Contradicting info and questions on no till

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man HOW to fish and he will eat for a lifetime...

 

Now you know what business you need to get into.

J

 

Yes the malted is sprouted. Two reasons for the malted barley. The first being it eliminates the sprouting process in the SST's. Just grind and soak. The second reason for the malted barley is that barley malting houses have developed processes and procedures to maintain the enzyme content in this grain. The darker the grains the more heat exposure = less enzymes, so your pilsner is the highest enzyme content. Then you get into 2-row vs 6-row barley. 6-row has a higher enzyme count than 2-row. Both effective.

Same thing goes for the young green coconuts. No prep needed. Drain and dilute, your good to go.

These SST can be made from all kinds of seeds corn, lentils, clover, etc.... We just know the barley, corn, and coconuts work well in our gardens.

 

DDP, the wet to dry cycle has become its own monster. Constant moisture is a key to healthy growth. Now given that, there is a certain range of soil moisture that can be considered running wet to dry. Your soil can only hold so much water (field capacity) consider this 10 on our scale with dry (cannot support plant growth) 0. The optimal range is 4-7 for our beloved.
 
I was attracted to the sub irrigation due to the lack of parts.  I try to keep my pots in that 4-7 range. The one issue with sub irrigation I've found is the major saturation at the bottom of the pots, easily handled by feeling the bottom of the pots and backing off the res watering. Feeling the pots also helps when applying SST's. I let them loose moisture then fill them up. All the tea is absorbed in the soil no run off into the res. <-VERY IMPORTANT.
 
However you get there, the 4-7 range is the "wet/dry" cycle you should shoot for. I top water all my veg plants with small frequent waterings.
 
HTH

 

For myself personally I do the knuckle deep thing to tell how moist my soil is and if I need to fill my Rez. Being as tho my one girl is in a 32 gal no till tote lifting hr is outta the question!!
I like to feel a slight anout if moisture in my finger, if she is just a little dry I will top water to keep the upper level moist also. On the subject if enzyme teas and fulvic feedings, I've been doing it for about a year now on the fulvic and just a short month on the enzyme teas. The enzyme teas are nothing short if a miracle!! If you can source any just give it a shit an see. The fulvic acid I have used once a week during top watering at 10ml/g regularly , I have upped the dosage before to 20 ml/g without any adverse effect or improvement so I just stay with the lower dosage. No till is a great way to go if you ask me an nothing replicates Mother Nature better IMO. Hope that helps some I you have any questions I would try to answer to the best I my ability but I'm a noOb and can only give answers to what I'm experienced in.

 

"Also why water, let dry, water, let dry... I wonder if smaller more frequent waterings would keep the moisture level more constant and lack of major fluctuations would be less stressful for the plants."

You've got it. Just like Ficky said, constant, steady hydration is important in an organic garden. Now, you don't want to overwater either but this is where making sure that your soil is properly aerated comes into play when you initially build your soil. With sufficient aeration added to the mix there's no way to overwater - it is impossible to do so.

There's no reason you need to allow a soil to dry out; in fact, IMO it's harmful to the very fine root hairs on our plants. Consistent, even moisture is key. Mulch helps the surface from drying out too.

Not wet - just moist.

J

J

 

 
You can read till the cows come home and hopefully get pointed in the right direction, but, the fact of the matter is, there is no quick and easy way WITHOUT the trial and error.
 
Growing (anything), is very much like cooking. Books and vids and Q&A helps tremendously, but both are a skill set that has to be developed mostly through trial and error and experience.
 
Observation is very important and you seem to be paying attention. It goes far.
 
Wet

 

do you like them lol