[compost_tea] ACT & Cereals
Lets throw the cat amongst the pigeons.
Before I retired in 95 I managed a property in Africa ( now in Portugal) th=
at grew 6000 acres of cereals a year. Twenty odd years ago the system was c=
hange from ploughing to minimal cultivations.90% of the straw was chopped b=
ehind the combine and immediately incorporated in the top 3-5" of soil with=
preferably a tined cultivator. Approximately every third year a Shakerator=
was used,the tines of this going down to 2/3-1 m. and the vibration gently=
shattered the area above the points. The volunteer crop and weeds was gra=
zed by livestock, mainly sheep which were removed to allow the volunteer/we=
eds to grow and were then sprayed with Roundup!!.This killed all the plants=
and the new crop was planted without further cultivation by a tined air se=
eder.The results were fantastic,less erosion, greater water holding capacit=
y, Hugh build-up of O.M.less disease, higher yields and mono culture was no=
problem ,one field grew barley for 20 years and had the same or better yie=
ld that when broken from virgin country.
I wish I knew about ACT which I would use together with the same system.
ALL THIS COULD NOT HAVE BEEN DONE WITHOUT THE USE OF ROUNDUP!!
I am in my mid seventies + and use Roundup in my garden and orchard here as=
this is the only hope I have of controlling grasses and weeds.
Three years ago I went organic in the garden and orchard and last year star=
ted using ACT and have had the best top fruit yields ever and these and the=
strawberries tasted out of this world. Very few aphids about, peach leaf =
curl now seems a past problem,most of the top fruit had to have a lot of se=
t fruit removed as far too many for the tree to cope with in this dry clima=
te.
Now for the deluge of comments re. Roundup.
Bill H.
Received on Sun Jul 20 2003 - 11:14:31 EDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0
: Tue Feb 07 2012 - 14:14:36 EST