Indigenous microorganisms, Effective Microorganisms. no-till gardening

[brown40]

Morning All,

Not sure if a tractor group is the best place to bring up switching to a "no-till" style of gardening, but here goes...

I love my tiller. It fluffs up the soil so nicely, and makes it so easy to plant... I like using it so well, I'll sometimes make 4-5 passes to have a pristine starting point for planting. Every year I mulch after planting with grass, wood chips, seaweed... but the vigor of the garden is declining, and I'm seeing more disease and pest problems. I'm thinking that every time I'm tilling, I'm breaking up my soil web and losing the native flora. Despite the soil looking and feeling better than it ever has, it isn't producing like it did.

So I have beautiful, nutritious, but microbially vacant soil to work with now, and am thinking its time to stop amending and tilling in more organics, and try and get the microbial numbers and diversity back to help me unlock whats already in there.

Wondering if anyone has experience harvesting indigenous microorganisms from their soil web. Also wondering if anyone has utilized lactobacillus (effective microorganism--EM-1) on their crops. If so--did you see the sort of results in plant vigor and disease resistance the proponents tout? Supposedly EM-1 is everything from a drain cleaner, to a "funk" remover, to a foliar protectant...

I have used mycorrhizal innoculants and have seen the dramatic difference those organism can make--I believe the native IMO harvest is primarily targeting similar root symbiotes in your own area.

I've gathered and cultured both now, and am going to apply them periodically and see what happens... anyone have experience with it? Anything to look out for?

Thanks, and have a great day!

 

[teg]

sold our tiller a while back for this reason. Wife read it some where and that was that. Don't have much to add other than, the garden does very well. (really thought this thread was one of those "Kentucky Derby VS. Super Bowl" spam ads, looking to report it )

 

[jeff9366]

Do not work earth to the maximum with any ground contact implement. Work ground only the minimum necessary. You want aggregated soil particles, not fluff.

Many desirable micro-organisms are anaerobic. When you till to fluffiness you destroy their environment.

Use your tiller for just one pass in the Spring, a second in late Fall.

Have your soil tested. It may be one or two micro-nutrients are exhausted. Where I am in Florida, Boron deficiency is common and supplemented in the fields.

Consider moving your garden to a new location for a couple years, if you have space. After your primary garden space has been fallow for twenty-four months, or so, its productivity will likely return. But have that soil test.....

If your location was part of your TBN profile replies would be more tailored to your locale.

 

[snowbelt geauga]

Rotate your plantings and seed down the rows with cover crops. Also seed the whole garden in cover crops after the season.

 

[boomer1025]

Cow Manure added in the fall or spring would help your garden a lot with the micro - organisms.