Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

Catherine,

 

Converting to no-till is not just a matter of giving up tilling or digging.

It requires a degree of knowledge and experience regarding what you do

instead of tilling. You need to understand how you can manage weeds

by cover crops under your local conditions. On the garden level you can,

to an extend, use mulch (if you have plenty of mulching material on hand)

to suppress weeds. On the farm level there is no way around cover crops.

You need to understand the live-cycle of the different cover crops that will

grow in your area: when to sow, degree of weed-suppression, when to

cut so that it won’t grow again so as to be able to plan the planting of your

cash crop. You need to understand the properties of the different types

of cover crops: legumes will fix nitrogen in the soil, deep-rooted crops

will loosen the soil, etc.

Not tilling obviously saves fuel and reduces pollution. Tilling also causes soil

compaction because the organic structure of the soil is disturbed. Soil fertility

is destroyed by tilling because the soil layers are turned upside down: organic

material of the anaerobic lower soil oxidizes when it comes into contact

with the air while organic material in the aerobic upper soil which is not yet

completely broken down by aerobic microorganismes will be enclosed under

anaerobic conditions where it can develop into substances toxic to plant roots.

Tilling also exposes the soil to erosion.

 

There is plenty more one could say, but you would have to be a little more

specific in your request.

 

Regards, Dieter

Catherine Fenner <c1fenner@comcast.net> wrote:

> Is it a rule set by community garden administrators to not rototill because
> of energy use or pollution? Or, are you trying to keep the substrata from
> compacting? Perhaps if you could define why we can be more specific about
> some tools.
>
> Catherine 
>
> -----Original Message-----
> I need some simple materials to discourage (or encourage to no till) 
> community gardeners in New Haven, CT from wanting to rototill their plots. 
> Thanks, Cordalie
>
> _______________________________________________
> Livingontheland mailing list
> Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland

---

Sucker-punch spam with award-winning protection.
 Try the free Yahoo! Mail Beta.