Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Pete Vukovich <pvukovic1@yahoo.com>]

Good points it is and should be a spectrum. I also think that optimal frequencies and types of tilling depend on the soil and crops themselves.  Logsdon seems to also be leaving out orchards for some reason, or perhaps where he lives they get tilled.....


--- On Fri, 6/18/10, Greg Baka <g_baka2002@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Greg Baka <g_baka2002@yahoo.com>
Subject: [Livingontheland] on Logsdon and the many versions of no-till
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Friday, June 18, 2010, 4:33 AM

One of valuable things about Gene Logsdon's article on "No-Till" was that it points out that term is being applied to a very wide continuum of practices.

The continuum ranges from:
- Gardeners who keep a thick layer of mulch over their undisturbed soil...
- Farmers who plant straight into a living tangle of ground cover...
- Farmers who disc in green manure before broadcasting or drilling...
- Farmers who till and mix the top few inches of soil and crop residue...
- Farmers who use every conventional row crop operation imaginable EXCEPT turning the soil with a mold board plow

So perhaps is he pointing out to us that "no-till" has become a term that is so widely used that it has begun to lose it's meaning? Like "green" and "organic" and "natural"

Maybe the term "no-till" no needs qualifiers to tell where it falls on the continuum?
* The farmers that Gene Logsdon describe from his area seem to be following "Industrial Ag No-Till".
* In my flat row-crop garden that has never been plowed or rototilled - but is cultivated and weeded with a wheel hoe and a hand hoe - I am using "Cultivated Garden No-Till"
* the previous poster who plants straight into the living ground cover is using "Intact Sod No-Till" or perhaps "Pure No-Till"?

Moving away from a heavy plowing or rototilling habit is a good thing, some just move farther than others before they stop, practice their new method, and hopefully later further across the continuum to whatever true no-till is. Gene's article reminds us that many farmers haven't been moving very fast and are maybe getting a bit too settled where they are on the continuum.

Greg in MO




     
_______________________________________________
Livingontheland mailing list
Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland