Re: Till/noTill

From: Elaine Ingham (Soilfoodweb@AOL.COM)
Date: Fri Apr 11 2003 - 17:45:18 EDT


Hi Mike -

I guess I always like to explain WHY things work. If you don't understand
why, then you can get confused and do things that aren't helpful.

So, let's go back to the start - what is your purpose? You turn weeds in to
get rid of them. Wouldn't it be better to not have those weeds in the first
place? If you keep tilling, tilling, tilling, you will keep having weeds,
weeds, weeds.

But did I just say to never till again? No. Don't leap to conclusions, read
what I write.

You till when you HAVE TO till. So, if you have weeds right now, you till,
and please till before the weeds go to seed. But, now start doing the things
necessary to make certain those weeds never come back.

Those things are: get a soil chemistry test done (you may have done this
already.) Look at the report. Any nutrients not balanced correctly? Go
read Albrecht, Kinsey, and Arden Anderson's books. Or chat with people who
know those folks. You have to balance Ca:Mg. Balance PO4 and K. The
biology can't help you if you don't have the nutrients.

But how do you hold onto those nutrients if you add them to the soil? They
just leach out again, if you don't have the right biology. So, do a soil
biology test. What is lacking? What is out of whack. I can bet that your
beneficial fungi are much too low. That the active fungi are hurting. The
protozoa are not present in adequate numbers to cycle nutrients for you. You
likely have root feeding nematodes.

So, you have to fix those things. Compost or compost tea are the only ways
to add the things you are lacking. If you wait for Mother Nature to bring
those things back, you'll be playing with weeds for a long time. Once you
have the organisms back, you have to feed them properly. Cover crops are
good for doing this. But please put in the right cover crop to feed the
right organisms.

Out of time--- heading to Lismore today, have to go have breakfast on the
Beach!

Hope this helps!

Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
SFI Oregon, USA
SFI Australia
SFI New York
SFI Europe
SFI New Zealand

"Hope is not a feeling. It is not the belief that things will turn out well,
but the conviction that what we are doing makes sense, no matter how things
turn out." -- Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic






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