[compost_tea] Min. Till/No Till

From: Halstead <halstead_at_mail.telepac.pt>
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2003 18:48:21 +0100

Poor old Jethro Tull.
I am sure he never said ploughing was the thing to do,especially to the Afr=
icans/Asians & S. Americans who used oxen donkeys etc.and a wooden 'ploughs=
' and still do with the sole object of giving the person planting the abili=
ty to cover the seed with soil to enhance germination and hide the seed fro=
m birds ants etc. Ploughing did put the previous crops trash and weeds that=
 had grown out of site so the planter,by hand, had a clear soil to place th=
e seed in.This also applied when machines, in some parts of the world, repl=
aced planting by hand.
Thirty /forty years ago people notice that the trash they had ploughed unde=
r did not decompose and was partly ploughed up the next year. Minimum till =
was the pioneered with the aid of the Ag. engineer who started to develope =
machines to plant into partly weathered and decomposed crop waste. The prob=
lem was that volunteer plants and weeds grew in the period between harvesti=
ng and next planting which meant more cultivation to kill these plants and=
 these cultivations had to be repeated to the detriment of the soil structu=
re and loss of moisture. When a knock down herbicide became available this=
 was applied and so could reduce the number of cultivations,enhance the amo=
unt of organic mater on the surface of the soil as in a forest situation an=
d improved the physical properties of the soil and increase yields.
Then no till was introduced but in my experience Min. till is the better of=
 the systems particularly when used with a deep narrow ripper that acted as=
 a tree root allowing water and air to peculate the soil and leaving the cr=
op trash on the surface mixed with a little soil and the 'critters' that wo=
uld brake it down.
 IMHO it is in this situation that ACT will have its maximum effect on larg=
e scale crop production with two soil drenches and as many foliar applicati=
ons as required dictated by experience in local conditions. All this use of=
 ACT will depend on the likes of the SFW and private individuals who take u=
p the local challenge in providing suitable brewers and the local knowledge=
 in producing the required crop compatible compost to use in the brewers.
Bill H.




Received on Sat Aug 09 2003 - 15:14:21 EDT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Tue Feb 07 2012 - 14:29:26 EST