Quote:
Originally Posted by digsdirt
When you have acre or more we'll talk tractors.  But you could use a good Troy-Bilt tiller. And I say that fully knowing the no-till folks will likely jump on it but I'll say it anyway.
Dave |
As a no-till permaculture guy I will be happy to jump on it!
Keep this in mind please. I honestly don't have any issues with a gardener using tillage. If you are going to dig your garden, then absolutely a Troy Bilt, especially the older model with a Kohler engine and all the attachments, can't be beat.
The thing about no till that I like is it's advantage over tillage with respect to inputs. That includes organic manures and composts or chemical inputs either way. You are locked into inputs because tillage breaks several cycles in the soil food web. But for a garden, that isn't necessarily a problem. There are plenty of ways to use a tiller in the garden along with inputs to keep the soil fertile. In some cases a whole lot of inputs are needed, but it's all relative. Gardens in general are smaller scale and if a person doesn't mind, inputs do allow a good crop of tomatoes most certainly.
It's a time honored proven method for sure and a Troy Bilt can certainly help reduce the labor inputs, as well as mix things like green manures and animal manures in the soil very well.
Personally I am lazy and a cheapskate.
I am happy to let the worms do my tillage and fertilizing for me for free! They seem to appreciate the work too! They become very enthusiastic workers.
Also the no-till models are much newer and much less well proven and require more experience and knowledge in many cases. So I am a live and let live kind of guy when it comes to gardens. I'll be happy to help folks learn organic no-till for sure, but I don't criticise any gardeners. Happy just to see people growing their own food no matter how they do it.
Once you get to moderate and larger commercial scale though. That's where I aggressively advocate no-till and minimal tillage practises, especially organic or mostly organic and permaculture. If it's your job, there is no excuse in my mind why a person couldn't educate themselves enough to accomplish no-till and at these scales it becomes important to all of society, not just the farmer himself.
Just my take on it.
