Le Potager du Sloth: Gardening without fatigue more than Bio

[Did67]

another remark on the physical limitation of the gardener: it is on that the classic tiller is a barbarian machine, which imposes a rather bad physical effort: the tiller, is just a little less worse: the best is the real tractor that one can drive without direct effort

a pity that there is no small inexpensive tractor: we have the choice between new mini tractor very expensive and old used tractor inexpensive but quite large

I have long thought about that. And postponed the purchase of a tiller until later, for budgetary reasons ...

Today, I think we can do without it at ease, as long as we make our "mental revolution" to "see things differently". To "decondition" oneself.

This is the purpose of this thread.

Not that it's perfect. But in any case: no worse, cheaper, and more "energy positive" ...

The "strawberry" is nonsense, if only from the point of view of debauchery of energy. I am not talking about massacre of the life of the soil ... To no effect!

[I simplify]

[chatelot16]

For me, the BRF on large surfaces is "dead", as young people say.

The quantities of biomass would be considerable.

I mentioned the forty or so wheelbarrows - I did not weigh - for my "board" this year, around fifty square meters at most - I will measure later.

to say it is dead, it is not a useful datum, it is to replace the datum with the conclusion

this is what I criticize in technical education at all levels: said to the students we should not do like that because it is not profitable ... but profitable under what economic condition? if the economic conditions change what is not profitable one day may become another

40 wheelbarrow is not an ISO measurement unit but it gives an idea ... on one of my wheelbarrow I marked 54 liters because it was its volume filled to the brim, equalized with a rule ... but in general we fill a wheelbarrow higher than the edges

say 70liter, and if same density as the wafers 70 x 0,25 = 17,5 kg

x 40 = 700 kg (you still have to tire a bit to transport 700 kg)

700kg / 50m2 = 14kg / m2

x 10ooo = 140ooo kg / hectare ... 140tons / hectare

or there ... yes it is dead when I see that the meadow makes 5 tonnes of hay per hectare

I do not know exactly the production of wood per hectare ... but according to some estimate it is of the same order, simply more complicated to calculate because we do not cut every year

but I do not throw the mother delpot out the window, I think that the brf can be useful at much lower dose, and become reasonable

it would not be stupid to take advantage of 4 times more wood surface to facilitate garden cultivation

a calculation of what area of ​​wood it takes to make the fuel to plow a garden will be useful ... just to compare

as an amateur you can recover straw or hay ... but I know breeders: putting hay in a garden would make their hair stand on end as hay is expensive in years when it is lacking, and as we keep it preciously when there is a rab to not miss it

[Ahmed]

I forgot to reply to you, Did67 about the field mice: with me no such thing in sight!
For the stent, well seen! What is the weekly we have in common?

I turned to a mix of grass / straw and brf under the influence of Konrad schreiber, that you may know ... if not to discover through his writings or the videos available on the net.

In gardens, the supply of branches is easy: pruning waste is a real problem which leads communities of communes to transport considerable volumes of air at great cost, to transform it into a small volume of compost ...

In field crops, the approach is often different and sometimes oriented towards agroforestry: the presence of trees allows pedogenesis by the contribution of leaves and rootlets (which are also obsolete).

Anyway, as you say, Chatelot any method can only be judged by its context and the petroleum inputs massively used in industrial agriculture are untenable in the medium term.

[chatelot16]

in my previous message the calculation is not finished: the energy consumed by the mechanical means can be equivalent to much more brf ... so the consumption of brf which seems big is maybe quite reasonable

see also chemical fertilizers which have a high energy content: the brf is not only used as a cover but also finished in fertilizer

[chatelot16]

further calculation:

700kg of brf ... are equivalent to 350kg of wood chips which has a calorific value 2 times lower than fuel oil therefore equivalent to 175 kg of fuel oil, therefore 200l of fuel oil ... there is enough to make the tractor snore for plow much more than that

therefore the energy consumption for plowing is considerably lower than the energy content of the brf

it is not so stupid as that to be heated with all vegetable waste which burns and to keep the fuel for the mechanical machines

even better but it is another story: anaerobic digestion and compression of methane for agricultural machinery: the weight of the tanks is a tare for ordinary cars, but for a tractor that does not move away it is not a problem of '' have a small tank and come back often to fill up

[Did67]

This observation suits me: it is much more complex!

We need to have a "systems approach".

That's why from the beginning, I only use the term "method" sparingly and by default ...

My "expé" are more of "the agitation of ideas" than the display of a solution ...

The BRF, in fact, can be useful at a lower dose than the massive one that I practice. AND nevertheless have a spectacular effect on soil humification and structuring. And the "content" of mycelium in the soil ...

It is true that straw has become a rare and expensive commodity in some years. But in addition, it also drags some ... Piles which took water, etc ... Which can be valued locally. But we won't spoil the whole Beauce!

Behind, and you're right, there is the energy question. That the price of oil doubles and the current system no longer holds. AND maybe tomorrow!

And so it all fits into the big issue of the different uses of biomass:

- energy
- feed life (ours - food, animals - useful or not, bacteria ...)
- satisfy certain "industrial" needs: glues, plastics, etc ...

The equation is going to be "complex" !!!

In there, me, I just have fun (last night, a salad bowl of lamb's lettuce; when you know that it grew without fertilizers and pesticides - except the shot of Ferramol - you crunch!).

[Did67]

What is the weekly we have in common?


under the influence of Konrad schreiber, maybe you know ...

1) I assumed you read the same DDT article - which is not just an insecticide! - in the same review, since you remembered the author of "Sur mon tombeau: que dalle!" ...

2) No, I don't know. In recent years, I have done agronomy only by dilettante and random meetings.

[Did67]

I forgot to reply to you, Did67 about the field mice: with me no such thing in sight!

Happy man!

I say "field mice", it is probably voles. But I haven't yet managed to trap a single one to identify it. However, I have two different underground traps + different small cages ... I should work more cleanly!

They have ransacked several trees in recent years. In the spring, you find a "stake", all the roots shaved ...

There, they repeat "14/18 and its war in the trenches" in my boards !!! It's a great show. I don't know if De Villiers is sponsoring them!

[Ahmed]

Yes, I know DDT! I happen to read some sheets of this weekly, actually especially through the blog of Fabrice Nicolino...
I'll tell you, since we're between us, , how I discovered the heresy that is the continual tillage.

I was cultivating at that time (a long time ago!) A field of which one side was in the shade of the fruit trees of the neighbor and I could not do much of this band.
Thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that making thuja cuttings (it was fashionable) could be a solution.
So I milled the ground, covered with black plastic, practiced a multitude of holes and transplanted cuttings ...
Two years later, without any intermediate intervention, I tore it off, covering and shrubs and I found that the earth was as soft as when I had covered ... It suggests, all the same!
My conclusion was that the soil did not need to be periodically overturned to loosen it, but rather rather permanently protected against what causes its compaction ...
Then I discovered composting the way "Jean Pain"and a little practiced ...
After that, the brief seemed obvious to me.

[Did67]

I come to similar conclusions from the following experience:

- I described above how I covered my meadow and covered with BRF in spring 2013

- I had put (in my failed attempt, but I will do it again soon ...), photos of some "rebellious" plants

- quite naturally, I sometimes tear away these intruders, by the way ...

And I have observed that almost always, with just a little effort, the whole plant comes, with collar and roots.

The same intruder, picked in the same way with the same delicacy in the worked part of my jarin, tore off the collar.

It is clean with plantain, or dairies or thistle.

This shows, by the effects, the improvement of the structure of the soil "on its own" on one side, or the effect of the settlement of the bare soil under climatic factors on the other ...

So on the one hand we are exhausted from striving towards a goal never reached. Or we dissipate fossil energy (essence of the tiller). On the other, the goal is achieved without doing anything and the result is maintained.

I invite everything forumeur suspicious of an excess of enthusiasm on my part, to take the test:

- he mows 2 ² of lawn
- on 1 m², he digs, turns, hoes, fertilizes, cultivates what he wants ... or nothing ...
- on the neighboring m², he regularly puts the product of the mowing, in regular thin layers; in the fall, straw, or hay or BRF or dead leaves (beware, they fly away ...)

We will talk about it again next spring. Plan two zucchini plants for next year ... Or 2 tomato plants ...