[compost_tea] tilling, weeds and compost tea

From: jp <jperazzo_at_lvcm.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2003 16:31:10 -0800

I went off and purchased Charles Walters' book /Weeds: Control Without
Poisons/ following Dr. Ingham's note in /The Compost Tea Brewing Manual/,
Third Edition [with December 2002 addendum] (Fungal recipes, p. 49). I have
quite a challenge with bermuda grass but have found compost tea, newspapers,
other grass clippings, steer manure and shredded wood chips to greatly
loosen the soil. Pulling them out is (almost) fun. (It is at least A LOT
easier!)

So Charles says, "Fall tillage has to be considered /number one/ [method to
prevent weeds]" (emphasis his). I know my family has always turned the soil
at least a shovel's depth before planting. Still, Andy Moldenke in his
presentation on the soil food web at Washington State University
(http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:Om37bkrLu5QC:www.puyallup.wsu.edu/soil
mgmt/SoilBiology_sixes/AndyM.pdf+soil+food+web+andy&hl=en&ie=UTF-8) says
that tillage is the #3 problem in soil health. (#1 and #2 are soil
compaction and "the lack of continuous energy input into thesoil ecosystem
when a field lies fallow" respectively.) I thought I heard something
similar from Dr. Ingham, but I can't find the source.

Is three inches the limit? I am sure there is a balance. Now back to
harvesting our worm castings...

jp lv nv
(John A Perazzo, Las Vegas, Nevada)


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Received on Sat Jan 11 2003 - 21:31:05 EST

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