Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Ken Hargesheimer <minifarms2@yahoo.com>]

David Inglis <mhcsa@verizon.net> wrote:

Most annual weed seeds are photo sensitive i.e. require
exposure to light in order to germinate.  The sun comes up and gives them light.  Plowing brings up seed for a new weed crop and some seed lie in the ground for decades waiting for someone to plow them up to the surface so they can sprout.

 

I believe that organic no till is that the chief benefits build up over time and are not available when one first starts.   The benefits are from day 1 and on.

 

No Till is highly successful over large acreages  And highly successful over small acreages, too.

 

Even expert No Till growers such as Steve Groff only converted their land gradually and as he told me once it is not immediately suitable for all crops..  I spoke at his last or next to last field day.  I would like for some one to show me where it does not work and what crop.  In every example of failing no-till I have heard of, it was the farmer's fault; not the no-till.

 

It takes a leap of faith for Marty's friend to invest in new equipment [at a minimum, a no till drill, a no till row planter and rolling stalk chopper] when he will have to keep his present equipment package financed until full conversion is achieved.   The problem is in his head; not the field.  They proved this in Brazil, go 100% no-till the first year.  That is what Hughes did here.

 

He is also correct that green manures can become the new
weed, especially vetch and annual rye.  What wonderful weeds.  If the farmer has a winter crop, then the cc is summer. No problem.   If he has a summer crop, the cc is winter.  No problem.  Again, the head is the problem.  Every problem?? that organic, no-till might have has been solved, somewhere in the world.  Just find it.

 

Ken Hargesheimer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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