Are zero tilled crops “SLIGHTLY” more drought resistant?
- Thread starter Pilatus
- Start date
Acke
Member
- Location
- Sweden Enköping
Yes, if there are straw and chaff in surface !
And if it have been notill for several years soil hold water much better.
This is on heavy clay soil 50-60%.
And if it have been notill for several years soil hold water much better.
This is on heavy clay soil 50-60%.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
It depends, not automatically would be my best answer. DD is only a drill that works in uncultivated land, but the rest of the system provides the life support (or destroys it) for the plants.
If you "feed from the top", the general way of agriculture, then the roots don't need to go deep.
This helps dry become drought, because it becomes a hydroponic system in dirt, rather than a plant growing in soil with microbes doing the feeding, in exchange for sugar from the plant
In general, it's the soil disturbance that destroys these cycles - the water cycle, the mineral cycle (eg, over 85% of our N here is in arthropods and insects) and the less of that you habitually do, the better the results of your habits become.
People love to blame their soil type, "oh, but we're on clay, so.." but are slow to appreciate that maybe their best intentions are turning it into 'a dirt type'.
If you "feed from the top", the general way of agriculture, then the roots don't need to go deep.
This helps dry become drought, because it becomes a hydroponic system in dirt, rather than a plant growing in soil with microbes doing the feeding, in exchange for sugar from the plant
In general, it's the soil disturbance that destroys these cycles - the water cycle, the mineral cycle (eg, over 85% of our N here is in arthropods and insects) and the less of that you habitually do, the better the results of your habits become.
People love to blame their soil type, "oh, but we're on clay, so.." but are slow to appreciate that maybe their best intentions are turning it into 'a dirt type'.