Garden and agriculture: direct sowing VS plowing

[Did67]

1) OK, as said above, heavy and wet lands are the exception ... So well observed / well analyzed!

2) I think I wrote it too: yes!

a) I open the hay with a large knife

b) I spread the hay with a sort of manual 3-tooth claw and dig the ground about 1 cm

c) I sow

d) I cover: molehill on part; commercial potting soil on the other (a bag for ten lines about 10 m long)

The molehill land is paler. So no more weed lifting!

I will therefore switch, in the future, to "commercial soil" mode: one or two bags at ten euros per year ...

e) Yes, no miracle: some weeds take advantage of this "openness"; so there is still some manual weeding to do in the row. But frankly, it's not the "crisis"!

f) I think of closing the plants once large enough; it's easier with leeks or cabbage than with lamb's lettuce ...

On "large plants" (cabbages, leeks, onions, shallots, etc ...), I am thinking of putting a thinner layer of BRF (about 5 cm) ...

But wait for the result in the fall (in principle, in all the literature, onions, shallots are said not to withstand soils rich in organic matter; I will maybe "grill" everything; but I am confident! In any case , curious!).

[Did67]

It should be known: in principle, the organic matter freshly decomposed has an anti-germination effect; there are on the internet test reports on fresh compost where this "defect" is reported.

I try to make it an "advantage".

In any case, on my lines, treated as said, the emergence of cultivated plants of all kinds was excellent: lamb's lettuce, lettuces, onions, leeks, cabbage, parsley, basil, beets ... And even the delicate carrot. I'm not talking about the common radish!

All this was raised without problem, in this small sowing window!

[Did67]

e) Yes, no miracle: some weeds take advantage of this "openness"; so there is still some manual weeding to do in the row. But frankly, it's not the "crisis"!

.

To be honest, my method is meant to be "without work", but not "without spending - good! - time in your garden". If only to observe closely. So yes, I bend down again, and by the way, I tear off one or the other goosefoot ... and I see dark black earthworm castings that delight me. The animals are working!

[Ahmed]

@ Remundo : I wrote, a little hastily, I admit, that the worms were at the origin of the humus: in reality it is especially the mushrooms because of their capacity to digest the lignin of the wood which are one of the main sources of humus (then, as noted Did67, these fungi are themselves the food source of microorganisms with which they form a food chain).
The worms then intervene to transform this humus into a clay-humic complex, a particularly stable compound (in the initial form of a turricule) and essential for soil fertility.

As for invoking a religious aspect to refute this or that opinion concerning tillage, it is a process of modest relevance ...

The document you provide comes from INRA, an organization which for several decades worked to propagate the physico-chemical doxa; it shows a late evolution towards positions a little more nuanced, that's good! I would remind you that it was only recently that INRA reopened a soil micro-biology laboratory in Burgundy (I mentioned it in its time) ...

Here, a little story: a neighbor farmer is exchanging crops from a piece of land adjacent to his own; knowing that his swinger practices no-till (not at all out of organic conviction!), he wonders when passing the plow on the number of coulters he must adopt ...
As his initial plot represents a largely majority proportion of the new set, he decides not to change anything to his usual practice, expecting to be a little too tight in the new annex, but, having reached the latter, he was very surprised * to see his engine take turns ...

In ten years, the entire volume of arable land in a plot passes through the digestive tract of earthworms (under "normal" conditions!), Which is to say the activity of these little animals! They are the ones who bury the archaeological remains and determine the stratigraphic layers.
You will see on a link to the right of website indicated by Did67, a page titled "The Extraordinary Power of Earthworms".

* Farmers duly chaired by agricultural advisers and other support organizations are often (how to blame them?) Unimaginative (understatement!).

[Did67]

In ten years, the entire volume of arable land in a plot passes through the digestive tract of earthworms (under "normal" conditions!), Which is to say the activity of these little animals! They are the ones who bury the archaeological remains and determine the stratigraphic layers.
You will see on a link to the right of website indicated by Did67, a page titled "The Extraordinary Power of Earthworms".

.

Too bad I don't have a photo that Manfred Wenz showed me:

- after fifteen years of "no plowing", then direct sowing, he had the curiosity to dig a trench straddling one of his plots and that of his neighbor, who had continued in "conventional work"

- it is alluvial land in an old branch of the Rhine, the soil contains a lot of gravel and pebbles

- at his place: there was, from memory, 18 cm of brown soil, humus, without any pebbles !

- at his neighbor's house, pebbles to the surface, a bit as if we were preparing concrete! Logically, the work of the worms is annihilated each year by the turning over ... And no doubt that "classical practices" have also reduced the number of earthworms, where the permanent cover, the plants associated with the crops have nourished a " livestock "important at Manfred.

I would have to come back to him to get the precise figures and data and a copy of the photo.

I believe that in his case, it is very close to 1 cm of soil "up" / year of no-till.

[Did67]

However, when he reached the latter, he was very surprised * to see his engine restarting ...

Before I read you, I had guessed the rest. Obvious !!!

If in addition you add permanent cover, avoid entering too wet plots, etc ... the difference is even "worse"!

[Ahmed]

Yes, for us it is obvious, but for minds formatted by institutional dogmas, it is very surprising!

Observing the forest environment gives us the key to understanding how the soil works ...

Edit by Remundo: the subject having derived on the exploits of Did67, the subject was divided:
https://www.econologie.com/forums/jardin-en- ... 13846.html