Denial of what we did to our soil seems to be a problem. You hear it in the the community’s where they still don’t value the life of the soil, nor want to put the work to make it right. Teach your children young, show them the amazing world of soil and life ~Happy Growing 🤙🏻🤠
The only thing i have disagreed with in this podcast is when Jon Sitka describes what a 2 year old most often asks, and 2 year olds rarely ask questions, they just say no.The question of why does not usually happen until they are three or four ;)
No till and using cover crops planted into to the field with the cash crop throws out the misconception that weeds are taking nutrients away from the cash crop, weeds are just plants we do not like. I have weeds in my orchard with no I’ll effect on my trees
Brilliant conversation. I have a constant battle with my husband over the till, fertilizer, crop rotation method and the no-till, variety of plants, cover the soil, support soil life method. It's amazing how he can sabotage a few years work by green revolution thinking and action... many bitter tears of frustration as he just doesn't get it and is too pretentious to listen to podcasts like this one. I have also noticed that s variety of weeds help our trees survive in the Mexican desert and our water consumption has gone down.
One problem is tillage. Previously it was a problem, as cities grew they took up the arable flat land so farmers tilled the slopes which eroded topsoil and changed the hydrology. These days, the enormously efficient machines grind the soil and destroy the life, which encourages more destructive practices like poisoning the groundwater.
Synthetic fertilizer is relatively new, but tillage goes back thousands of years, at least on a small scale, with single-furrow plows made of wood at first, then metal plows starting about 2,500 to 3,000 years ago. Possibly they did minimal disturbance, like a no till drill blade, just opening the soil for seeds. But I'd guess people tried to "tidy up" their fields by getting rid of all plants but their crop. And I'd guess that they planted mono crops and little if any cover crops. I'm not an agriculture historian, though.
Hello, I'm imri from Israel and I'm interested in growing spice plants to produce essential oils. My problem is that there is no clean water in my areas. All water is runoff water, so I am asking if it is possible to grow spice plants without water and rely only on rainwater in the winter season. I would be very grateful for help, thank you very much
I'm still looking for the answer to no top layer soil disturbance within an organic "farming" scenario especially for potatoes, strawberries, spring oats, spring barley, onions, etc. (not simply a garden plot as Jon mentions)? In addition, virtually everyone within the no-till world touts of its many attributes but they fail to mention soil compaction and their continued use of Round-Up which not only kills the soil microbes (as an antibiotic), binds up soil minerals (by its very design) and in turn causes disease and fertility issues to the end crop consumers
That's my main issue , I have raised crops without any fertilizer, and no herbicides, but going notill I have to use herbicides, and it's hard to not use glyphosate, I don't mind having some weeds and even some yield loss , but it's not fun trying to combine a crop that is full of weeds and unplugging the combine . I personally don't like using herbicides , I don't think we really know how much effect they have on human and soil health.
@@robmiller2919 Hi Rob, I completely agree with your thoughts. We do the absolute minimum shallowest tillage possible while keeping any bare soil covered preferably with a green growing crop at all times via inter-cropping (oats, buckwheat, peas and red clover). However I still have a lot to learn as to what combinations work the best however, I still see the soil getting better and better each year and it's a thrill to see (all with no animal grazing, manures, blood or bone meal)!! Plus the strength, disease resistance, taste, etc. of the crops makes the struggles all worth the extra efforts. Take care!!
Soil pyramid from trees to bush and grass is nature which is missing in diverse coverage of field without tree canopies might many biological systems be oxidized. Thinking of the hedge rows in France almost impregnable
To get it more widely adopted, would require people to wake up to their ignorant selves and stop worrying about getting the best selfie 🤳 to post on their socials so their life seems perfect... Maybe then a few people will look around n realise we've let our parents and grandparents destroy the planet in only 50yrs. 🤦
