[Terrapreta] O tillage

[Jim Joyner]

Nikolaus, thanks for your thoughtful words. 

I'm anything but an expert. Also, I'm not a large scale farmer so I'm not sure my pronouncements apply to them. However, most of the no-till I do, I learned from a large scale farmer in South Georgia. He switched, primarily, because he got tired of watching his soil run off down the creek every year. But he has also lowered his costs.

He is a conventional farmer -- mostly cotton and peanuts. But the last I spoke with him, he had not used any herbicides for 3 years and had not applied any chemical fertilizer in 5 years. I asked him why he didn't just go organic. He said his hair was gone so couldn't become a hippy.  He is, however, a poster child for NRCS and they do soil tests for him 3 times a year.

I don't know for certain, but what I think is that a lot of no-till from which the stats come from is being run by farmers or bureaucrats who want to use conventional themes, crops and rotations. One just needs to be more creative and be intent on not using chemicals.. 

I use no herbicides, no chemical fertilizer and no pesticides, none for about 8 years. I have no weed or pest problems to speak of, although my fields are not especially pretty -- and my costs are a good 30% less than what they used to be. It's easier physical work but a lot more planing and management. 

This is intuitive and I can't prove it, but my philosophy on microorganisms is, if I make a proper home for them, they will come (my post to Richard will tell you more). 

Also, you have to understand, I have some of the poorest native soil on the planet -- a wind blown silt with nothing in it to mine. If I can raise my CEC to 44, I will see improvements, period. More importantly, if can raise the CEC to half that and it holds without applying or growing tons of organic matter, I will not only see results, I will cut my imput costs considerably. I agree that charcoal is not a silver bullet but I'm doing everything else right (I think), I just need to be able to hold onto what I've got in the soil longer.

Thanks again,

Jim

----- Original Message ----
From: Nikolaus Foidl <nfoidl at desa.com.bo>


Dear Jim!

I do not fully agree with the o tillage onset. If you do a real search
 in
all the literature available and if you grow yourself in the
 neighborhood of
tillage farmers you will find out that o-tillage is same or slightly
 less
productive then tillage systems.

For sure 0 tillage is much lower in energy need and so far cheaper(
 smaller
tractors etc) then tillage. On the other hand 0-tillage cant live
 without
herbicides and its kind of pervert to promote a 0 tillage system to
 protect
soil life and on the other hand kill the soil life thoroughly by
 applying
herbicides. If you apply herbicides ( and it does not matter much which
 one
or which combo) the first you kill is the chlorophyll bearing bacteria
 (
cyano bacter and algae) which are the the first in a huge food chain of
bacteria, fungi and yeasts and mycorrhizae etc. If you kill now the
 first in
the chain the whole chain starves to dead, that's why even very "
 fertile
soil have poor response when it comes to productivity". As long as 0
 tillage
implies usage of herbicides we are fighting the devil with Beelzebub.(
 what
does not make sense to me).

I myself am working on a 24.000 ha Farm with culture rotation ( 3
 plantings
a year), 0 tillage etc. We as well are doing since 2 years trials with
charcoal on top, buried in chunks, milled and buried, charged with
 micro and
macronutrients etc. but so far significant differences are seen only
 with
the adding or charging of micro and macronutrients and the adding of
 bio
life boosters ( melazza,lemonjuice,and trichoderma, mycorrhizae etc)
Charcoal alone up to 40 tons per ha did not get significant results in
 maize
, Soya or sunflower ( first year, we will see in the following years if
there are measurable changes in the same area).

 All results point us to restore as quick as possible soil life and if
possible in its multitude of different bacteria, fungi, mycorrhizae and
yeasts and not only some few special strains of trichoderma or
 mycorrhizae,
Tell us as well that the lost or suppressed fertility is not a mineral
dependent issue its a availability issue and that's where bio life
 comes in
to action again. 

All those microbes move and liberate and take out of un soluble mineral
complexes huge amount of ions and render them available for plants as
 well
they produce tons of proteins ( enzymes) and growth promoting hormones
 and
protecting complex organic molecules ( different acids like salicylic
 acid
etc) protecting the rhizospere  being sequestered by malicious fungi or
bacteria. They form aggregates using organic molecules with electric
 charges
allowing water to penetrate and air to penetrate etc.

So saying all this we have to stop to look for one golden bullet which
solves all, its much , much more complex what's going on below the
 surface.
We grow still today some grains or fruits despite our very clumsy and
 not
very intelligent approach to agriculture and not because we now how to
 grow.
( nature still is strong and forgiving towards all the horror we bring
 about
the existing live on earth)

Please dont expect too much from charcoal in soil it is just one small
 part
of bigger set of possible improvements and start to think more critical
about all the holy cows we have in agriculture ( 0 tillage, etc)

Best regards Nikolaus 



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