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RE: rototilling

re rototilling vs. not:

I surely hope that no one is suggestion you can't get a great garden if you
rototill or if you use fertilizers. That is not the point. Obviously we all
have had personal experiences and know that you can have great gardens doing
both. And I think we would all agree that putting organics into the soil is
the only way to go as it helps build nice healthy soils. And I think we can
all agree that the organic matter you put into a garden when you rototill
is, after all, only as good as the microbes, bacteria, shredders and others
who decay it into humus.

Where a "Scientific Gardener" would depart is in the value of keeping the
miles and miles of fungi in the average garden
intact and not reducing the populations of bacteria, nematodes, protozoa,
worms, microarthopods, microarthopods etc in the soil which is an obvious
result when you rototill. If you are like many gardeners and you run over
your garden beds two or three times to get is all uniform and clean, then
you actually kill off much of it.

And, I suppose, a really Scientific Gardener would work out the math and
conclude that each year, despite the addition of organics into the soil,
there is a net carbon loss. Sooner or later the game is over like it is in
many parts of the world and like it is getting to be in many parts of the US
Then you HAVE to use fertilizers and the only organics in the soil are those
added each year IF there is any soilfoodweb left to decay them.

As for big gardens, surely Ruth Stout is an example. If you must have nice
neat rows, simply pulling a board through the soil or a v plow would be
better than rototilling. "Drill" gardening is another answer. You make a
hole for the plant and only disturb a tiny fraction of the garden. It is so
much less work and for big farms, there are mechanical planters that use
this principle.

Why would one want to go through all the work to rototill?  I guess I have
to ask, then, why do YOU roto till? I am not trying to be cute here.  You
surely don't have to. Many of us have gardens which prove that. Why do you?

Cheers,

Jeff L



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