Re: [compost_tea] Tilling and tea don't mix.

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2003 03:18:09 EDT

I believe Jeff L. was referring to Jethro Tull's "turn the soil to powder"
tillage approach. Tull believed that the soil had to be pulverized in order for
the roots to eat the soil. Not what roots do, so tilling until your soil is
dust is not a good idea. But Jeff is right that sometimes you need to till,
if the soil is becoming too fungal for the plant you want to grow.

Try to not come down nasty on people for saying things they never said, ok,
Frank? As you might guess, I'm a bit sensitive on that subject.

Earthworms certainly mix soil, but they don't really till it. The "tillage"
that earthworms perform is micro-tillage, and certainly nothing as
distructive as human-size plows, disc, chisels, rippers, sub-soilers, etc. Worms are
mini-aerators, and can enhance fungi as well as bacteria, given that you give
your worms the right things to eat.


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





Received on Sun Aug 10 2003 - 04:11:25 EDT

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