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

From: ron poitras <ronp_at_acadia.net>
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2003 15:14:59 -0400

Hey Frank et al:
How about strip tillage, which it seems to me offers the best of both world=
s - a 2 - 3' strip that can be shallow tilled purposefully, i.e. to incorpo=
rate minerals, turn cover crops and manage weeds, while a 18"- 24" strip of=
 clover/grasses on both sides which maintains the microbial life undisturbe=
d. From the strips recolonization of fungal and bacterial life can take pla=
ce into the disturbed soil portion, particularly when some microbe food is =
made available after tilling to encourage recolonization and in support of =
the crop to be planted.
This is the arrangement I am now working with - for what its worth! So far =
seems to be working reasonably well.
Ron

-----Original Message-----
From: Frank L Teuton <fteuton_at_sympatico.ca>
To: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com <compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com>
Date: Sunday, August 10, 2003 10:06 AM
Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Tilling and tea don't mix.


Hi Elaine:
 
I looked over Jeff's post and mine again.
 
Jeff's argument was 'we till because Jethro Tull said to'. Sorry, this is n=
onsense. Yeah, Tull's argument that plants eat fine soil particles was larg=
ely wrong, Bargyla's photos notwithstanding, but in point of fact before Je=
ff's post I doubt if you could have found more than a handful of active far=
mers who are even aware of Tull's theory, much less slavishly following it.
 
Farmers till for pragmatic reasons, mostly these two:
 
1) to destroy existing competitive vegetation, opening up space for their c=
rops;
 
2) to allow high efficiency seeding and transplanting tools the ability to =
function in opened soil.
 
Coleman makes a number of other arguments, including the tendency of tillag=
e to warm up soils in spring, and the benefit of incorporating in the top s=
ix inches or so such materials as rock phosphate, which otherwise will move=
 very little into the active root zone if surface applied.
 
The 'pulverization' Tull describes we now call 'secondary tillage'. As a cl=
ay raised gardener, I can tell you that if you dig or till clay before it i=
s sufficiently dry, you can get clods the size of small bricks, and if you =
don't break them up into smaller pieces while they are a bit moist, they wi=
ll plague you for the rest of the growing season as physical obstacles to m=
oving about the garden, tripping you and stopping your wheelbarrow! Providi=
ng sufficient size reduction of clods to allow passage of equipment and per=
sonnel, seeders and transplanters, is a good thing, and breaking up clods w=
hilst mixing in organic matter makes it possible for the benefits of the or=
ganic matter to more quickly affect the now exposed innards of the clod. So=
 at least, I think, there's a Goldilocks principle at work here, as elsewhe=
re.
 
No-till gardening is not that difficult, and Ruth Stout describes it well e=
nough for anyone to follow her simple advice and succeed. On a larger, but =
still small scale, it is also possible but not so easy for the smaller seed=
ed crops, see http://www.seedballs.com/mcain.html

   But putting this to work on a field scale with the full spectrum of vege=
table crops, especially in fields with high perennial weed pressure, is fra=
nkly a daunting prospect. There hardly seems an alternative to either tilla=
ge, or herbicides, to initially clean a field infested with things like qua=
ckgrass, for example (Agropyron repens, or now Eletrigia repens, I think)
 
Even Steve Groff doesn't grow every vegetable in his no-till system: www.ce=
darmeadowfarm.com
 
I haven't heard of a no-till way to grow carrots, for example, on a field s=
cale.
 
Steel in the field still has its place.
 
http://wsare.usu.edu/docs/steel/p78-80.html
 
As long as that remains true, the real issue for this list should be, what =
role can tea play in helping soil recover from necessary tillage? How is te=
a as an additive to transplanting water, for example, or as a soil drench p=
re- or post- cultivation? Can I put tea into a hydromulch or hydroseeding a=
pplication to get the microherd back into the picture?
 
Of course, if some agro-genius can tell me a tea method for making quackgra=
ss pack its bags, and how to no-till grow carrots, I am all ears.
 
And, it is possible to grow some very nice vegetables using the rototiller,=
 troybilt or other, if you add enough organic matter to rebuild the soil yo=
u are destroying by tilling, which is something the Rodales (pere et fils) =
always advocated.
 
As always, the TANSTAAFL priniciple is in full force and effect.
 
My contrary, but hopefully not nasty, two cents.
 
Frank Teuton
    ----- Original Message -----
    From: soilfoodweb_at_aol.com
    To: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com
    Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2003 3:18 AM
    Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Tilling and tea don't mix.
    
    
    I believe Jeff L. was referring to Jethro Tull's "turn the soil to powd=
er" 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 y=
our 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 "til=
lage" that earthworms perform is micro-tillage, and certainly nothing as d=
istructive as human-size plows, disc, chisels, rippers, sub-soilers, etc. W=
orms are mini-aerators, and can enhance fungi as well as bacteria, given th=
at you give your worms the right things to eat.
    
    
    Elaine Ingham
    President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
    www.soilfoodweb.com
    

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Received on Sun Aug 10 2003 - 15:58:37 EDT

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