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market-farming - Re: Biointensive by Steve Rioch

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  • From: Alex McGregor <waldenfarm AT sprintmail.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Biointensive by Steve Rioch
  • Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 10:44:48 -0400


A few people have asked for more info on applying Biointensive methods to
machine operations. (As opposed to Jeavons' hand labor methods.)

First, there are no books or publications for this. Steve Rioch learned
Biointensive from Jeavons and operated a Biointensive farm. He later
became involved with Ohio University and was the director of their
Biointensive program- part of the Botany Dept.

What he and Dr. Ivan Smith did there was to combine their knowledge of
soil and plant physiology to produce a phenomenal amount of food in a 1/8
acre test garden (40- 100sq. ft. beds), all documented. Steve was
working on a book when funding was canceled for the program. His story
is that his differences with Jeavons ended the Ecology Action funding and
departmental politics finished it off.

The application of what he learned from the test garden to tractor
farming came through his consulting business- Timberleaf Soil Testing.
He consulted with small to medium sized farmers on soil fertility and
branched out to consulting on specific techniques. These techniques
include tillage equipment and techniques, timing and knowing when not to
till for a gain in organic matter, use of BD preps and cover crops,
balancing minerals, permanent bed instead of row cultivation, composting
and how to use it, planting and transplanting, weed cultivation tools,
irrigation...

It all boils down to the principal of understanding soil and plant life
and how the two interact. Add to that, balancing minerals. He took what
he learned from Jeavons and applied science to see why John's methods
were so productive. He was able to exceed John's yields and build
fertility faster. Steve described his techniques as "Complimentary
Agriculture- looking at the way nature did it and trying to mimic that as
closely as possible in an agricultural setting."

Two of the areas he butted heads with John over were composting and
tillage- John used the "hot" or Indore method, Steve started using a
"cold" process. John said you should double dig after every crop, Steve
found that this rapidly lowered the organic matter in the soil. He went
to a system of shallow cultivation between crops after the initial
tillage of a bed. It's interesting to see that John has started cold
composting and recommending less tillage in the latest edition of his
book.

They "butted heads" because John and Steve both have very strong
personalities. And both are reluctant to admit that someone else could
come up with an idea that would improve what they do.

One farmer, who came to OU for the summer class in Biointensive, had used
Steve as a consultant. He doubled his yields the first year he used
Steve's advice. He was already using permanent beds. What he did was
stop using his PTO rototiller for tillage and used it only deep enough to
cut in cover crops. He began spreading his finished compost on the
surface and not mixing it into the soil. He also started doing more
transplanting and less direct seeding.

By the way, I met this farmer at OU (I taught the hands-on portion of the
course for 4 years) and I later visited his farm and saw how he did
things- this isn't second hand info.

The sad part of this story is that Steve lost his funding from Ecology
Action and OU was not willing to raise funds for him. When this
happened, Steve retired from farming and teaching and became a licensed
commodities broker. He never finished his book and my attempts at
getting him interested have failed. I've considered writing that book
myself- I'll let you all know if I ever do.

For myself, I learned the basics of Biointensive- initially from someone
who learned from Chadwick, then from Jeavons' book and later from Rioch.
I expanded my knowledge by reading books and discussions with Steve and
Ivan. I also returned to OU 4 times to teach and took all my questions
to them. I have distilled my 30 years of organic and Biointensive
gardening and farming into 2 classes I teach at a local college.

There are a few other people teaching Biointensive. I don't know of any,
besides myself, who take Steve's approach of understanding the systems.
(Jeavons tends to be orthodox and experience based.) And I don't know of
anyone else who has applied Biointensive to machine farming.

Alex McGregor
Walden Farm




  • Biointensive by Steve Rioch, Marie Kamphefner, 05/25/2001
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • Re: Biointensive by Steve Rioch, Alex McGregor, 05/30/2001

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