Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dan Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>]

Thanks for the good points, Greg.
I think we need to be precise in our terminology as to what is going on 
in order to avoid battles over semantics.
There are already a few terms in use, but they are being used lazily and 
improperly. This doesn't help Logsdon's article or the farmers who are 
trying to find their place ecologically.

One that should be added is "ridge-till", which is tilling narrow strips 
and precisely following those strips with the planters and cultivators, 
leaving undisturbed sod between the rows.

Dan C.
Belgium, WI
> 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
>
>
>   
>