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Dear Jeff:
Laying tillage on Jethro Tull is a bit naive, old
man. Plows and hoes have been around so long that really ancient poetry can be
found expressing a dispute between the two of them....
Plows were depicted in ancient Babylon as well,
see
Plows were known in ancient China, and in the
New World among the Inca, as well as in the Middle East.
The Wikipedia defines tillage as "the agricultural
preparation of the soil to receive seeds".
I would also refer you to Eliot Coleman's The New
Organic Grower, 2nd edition, for a very up to date discussion of the need for,
and better ways to perform, tillage in field scale vegetable
production.
Coleman, and many other organic growers, also
practice cultivation of the soil to eliminate weed pressure on crops. Such
surface cultivation, while not as problematic as deep tillage, also plays havoc
with normal foodweb interactions, but it is hard to avoid the reality that weed
pressures can seriously affect quality and yield of crops.
I know Elaine has met with Eliot at least a few
times and I know that Eliot presents as a difficult to achieve ideal a no-till
approach, but as Elaine has said many times, there are times when tillage is
necessary. We therefore should not utter simplistic absolutes, but adopt a more
supple 'Canadian comprise' approach---tillage if necessary, but not necessarily
tillage.
Can ya dig it?
;-)
Frank Teuton---who has been Faulknered, Pfeiffered
and Stouted on tillage, not to mention Uncle Billed (that'd be Mollison) and Wes
Jacksoned, as well as Gene Logsdoned....
Here's a pithy quote from a dead white guy
found on a live compost guy's home page:
"The plow is one of the most ancient and most valuable of man's
inventions; but long before he existed the land was
in fact regularly plowed, and still continues to be thus
plowed by earthworms. It may be doubted whether
there are many other animals which have played so
important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized
creatures."
Darwin, C.R. 1881. The Formation of Vegetable Mould
Through the Action of Worms, with Observations on
their Habits (Chapter 7). Murray, London. Charles
Robert Darwin (1809-1882).
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2003 8:45
PM
Subject: [compost_tea] Tilling and tea
don't mix.
Let's see if we can't clear up this tilling thing
for those who are not clear that using tea requires a good understanding of
the soil foodweb and what it needs and doesn't in addition to
tea. The ICTC site (http://www.intlctc.org/ and
Dr. Elaine's site( www.soilfoodweb.com) should be on
your list.
Why do people till? Yeah, yeah, "to put organics
back into the soil". They have no idea the idea comes from a 17th century
lawyer who thought that roots ate particles of soil and so the smaller you
made them, the easier it is for the plants to eat. Pulverize he said and
for some reason everyone did and most gardeners and farmers still do in the
form of disc plowing or rototilling.
Back when he proposed heavy turning of the soil,
this country lawyer from England had no idea that breaking up the soil would
work really great in areas where you had virgin soils like the United
States. This was back in George Washington and Tom Jefferson time when
their was lots of movement into America forests to create farm
land...
Worked great because they killed off the fungal
domination in the forest soils they were turning into ag soils. Bacteria
thrived and their crops were nitrate lovers and thus bacterially
dominated soil is perfect.(Corn likes an F:B of .8 to 1.0).
Too bad they didn't realize they needed some of
that fungi to keep soil structure, and help buffer pH and
to grow even better corn. Too bad they continued to till year
in and year out so that they killed worms and displaced all the soil foodweb
that did live there....and too bad they started the whole practice of
rototilling in home gardens as well. .
Unless you want fast bacterial domination where
there was once fungal, why till? Not because Jethro Tull said
to.
You may still need to break up some of the soil,
but you sure don't have to turn it over like most do. You can go shallow
and you can drill plant, shallow furrow plow, etc.
And to bring it all back to ACT: compost, mulches
and ACT in the fall should put the foodweb to work so that by spring there are
plenty of good organics back in the soil.
And ACT after you do disturb the soil will help
get it some structure again etc.......
Cheers,
JEFF
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