This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: rototilling

On Lon Rombough's suggestion, rather than keep writing back about tilling and non-tilling, I've instead excerpted a short
part of my book, WEEDLESS GARDENING, where I talk about benefits of leaving soil undisturbed. For background, the WEEDLESS
GARDENING I talk about is not only the title of the book but also the four part system for taking care of the soil. The book
is available for only $9, but if I feel the need more words from this book will ply the electronic thoroughfares. What I have
done in WEEDLESS GARDENING is to try and translate some soil science into something practical, readable, and backed up by my
own thirty years of getting my fingers into the dirt... whoops, soil.

Lee Reich, PhD


THE BENEFITS
 The most obvious appeal of WEEDLESS GARDENING is dispensing with the annual ritual of turning over soil. No more wrestling a
rototiller up and down garden rows. No more making arrangements for someone to plow. Gone are the repeated thuds of your
garden spade coming up against rocks in rocky soil. Forget about needing that “iron back, with a hinge in it,” suggested as
the ideal anatomy for a gardener by Charles Dudley Warner in My Summer in a Garden (1870).
 Dispensing with digging also means being able to get plants and seeds into the ground sooner. One reason for digging in
spring is to kill existing vegetation, be it weeds, a deliberately planted “cover crop,” or, for a new garden, lawn grass.
That digging is followed by a burst of biological activity in the soil as bacteria and fungi, fueled by a shot of air, gobble
up chopped up roots, stems, and leaves. It’s too much commotion for seeds and small plants, so planting must be delayed for a
couple of weeks until microbial activity settles down. Another run over the ground is sometimes needed to break up the soil
and plants even more, causing a delay of another week or two.
 Not having to dig the soil in spring also means not having to delay planting because of wet soil. Digging a wet clay soil
transforms it into a compact material better suited for sculpture than plant growth. The frustration is twofold; planting is
delayed until the soil is dry enough to dig, and after planting, you must wait for rain to get seeds and plants growing. Skip
the digging and all that’s needed in spring is to drop seeds or nestle plants into the ground.
 Leaving soil undisturbed in spring even helps plants quench their thirst later in the season. Earthworms, roots of various
dimensions, even the action of freezing and thawing all work together to create interconnecting large and small pores within
which air and water move and new roots grow. Gravity quickly empties large channels of excess water, drawing air in, yet
small pores of capillary dimensions cling to water against the pull of gravity. As long as these pores stay intact, water can
move within them down, sideways, even up, to replace water that nearby roots drink in.
 Another benefit of not turning the soil is to keep organic materials on the surface. There, they can provide soft landing
for raindrops, allowing moisture to soak in rather than run off and water your lawn or your neighbor’s garden. Organic
materials at the soil’s surface also temper the effects of winter cold and the sun’s heat, and slow water evaporation. If you
mix organic materials into the soil or bury them down deep, they cannot do their job of protecting the soil surface.
 Not tilling also avoids creating a so-called plowpan, or hardened layer within the soil that impedes drainage. Plowpans form
when rototillers or plows are used at the same depth season after season, causing soil compaction just beneath the depth of
tillage. Perhaps the greatest benefit of leaving the soil undisturbed is that it preserves soil organic matter, including
humus, the touchstone of any great garden soil. Digging, rototilling, or plowing puts such a shot of oxygen into the soil
that microbial activity is stimulated to the point of too rapidly burning up organic matter. It literally disappears into
thin air, most of it becoming carbon dioxide and water vapor.
 It’s not that these microbes should starve. After all, plant foods are released and a healthy microbial population is
supported only as organic matter is gobbled up. Problems arise though when organic matter is burned too fast, which happens
when soils are tilled. In untilled soils topped with organic materials, the materials are consumed at a rate that doesn’t
outstrip the rate at which they are replenished.

DO PLANTS LIKE IT?
 All the information offered so far has sung the praises of WEEDLESS GARDENING for you, me, and the soil, but what about the
plants? How do delphiniums, rose bushes, and bean and tomato plants feel about growing in soil that is never turned over or
stirred up, yet is perpetually blanketed with compost, wood chips, or some other organic mulch? The answer is—they like it.
 After all, an undisturbed soil blanketed with organic mulch becomes increasingly rich in humus, one byproduct of the
decomposition of organic matter. Humus is not a single compound but a witch’s brew of stuff beneficial to plants. It is to
plants what a vitamin rich salad is to you and me—not a concentrated food, but one offering a wide spectrum of nutrients and
other good things. (In addition to nutrients coming from the humus itself, it also contains substances that help nutrients
already in the soil become more accessible to plants.) Humus is also serves as the bulk in a plant’s “diet,” fluffing up soil
with air and at the same time holding water like a sponge. Humus even helps plants fight off pests with protective compounds
and by supporting friendly microorganisms that fend off pathogens.

JEFF LOWENFELS wrote:

> 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
>
> ______________________________________________
> PLANT A ROW FOR THE HUNGRY: Through PAR, over 3 million pounds of food have
> been donated by home gardeners like you to feed the hungry. Ask me how you
> can join the effort.
>
> ============================================================
> Doing your TAXES? Maybe it's time to... BECOME A FOOL!
> * IRAs * Retirement Strategies plus...Money-Saving Tips &
> Investing Guides. Get FREE info. Register for FREE with The
> Motley Fool.
> http://click.topica.com/caaajOJbUrGSSbV9PXEf/TheMotleyFool
> ============================================================
>
> GWL has searchable archives at:
> http://www.hort.net/lists/gardenwriters/
> If you have photos for GWL, send them to gwlphotos@hort.net and they will show up at  http://www.hort.net/lists/gwlphotos/
> **************************************************
>

============================================================
Doing your TAXES? Maybe it's time to... BECOME A FOOL!
* IRAs * Retirement Strategies plus...Money-Saving Tips &
Investing Guides. Get FREE info. Register for FREE with The
Motley Fool.
http://click.topica.com/caaajOJbUrGSSbVSZwBf/TheMotleyFool
============================================================

GWL has searchable archives at: 
http://www.hort.net/lists/gardenwriters/
If you have photos for GWL, send them to gwlphotos@hort.net and they will show up at  http://www.hort.net/lists/gwlphotos/ 
**************************************************

==^================================================================
This email was sent to: topica.com@spamfodder.com

EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bUrGSS.bVSZwB
Or send an email to: Gardenwriters-unsubscribe@topica.com

T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail!
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register
==^================================================================
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index