I visited Eastern Oregon this week with work. We were a couple hundred yards from the base of the Blue Mountains surrounded by thousands of acres of dry land wheat and peas. One of the most beautiful places I have ever visited and peaceful like you cannot imagine.
We were doing some work with several different plots a few of which were “No Till”. Being as I am an amateur sustainability geek I like the idea of not discing land over and over destroying it’s natural structure and saving the organisms that help to feed the soil, but I have no knowledge of how or why it is done commercially. Here’s what I learned from my encyclopedia of a boss.
In both dry land wheat and peas (no irrigation whatsoever) the No Till acreage does not produce as much as tilled acreage. BUT- in years that are dry, the no till acreage far exceeds that of the tilled acreage. Why, you might ask? I did and here is the reason.
Tilling allows the moisture held in the soil to evaporate. The plants start off with a huge disadvantage by being started in dry as a bone soil, while the no till acreage uses the retained moisture to germinate the seeds and get them off to a strong start. The first rain is used for growth instead of germination which gives the no till plants a huge head start and allows it to withstand periods of drought.
Cool, huh?
I wonder if No TIll can be used on a small scale to conserve water in the home or market garden. I will be looking into this. I’ll report back if I find anything interesting or useful.
Peace.
