Garden and agriculture: direct sowing VS plowing

[izentrop]

Thank you Ahmed, I totally believe what you say

[Remundo]

you can believe what you guys want

I'm not telling you that plowing is a panacea, but zero plowing is not one either.

The most modern research indicates that an alternation of semi-direct and moderate plowing (30 cm) would combine the best of both worlds.

Otherwise, the earthworms that proliferate WITH plowing are the worms endogeic and also the epigeic. They recycle and ventilate the humus

It is only the anecics who are bothered by plowing: these are deep worms which have a vertical network. However, they provide little ventilation to the surface soil.

Those who say that all the worms died after plowing are ideologues ... sorry to be direct.

Likewise on soil compaction; the soil compacts enormously when it is not plowed for several years, and especially if tractors still come to cultivate it ...

"Zero tillage" is a religion, we must play on all cropping systems (plowing, no plowing, changing plants, fallow, fertilizer, etc.), not setting them up as opposing standards.

@+

[Ahmed]

@ Izentrop : it is not a question of believing or not, but of understanding (Cf. my signature!) ...

Remundo, you write, inaccurately and with probably unintentional humor:

They (endogeous and epigee worms) recycle and aerate the humus.

The humor is for the so-called abundance of these verses which would be "favored" by the plowing; in reality, around 200 kgs of worms / Ha (often less) in cultivated land in a "modern" way against 1,5 to 2 T / Ha in meadows.
The worms obviously do not "recycle" the humus since they are the source of it; you certainly wanted to talk about the little residual organic matter ... As for aerating the humus, that leaves me dreaming ...

[Remundo]

Ahmed, you should be careful with melons ... only those from the fields are allowed to grow ...

Remundo, you write, inaccurately and with probably involuntary humor:

They (endogeous and epigee worms) recycle and aerate the humus.

The humor is for the so-called abundance of these verses which would be "favored" by the plowing;
[]
The worms obviously do not "recycle" the humus since they are the source of it; you certainly wanted to talk about the little residual organic matter ... As for aerating the humus, that leaves me dreaming ...

The worms obviously recycle the humus since they "eat" it and "redigate" it, and aerate it through the galleries they dig in it ...

Humus is mainly produced by microorganisms and fungi from organic matter in the soil.

Another link that confirms the difference in the population of endogeous / epigee worms et anecic that I raised ...

This link also discusses the benefits of unpacking by plowing... Have you tried to dig your lawn out of curiosity? And your garden regularly stirred? ... It's the same for surface earthworms ... Now we can always play Ayatollah anti-plowing ...



INRA source

[Did67]

This link also discusses the benefits of unpacking by plowing... Have you tried to dig your lawn out of curiosity? And your garden regularly stirred? ... It's the same for surface earthworms ... Now we can always play Ayatollah anti-plowing ...]

We should open another thread, right ???

For my part, far from being anti-plowing ayatalloh, I have:

a) observed / discussed ...

b) experienced in my garden

The situation is as follows:

a) summer 2012: a "square" taken in a natural meadow since the dawn of time; mowing; light-impermeable plastic tarpaulin (a truck tarpaulin)

b) spring 2013: unblocking; the grasses are dead; rodent "highways" (field mice? unidentified)

c) planting of potatoes according to 3 "modes":

1) 1st third: I put the seeds and I use around 15 of BRF (chopped wood twigs) and basta, simpler you die!

2) 2nd third: I dig, without working, furrows about 10 cm deep; I bury the seeds; I cover with earth and then with BRF as above; yes, what an effort!

3) 3rd third: classic mode: I dig, grass, plant ... In this part, I weed and I knock, I grass again later

Result in the fall:

cleanest plot 1; almost "nickel" (a few shoots of bulb plants or plantain and a few other somewhat tough plants)

plot 2: slightly lighter, but still very clean

plot 3: by far the darkest; as the dots have started to wilt, the weeds take over and occupy the space in droves

Harvest:

plot 1: "like butter"; I dig up by hand; suddenly, I mix earth ("like couscous!") with the pieces of wood

lowest harvest

plot 2: "roughly idem";

harvest a little more, but barely more!

plot 3: I dig up conventionally, at the hook; also very loose soil but obviously a lot of weed roots

the best harvest (I will have to find my figures, but from memory, about + 30% compared to 1)

I plant a few fall / winter salads, but a little late. Not a great success.

Spring 2014:

plot 1 stays clean! The earth-wood mixture is covered with mycelium; mushrooms are forming! This felting seems to have an anti-germination effect on weeds!

plot 2 is "moderately dirty"

plot 3 is very dark; I draw it before sowing salad / chews

I sowed various "salads": it is the reverse of last year: the pallet 1 is the most fertile while the 3 is "depressive"!

From afar, plot 1 is the most loose! I can plant "by hand" (I mean digging with my hands).

The effect when we pull up weeds is spectacular: elsewhere in the garden, it takes a lot of precautions to "get" the roots and we often fail; there, with a minimum of precautions, you almost always have the roots. This is the effect of softer soil.

NB: we are talking about gardening, not agriculture; but I have followed no-till agricultural plots for ten years, others for 20 years: they are generally much more loose, obviously richer in earthworms ... But the key is not the "no-till": the key is the ground cover !!!

In my garden, since my youth (and I have just passed 60 years), I have dug. My father was a (professional) gardener. I had a certain pleasure in making a "beautiful plank" .... Today, I see that my most compact soil is where I still dug 3 years ago ... And the looser there where I do nothing that ... cover !


That's why, in the summer of 2013, I went into fashion "hay blanket", instead of the tarpaulin, the hay being left in place.

The other key: never walk on wet ground !!! (I have pieces of boards if I really have to go; but the deckchair is generally better advice when it rains and the sun comes back).

One more thought: I actually alternate 3 "modes" of no-till:

a) zone a year n: not cultivated; fallow clover of Alexandria = grows quickly, covers the ground very well if the seed density is high; melliferous; gélif (destroys itself) and then does a natural mulching (without doing anything!) and obviously brings nitrogen (symbiotic fixation); fallen stems and leaves are excellent food for earthworms, which swarm the following year; It is therefore also my "natural breeding without work" of earthworms (you have to think about feeding these useful animals!).

In spring: covered with BRF + planting of the most gourmet crops, which will benefit from nitrogen (tomatoes for example - cucurbits occupy too much space; they are relegated to composters and on the periphery, to wander in the grass ..

b) zone b year n: covered at the end of summer n-1 by two layers of hay (round bales, unrolled like glass wool); do nothing; in spring, the hay is largely packed and already partly decomposed; sowing or planting in furrows open with a knife / digging with a "3 tines small manual tool" or for bulbs, planting through the hay with a dibble ...

Very few weeds (especially some bulb plants).

Earthworm farming too, fond of this decomposing hay.

It would also work with straw, but less rich. I am fortunate to be able to recover late mowing hay from "ecological" meadows. They are riddled with thistles (a particular species which precisely ensures that the site is protected), unusable for feeding cattle. The farmer who does this mowing as a service brings them to me to get rid of them!

c) zone c: BRF in thick layer

BRF, unlike hay or dead reflex, does not feed earthworms (there are some, but less: feed on the "remains" of plants from year n-1, in particular the roots) .

In the 1st year, it has a depressive effect: the microorganisms will "consume" part of the nutrients in the soil to develop themselves, the wood being too poor to provide them.

Here, the objective is to promote mushrooms: remarkable "mineral extractors" (remember that after Chernobyl, it is the mushrooms that had the highest levels of radioactivity: they concentrate minerals). I also think that the decomposition of wood under these conditions has an "anti-germination" effect (so here, no sowing, only plantings!). Finally, I think that this proliferation of mushroom mycelia will promote the emergence of "mycelium eaters" and I am counting on them to also eat the germs of "cryptogamic" diseases (pure hypothesis to date).

Finally, the decomposition of this wood is THE source of humus. After a year, we can already see the dark streaks in the ground!

Here, it is thus the phase "cryptogamic cleaning" and "re-humification"!

It is therefore the kingdom of strawberries (the BRF makes them a mulch without the disadvantages of straw / hay = small pieces that stick to the strawberries), tomatoes, cabbages ... in short, everything that is "planted" through the layer ".

In my new system, this phase will follow the "shamrock of Alexandria" pahse ...

The BRF has, the 1st year, a visible depressive effect. So expect to have a slightly lower yield, plants a little palotes ... But hope that this will attract less "suckers / pests" of "succulent" plants ...

And there, the following spring, the ground will be "butter". If we haven't stepped on it!

It's a bit messy, I'm still looking for a lot.

I don't want to follow an X method. I think the only good method is the one based on observations and taking into account the system: soil, climate, environment, gardener's goals (I'm not trying to have "the biggest ... . ", a favorite game among home gardeners, but to eat healthily - if possible without no produced with the slightest effort... This is what I call eating "more than organic" - avoiding products even certified as organic, greatly avoiding external energy, especially fossil ...)

I answer in advance a question on the "limits": it is necessary to have a little more surface, hedges nearby (for the BRF); it is a "surface extensification" (less production per unit area "), but a" labor intensification "- maximum production per unit of effort / hour of work and I think of" energy intensification " - a maximum of "purely solar" production, without fossil fuels).

[highfly-addict]

I answer in advance a question on the "limits": it is necessary to have a little more surface, hedges nearby (for the BRF); it is a "surface extensification" (less production per unit area "), but a" labor intensification "- maximum production per unit of effort / hour of work and I think of" energy intensification " - a maximum of "purely solar" production, without fossil fuels).

Being myself a supporter of this kind of philosophy, I nevertheless ask myself a question: how to make BRF without fossil energy at an affordable cost?

[dede2002]

Is it really necessary to mince menu?

Or can we cover the ground with twigs cut with pruning shears?

[Did67]

Being myself a supporter of this kind of philosophy, I nevertheless ask myself a question: how to make BRF without fossil energy at an affordable cost?

Okay, that's still a good question! [if we discuss sincerely and peacefully, there will be a typing! So I put a "prerequisite": in this low world, there is nothing ideal; everything is only compromise!]

So I use an electric shredder, so ... electronuclear!

[a Bosch axt 25 tc, very efficient for the branches, quiet and easy to use and secure]

2 W; about 500 hours of grinder, but 20 W is its maximum consumption! So at worst 2 kWh per year (we consume 500 kWh per year!)

I therefore avoid the question: it is not this consumption that is shocking!

I would say that the essential problem of the BRF is to have the resource of twigs: on a 40taine of m², I spread around forty wheelbarrows! [I jabit against a communal forest; they had made cuts; I settled in - clandestinely - and I crushed the branches ...]. I also have hedges, but this is far from insufficient.

[Did67]

Hello,
A little green manure, cartons spread on the ground before winter.
There is nothing left in the spring, the earth remains loose.
I only work the furrow area, to remove quackgrass and bindweed roots. Seeing all the earthworms I disturb without too much slaughter, I could not reuse the tiller.
No motorized tools in the garden ...

Did67, I would like to know your non-tillage methods. That's what I try to do in the garden, but it's not easy to manage.
Especially, weeds that grow faster than seedlings. There is the Soltner method, but they do not give more compost green waste in my community.

1) The methods, I have just outlined them.

Your "mistake", if I may, is not to banish the croc !!!

No tillage and soils always covered. By anything. Except bine on, the row of seedlings, on two fingers wide, and only the time of emergence.

NB: Now, you have a specific problem of the "old gardens": bindweed and quackgrass are installed. A beautiful crap!

I only know of two options:

a) if you have room, you migrate your garden elsewhere and you put an alfalfa, which you cut regularly. You "recycle" this biomass, which will give your garden the most grahd benefit (it is a "natural organic fertilizer rich in nitrogen!" exhausting oneself ... Counting 3 years at a minimum, 5 is better.

b) if not, you continue to cultivate, you cover all the time, rather thick (according to the cultures (with hay, straw, BRF, at worst of the cardboard ...). There are also all the commercial mulch , but you risk ruining yourself (hemp, coconut fiber, cocoa pods ...).

Bindweed and couch grass will mobilize their reserves to "cross" this layer ...

As you no longer have to dig or hoe ... you may have enough energy to wait for them around the bend: you tear off, pushing your hand into the mulch to have the most r "acines" (in fact rhizomes) possible ... So much energy wasted for this crap. That it will have to rebuild before setting out again to attack the summits. And again you are waiting for it !!!

3 years like that and ... even the bindweed dies! Juror promised. On condition that you never fail in your mission (because otherwise, a few days, 1 or 2 weeks of leaves that pierce and reach the light, and he will have to recharge his batteries!).

BRef: you are ONLY bent on this put ... edge ... bindweed!

[Did67]

Against couch grass and bindweed, there is still a "pharaonic" method: digging double depth carefully sorting the soil and banishing the smallest piece of rhizome.

But I did not mention it because contradictory with what we are debating here!