Let’s talk about the 2nd tenet of soil health: keep the soil whole.
No-till management is becoming more and more popular amongst growers. The advantages to moving from tillage to no-till growing include decreased weed pressure, increased soil structure, increased microbial populations, decreased soil erosion, and increased soil organic matter. All of these things lead to healthier plants and increased yield and quality!
What is tillage
Tillage is a common way to prepare ground or beds for planting in the spring. Tilling a field breaks up soil and vertically shifts the soil. This helps to incorporate any residue or amendments added to the field and makes planting easier. Tillage also brings weed seeds buried in the soil to the surface, allowing for germination; reduces soil aggregates and organic matter content, leading to poor water retention and drainage; and destroys microbial and fungal communities that promote plant health and nutrient cycling. In other words, your life gets easier today, but you pay more tomorrow.
Wait…you mean there is an alternative?
There is! No-till production is a way to reduce our reliance on soil disturbance!
So how does no-till work? No-till works by simply not tilling the ground. When you leave the soil whole you allow for the preservation of aggregates and soil structure. You improve water retention and drainage, you increase nutrient storage in organic matter, you decrease weed pressure by leaving seeds buried in the soil. You can accomplish all this by doing less work! So why aren’t more people moving to no-till systems?
No-till systems take time to see the benefits. Some things we do to care for the soil health are readily apparent. We can see cover crops grow; we can test the crop and the soil and determine how much nutrients we have added. When we keep the soil covered with tarps or cardboard or mulch, we can see the lack of weeds germinating and feel the moisture that is retained. When we don’t till the soil, we don’t see much of anything. But that’s ok. No-till is about preserving what is already there. It is the foundation that we build the rest of our soil on.
So tillage is trash then?
This doesn’t mean that tillage is not a useful tool. While we think the goal should be to move to full no-till, that might not be realistic for everyone. Strip tillage is a way to reduce tillage, allowing for the maintenance of soil structure and integrity in no-till strips and the ease of planting afforded by tilling. By rotating till and no-till strips each season, you can let the soil recover before tilling the same strip a 2nd time.
Remember, any improvement here is better than no improvement. So if that means going full no-till is not a realistic option but you can go reduced tillage, then go reduced tillage. If it means keeping full tillage but rotating plots out of production for a season or two, then rotate crops and keep tilling. The continual use of tillage, year after year, is what we are trying to move away from.
Soil structure is the foundation we use to build our soil community. You wouldn’t tear the foundation of your house up every year, so stop doing it to your soil.
