Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

Sorry, but even if the final pass is made in the dark the weeds don't
germinate for days - days with daylight every day - so I can't agree. (Too
many farmers are "in the dark" as it is ;-) Further, Marty's friend
wouldn't need ANY heavy equipment (along with the heavy debt to repay) if
he grew diverse crops intensively in permanent beds. If that means
forgetting wheat, fine. I mean, let's think outside the box. Is the goal to
grow wheat (or corn or whatever), or is the goal to provide income? There
are manual tools like easy walk behind planters in use all over the
country. In permanent beds he doesn't need a no till row planter, and if he
simply plants cover crops that'll be winter-killed he won't need any
rolling stalk chopper. Why make it harder than it has to be? 

I definitely go along with gradual conversion or starting small. As with
any business, changing methods takes planning and experimenting. I went
through this on a small scale and learned the hard way not to take
shortcuts. How long no-till or even organic takes to full production
depends partly on the soil condition to begin with. Depleted or "worn out"
soil does take time to rebuild, but once rebuilt it far outproduces
chemically drugged soil year after year. In my own case I'm experimenting
to add more fertile beds with good structure as fast as the microbes will
allow. I don't have time to wait for compost piles or green manure cover
crops, or so-called lasagna gardening. Since I don't have machinery to pay
for and the land comes with the house, I can afford amendments like
greensand, bone meal, fish emulsion, molasses, and alfalfa meal. Along with
free aged manure these things are mixed together with the soil so it all
composts in place, and it's mulched with straw with permanent drip set up.
Then it's no-till all the way. No-till is tailor made for permanent beds
and permanent drip and mulch. I'm not about to wrestle with moving
driplines and mulch twice a year just so I can turn the soil over - when it
doesn't even get compacted by feet or tractor tires. 

paul tradingpost@lobo.net


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

On 12/23/2007 at 2:46 PM David Inglis wrote:

>> I'm sorry, but anybody who thinks you can work the fields in the dark is
>> too clueless to bother with.  How can he really believe you get less
>weeds
>> by tilling in the dark??? 
>While tillage or seeding  at night may not be practical or desirable the
>fellow is correct that far fewer weed seeds germinate if the final pass is
>made in the dark. Most annual weed seeds are photo sensitive i.e. require
>exposure to light in order to germinate. Attempts were made in the
eighties
>to build cowling over seeders to take advantage of this fact but, for
>obvious reasons, it proved impractical. Also 10% weed germination still
>leaves a considerable problem.
>
>I believe that  organic no till faces the same obstacle that organics once
>did and that is that the chief benefits build up over time and are not
>available when one first starts which is also when the practitioner is the
>least experienced; this is scary for a lot of folk.
>Clearly, as Ken points out, No Till is highly  successful over large
>acreages for some crops. However one can hardly be surprised that growers
>are cautious about extending that success to their own unique situation.
> As Ken also says  the problem is in peoples heads and  habits of thoughts
>are very hard things to change. 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 [at least not his version ] and he
would
>make his crop selection based on what works best for his system and not
>alter the growing system to suit particular crop needs.
>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. Doesn't mean it can't be done but I can understand
>his need for detailed answers and, preferably, examples.
>He is also correct that no till started out backed by the 'chem boys' but
>that is changing. He is also correct that green manures can become the new
>weed if not dealt with properly, especially vetch and annual rye. This can
>be used to advantage though. I once met a German Farmer in Ontario who
>allowed red clover to go to seed repeatedly over two seasons so that after
>that all he had to do for the green manure crop to come up was -nothing.
>Brilliant.
>David
>Z5
>