modern organic movement.
As sustainable, successful local growing becomes more widespread, the
trend toward centralized agribusiness and loss of rural life can be
reversed. Evidence confirms that small farms in general can be far more
efficient per unit of land and use of capital than large industrial farms.
The cost of initial setup of soil, beds, and drip actually creates a fixed
asset that grows in value and pays for itself each following year in
reduced costs and labor. This is very low startup capital compared to
conventional production, and far more realistic for startup growers.
While this system offers market growers a better living to stay on the
land and produce healthy food, it's also ecologically sustainable. We
stress that this system reduces water use and fossil fuel use beyond simple
organic growing, and builds topsoil instead of depleting it.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 2/14/2007 at 12:11 PM E. E. Mitchamore Jr wrote:

>Great. I just received one of them, three others are already on order,
>and I'm going to pursue the other three. Thanks.
>
>E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
>www.hillcountrynatives.biz
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: TradingPostPaul
> To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 11:48 AM
> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Ken Hargesheimer on Raised Bed
Agriculture
>
>snip








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