Fertilizing and No-Till
Abandoning old and deep habits is not one of our species’ strong points in my observation. In most cases there must be compelling reasons to change. So what could compel gardeners and farmers to switch from till to no-till?
It doesn’t seem likely that chemical agriculture will ever switch – finding it so difficult to change to eminently more sensible organic agriculture –until the cost of phosphorus can no longer be passed on to the food consumer, at which point it will die a natural death. Considering the dwindling supply of mined phosphorus in the world this is not too far in the future.
What might compel organic gardeners and farmers to tweak their practices to no-till? Increased cost effectiveness of no-till would certainly be a compelling reason considering our mercenary tendencies, but it is yet not decisively proven to be true. The fact that no-till is much friendlier to the planet – less CO2 outgassing, less water pollution, and so forth – is compelling only to a few.
For me the most compelling reason was a deepening trust, over decades, in Nature’s way – that by an invisible hand Nature is self-organizing and self-correcting, provided she is not interfered with. Through the study of soil I saw that tilling was such an interference.
Nature created different layers, called horizon zones, in producing soil which we in our mechanical tilling disrupt. There is of course the benign mixing by earthworms, bringing 
nutrients down from the mulch layer and aerating the soil in the process. With that mixing the horizon layers retain their fundamental integrity. Mechanical tilling results in over-aeration and over-mixing, confounding the soil’s integrity. Each layer of soil, including the mulch layer, consists of a different biology (different organisms) and a different color, smell and feel. These layers will re-establish themselves in time once mechanical tilling is stopped and a mulch layer applied. If the mulch layer is tilled in mechanically it decomposes too rapidly for plants to fully utilize the nutrients released, which nutrients may be lost through leaching.
Tilling also destroys many of the proper tillers – earthworms. Further, fungi which are surface organisms are diminished, which organisms play a vital role in plant nutrition and tilth (crumb structure). Some gardeners use compost as the mulch layer but I prefer undecomposed organic matter in a proper carbon:nitrogen ratio. Finished compost is not worm food and also much of the carbon and nitrogen is lost to the atmosphere and through leaching during the heat cycle.
Concerning the fertilizing, must all fertilizers be avoided? In most cases high production is needed before the soil has regained its natural state with horizons clearly defined. What is important is finding a fertilizer that is not overly concentrated and is balanced. The plant itself accomplishes this balancing when such nutrients are derived from those held on clay and humus colloids by exchanging carbohydrates for the particular nutrient needed.
However a plant, in taking in water, must accept whatever nutrients may be in the water, balanced or not. This is why hydroponic gardening is a non-starter. In rainwater minerals are in the proper balance, including nitrogen, though in very small amounts, which gives only a slight boost to plant growth.
Sea water is also mineral balanced however, along coastlines and lakes it has become polluted with certain trace elements in excess, like boron that impairs plant growth. Soils high in humus can buffer this excess to some degree. My suggestion is, if one is going to use seawater, make it infrequent as boron will accumulate in the soil over time. Meanwhile keep building the soil until mineral supplements are no longer needed.
Ocean water requires diluting at a ratio of 30 gallons of tap water to 1 gallon of seawater. I apply this water via a hose end sprayer, the kind where the mixing of ocean and tap water occurs in the cap, not in the jar. My sprayer, even at the highest dilution, mixes at a 40:1 ratio.
For extra nitrogen I sometimes add 1/3 urine to the jar – urine being a reasonably balanced fertilizer and is sterile. For those not having access to ocean water sea salt could be used, though the dilution rate would need to be many times that of ocean water. I don’t have that figure.
