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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] no till
  • Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2007 02:22:15 -0700 (PDT)

Tony,
 
You wrote:
> How does no-till relieve soil compaction?
 
This is the subject of some debate and probably depends in part
on type of soil (clay, sandy, etc.) climate (cold, hot, dry, wet),
soil management practices and type of cropping.
 
My experience is that a clay soil in a semi-arid climate (here in
Portugal) will definitely become compacted as a result of ploughing
because:
- the thin layer of topsoil is buried underground and the pure clay
from the subsoil will dry rapidly and crack at the soil surface,
- the organic soil web (roots, fungi, bacteria, small creatures, etc.)
that gives structure to the clay soil is destroyed in regular intervals
and never has a chance to fully recover between two ploughings,
- pores, small spaces between soil particles, are lost and the air
or gas in the soil is released into the atmosphere,
- without the soil pores and the organic web, the fine clay particles
will compact together and form a solid mass with the consistency
of reinforced concrete,
- due to the regular ploughing, an aerobic topsoil of humus and
organic matter, that would protect and enrich the clay, can never
build up.
 
I have been able to observe this at first hand by comparing my
own fields with those of my neighbour for the last 10 years.
My experience is also that to simply stop ploughing is not
always enough to improve soil structure of a field that has been
ploughed for many years. A soil management, which in my
case needs to include deep-rooted woody perennials to loosen
the soil, may be necessary.
 
Farmers plough to loosen the soil; however, the effect is only of
short duration. The first heavy rain will start compacting the soil
until it is harder than before.
 
> I have been told, that at some point in the soils life, it must be plowed.
 
The point with no-till is that you return all organic matter to the soil surface
in order to form a dark humus-rich topsoil that will enrich and protect the
soil below. The longer you practice no-till the thicker and richer this topsoil
will become. Ploughing only once will destroy this accumulated layer of
aerobic humus and organic matter and burry it underground under anaerobic
conditions where organic matter may even form toxic substance since it
cannot decompose as it would at the surface under aerobic conditions.
In other words, the aerobic humus is lost underground while the anaerobic
subsoil is exposed to the air where nutrients and anaerobic microbes
oxidize in contact with the air which translates into a loss of soil fertility.
 
I cannot speak for different soil and climate conditions, but in regard to
my case, people recommending ploughing once in a while don't understand
no-till.
 
> Or am I missing something, like chisel plowing??
 
Subsoiling and chisel ploughing are used in conventional cultivation for
loosening compacted soil, I don't know if they are used by no-till farmers.
 
Dieter Brand
Portugal

Tony Marzolino <tmarzolino@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hello Dieter,
How does no-till relieve soil compaction?  I have been told, that at some point in the soils life, it must be plowed.  Or am I missing something, like chisel plowing??
 
Thanks,
Tony Marzolino

Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com> wrote:
Rhoda,
 
The answer will depend on what you mean by no-till:
 
A) mulched gardening à la Ruth Stout,
B) no-till farming with herbicide-killed cover crops, or
C) organic no-till farming with mechanically killed cover
crops.
 
A) and B) will work everywhere.  C) will work only if
your climate allows continued coverage by cover crop
and/or cash crop during the entire growing season.
Any interruption in your cropping schedule, like during
a dry season, will allow the weeds to come back, and
you have to start from zero.
 
Dieter Brand
Portugal

Rhoda Skavroneck <rhodaf@gate.net> wrote:
Hi,
I live in Central Florida. Do you know if No Till is good here?
Thanks
Rhoda
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