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Bemidji Minnesota

Was reading up on some of the Till vs. No till threads, and I was wondering if someone could do "Half till", where the garden would have strips tilled in, with new nutrients, and like every 3 feet, another 3 food wide section would be tilled, and then the next year, do the opposite lines.

So the whole thing keeps getting tilled, but the microbes, and other important stuff that gets killed with the till is still close enough by that it can quickly re-populate into the other areas.

This way you can keep working in new nutrients, and not completely remove the stuff you want to keep.

11/6/2009 4:20:01 PM

Anamosa, IA [email protected]

Tillage kills worms and messes up soil structure if it is overdone. It also mixes air into the soil and helps convert soil organic matter into carbon dioxide lost to the air. I doubt that tillage would kill off too many microbes.
Strip tillage can work for row crops, but I don't see how it could be an advantage for pumpkins. Some farmers use just widely spaced subsoil shanks or paraplows to lift the soil and break hardpans. That is probably a better compromise than strip tillage, if you can get a tractor into your garden.

For production agriculture, it is my opinion that notill is the way to go. I think it has merits for competition growers also. The main thing you have to avoid with notill is soil compaction. Maybe if you make plywood shoes like Don Young had in his diary, you could avoid compaction and make notill work. They look good for tillage also, and I may have to make some next year.

11/6/2009 9:57:06 PM

Menomonie, WI ([email protected])

There is a term for what you are describing. I believe it is called sheet composting.

11/6/2009 11:16:07 PM