JohnT said:
Tilling does not disrupt the bacterial cycle and when done in non wet conditions it assist in aeration. I would rather have forest topsoil to work with too - it is superior in every way. I planted a bed of ginseng no till in a forest floor setting and also 300 tree yearlings. If that's your medium then yes I am in agreement.
Grasslands and agricultural soils usually have bacterial-dominated food webs - that is, most biomass is in the form of bacteria. Highly productive agricultural soils tend to have ratios of fungal to bacterial biomass near 1:1 or somewhat less. Forests tend to have fungal-dominated food webs. The ratio of fungal to bacterial biomass may be 5:1 to 10:1 in a deciduous forest and 100:1 to 1000:1 in a coniferous forest.
When you till you mix a lot of surface organic matter into the soil, it gets eaten right away by bacteria and the cycle ends almost as soon as it begins leading to the farmer have to input excessive amounts of fertilizer, further killing off soil life and leading to things like erosion and dust bowls.
I make my soil more fungal by covering it in 4-6 inches of wood chips. I never have to irrigate and mushrooms are popping out of my garden constantly. Even when it hasnt rained for weeks.
I let worms do my tilling and aerating. Tilling dry soil just turns it into dust.
I realize things like this arent feasible on large farms, but I dont things large farms are feasible either.
There's a lot we know now that we didnt about the soil food web and the science to back it up.
Now we know to feed the soil, not the plant.
On a side note, its also recently been discovered that its the soil of houseplants, not the plants themselves that do the cleaning of the air.
Sorry of this is taking the OP off subject so I am pretty much done in here.
If you want to further discuss it, I'm around through different venues like the chat room or a new thread etc...