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"No till" gardening for peppers

read Guru"s last 6 words in his post.

"[background=rgb(255, 250, 242)]except locally at each planting hole"[/background]

Excelent job there buddy !
Honesly I think no man should ever be cursed with such a soil, a potter's dream perhaps, but a nightmare to a gardner or farmer. So it just goes to show that with hard work and alot of motivation plots of gardens or fields can be very fertile.
I think the important part of evaluating a particular soil is not deciding whether it is "rich" or "poor", but rather in assessing accurately the cost of producing a good crop on it. Almost any soil can be made productive." A" -"rich" soil is one that can be improved and maintained in high productivity at much less expense than "poor" soil. In a commercial gardening venture.. for example, the expense, amout of time and money spent is crucial. If soil "B"- demands twice the expense to produce the same amount of vegetables as soil "A", or work twice as hard, or both.

you should write a book Cowboy, I would buy it
 
Lol ! Ive just been working on either a ranch or farm ever since I can remember, a well you learn a thing or two especialy from a commercial point of view. I prob wouldn't make a dime after editer gets through with it , Iam a horrible speller. It takes me for ever to post something do to having to check and doble check. Some words I get'em right some I don't.
 
Yeah. So long as the colonies are present in full cycle near and around local planting holes, a week or so will be all that is needed for them to move into the root zones. Provided your transplant medium is tasty :)
 
Yeah. So long as the colonies are present in full cycle near and around local planting holes, a week or so will be all that is needed for them to move into the root zones. Provided your transplant medium is tasty :)

Could you run that by me again? I'm a little thick...
 
So let me get this straight, when we discovered fire we humans where hunter gatherers correct? So after thousands of years we figured out adding mulch, animal sh@!, and dead animals to our soil, tilling it in, produces far better results than the "just digging holes throwing a few seeds in and hoping for the best. Seems to me the no till method was tried awhile back, it failed more often than not, then along came hoe's, we handed them a stick with a blade they turned the earth and crop yields went through the roof.
Now some Hippy, probably from one of those Communes where they crap in a bucket thinks he has a good idea, "No Till means more time to smoke pot!!!!! WOOT!!!!!! Oh I do practice no till after I've planted my plants, if they happen to die I till them under and start over. This is my no Till section several months ago.
IMG_0116.jpg
 
yikes...

Prehensile, that's a very unimaginative perception of the process, but the only thing you're missing is that a savy "no tiller" doesn't just find the grossest plot possible and plant there. The results would likely look like that picture. Amending with compostable organic matter is key.

You dont have to till in all the goods, just apply and let nature do the rest. The only hard part is sourcing and moving the amendments :)
 
Yeah. So long as the colonies are present in full cycle near and around local planting holes, a week or so will be all that is needed for them to move into the root zones. Provided your transplant medium is tasty :)

Now I understand...I thought you were responding to my rabbit manure query.
 
yikes...

Prehensile, that's a very unimaginative perception of the process, but the only thing you're missing is that a savy "no tiller" doesn't just find the grossest plot possible and plant there. The results would likely look like that picture. Amending with compostable organic matter is key.

You dont have to till in all the goods, just apply and let nature do the rest. The only hard part is sourcing and moving the amendments :)
LOL I'll post a current shot of my no till section, even after the flood its looking great, here is a shot of a couple peppers from my no till boxes
IMG_0112.jpg
The plant below is 3.5 year old it has been in a "No Till" area for more than 2 years. its a never ending fight to keep the Banyan roots out of its bed.
IMG_0122.jpg
 
So let me get this straight, when we discovered fire we humans where hunter gatherers correct? So after thousands of years we figured out adding mulch, animal sh@!, and dead animals to our soil, tilling it in, produces far better results than the "just digging holes throwing a few seeds in and hoping for the best. Seems to me the no till method was tried awhile back, it failed more often than not, then along came hoe's, we handed them a stick with a blade they turned the earth and crop yields went through the roof.
Now some Hippy, probably from one of those Communes where they crap in a bucket thinks he has a good idea, "No Till means more time to smoke pot!!!!! WOOT!!!!!! Oh I do practice no till after I've planted my plants, if they happen to die I till them under and start over. This is my no Till section several months ago.
IMG_0116.jpg

Tillage; Agricultural or horicutural preparation of the soil .
If we go in to it in detail : by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring and overturning.
Human powerd tilling ... Using hand held tools , shovelling, picking, hoeing and raking.

NoTill ; (also called direct planting) is a way of growing crops without disturbing the soil through tillage. A technique used to decreas erosion.

Now the main reasons tilling is done is for aeration and drainage of the soil.
It is my opinion that any crop planted on well areated and well drained land has a better chance of growth and survival. Now if you have land like windchicken does... why the hell would you not till that darn clay soil ! If windchicken was to direct plant, digg some holes to plant his crops.. Trust me they wouldn't do good at all. He tilled smart by working only six inches (controled erosion) , took on the challange of making his row large and tall (a raised bed without walls). He still had to get that medium by doing some sort of TILLING... assuming the wood chips were for aeration and the hight for drainage.
If I owned a land with a deep silt loam of good tilth, ar least 5 percent humus, through whitch water percolates readily. That would contain 45 percent minerals, 25 percent water that would drain well , and aerated well enough so that 25 percent of any given block of soil would be air space. If such soil had a pH of 6.5 to 7.0, had just been fertilized with about fifteen tons of rotted manure per acre, had neen dressed with a couple of tones per acre of rock phosphate two years ago, then I would not just have soil, but a priceless inheritance. On such land, you could as my Grandpa would put it, " stick a broom handle into the ground and it would grow."
Now why the hell would I TILL ! I would proudly practice NoTill .
TILLING must be done when it has to be done, there ain't now way around it .



Just my 2¢ worth ..
 
windchickens raised mounds look awesome, raised mounds also promote lots of erosion no matter how much you try to stop it. As far as erosion goes. terrace farming, contour plowing,(adopted largely after the dustbowl era) and crop rotation all help with erosion and nutrient depletion. Tilling also loosens up the substrate allowing your babies legs to grow faster and longer, as well as putting nutrients down deep for the later forming roots . =)
 
Trees followed by invasive grass and vines, Banyan, Ficus, and Fig trees can send roots out over 100 feet sometimes further, I cut a Banyan root that went over 100 feet a few years back. This root was up under a flower bed, I followed it and was amazed how far it went. The vines(like wild grape) and wild grasses(Torpedo to name one) here are totally insane and almost impossible to eradicate without poison. Every 6 months or so we have to dig trenches or till really deep to cut the roots or they will choke my non-weed plants.
 
Excelent job there buddy !
Honesly I think no man should ever be cursed with such a soil, a potter's dream perhaps, but a nightmare to a gardner or farmer. So it just goes to show that with hard work and alot of motivation plots of gardens or fields can be very fertile.
I think the important part of evaluating a particular soil is not deciding whether it is "rich" or "poor", but rather in assessing accurately the cost of producing a good crop on it. Almost any soil can be made productive." A" -"rich" soil is one that can be improved and maintained in high productivity at much less expense than "poor" soil. In a commercial gardening venture.. for example, the expense, amout of time and money spent is crucial. If soil "B"- demands twice the expense to produce the same amount of vegetables as soil "A", or work twice as hard, or both.

Well said!

The tall rows or "mounded rows" in the photo are, by the way, constructed from alluvial clay in the Red River valley, one of the most fertile valleys I'm aware of. It has been host to Old South cotton plantations, corn, rice, sugar cane, and soybean farms, and where I live, vast pecan orchards. (Those are very old pecan trees in the background of the Aji Umba shot.) Where I live, far from the main river channel, the soil is dense clay, good for the aforementioned crops, sucks for vegetables. Hence, the wood chips to improve porosity and permeability and the tall rows to improve drainage...

windchickens raised mounds look awesome, raised mounds also promote lots of erosion no matter how much you try to stop it. As far as erosion goes. terrace farming, contour plowing,(adopted largely after the dustbowl era) and crop rotation all help with erosion and nutrient depletion. Tilling also loosens up the substrate allowing your babies legs to grow faster and longer, as well as putting nutrients down deep for the later forming roots . =)

Thanks! However, there is no erosion here. I understand where you're coming from, because I have built raised mounds of only sand, with no protection. A couple of rains and they were gone. But I found that adding a 3-4" mulch layer of shredded hardwood stopped the erosion completely. The pieces of wood tend to "interlock," preventing them from sliding "down the hill."
 
So in short, your barrier to no till gardening are obstacles caused by man, such as invasive species not native to your area.
Your only recourse would be to remove the man made obstacles BEFORE this type of gardening would work for you.

When man interferes with nature, natural forms of gardening are hindered.
 
yes sir, Banyans and Figs where spread by birds before the boats got here, the wild grapes are native but, many other species(like Ficus, Air Potatoes) where brought in by humans. I have noticed there is far less erosion when clay is used in the mix down here, there just ain't enough of it around in FL.
 
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