Thirty years
ago there was the “Australian Tomato Tree.” About a million suckers, including
me, made the fellow rich-until he went to jail for mail fraud. A few years ago
it was the “Hanging Tomato Plant,” that nobody I heard of was happy with. They
sold like hot cakes—one season. There was “Square Foot Gardening,” which is
probably a good way to get newbies interested in gardening. This year it’s the
“No Till Gardening,” that’s all the rage. No Till has been around forever. Mother
Nature has been practicing it for over a billion years. Why do you think each
plant produces hundreds and thousands of seeds? It takes that many for only a
few to find purchase in the soil, put down roots and survive long enough to
re-produce.
My dad, who
never actually worked the soil but was always reading the latest fascinating
farming curves, had us plant our very best 25 acre field in buckwheat. We were
to plant after only slightly breaking up the surface-just enough so the seed
would have contact with the soil. It grew well. It was a great looking crop-one
of our best. When the harvester arrived with his combine and looked over the
ground, he asked, “What kind of idiot would plant in rough ground like this?”
My dad sheepishly replied, “This kind.”
The crop couldn’t be harvested at all. That
was 60 years ago. I had spent any number of evenings after school lightly
disking that field and a long weekend planting it. I was 12 and that buckwheat
was my pride. My beautiful crop was useless.
Some of the
arguments for “no till” are obviously committed by guys like my dad. New roots
are going to be a lot happier in loose soil. Breaking up the soil to add
organic matter gives the sub surface a big shot of oxygen. Once the microbes get
that blast of air they go on a feeding-breeding-reproducing frenzy. They’ll be
breaking down organic matter much more quickly. It needs to be broken down by
the microbes before the plant can absorb those nutrients.
Before you
waste a growing season, money and hard work, think through the whole process of
what you’re trying to accomplish. If it doesn’t seem logical, it probably
isn’t. New methods, gimmicks and fads always seem to be popular for at least
one season. I’ve yet to see anything “new” that isn’t a spin on what we already
know.
There’s no
substitute for standard gardening. There are no shortcuts, magical cures,
miracle solutions, nor is there a way to avoid the simple basics. You can
simplify and speed the basics by speeding up the compost process, building
raised beds, using drip irrigation, planting at just the right time, timing
when to put down mulch so that you miss the breeding season for your typical
pests, and a variety of other little things that are helpful to understand.
Sometimes a
hanging tomato plant is just the ticket and the only option. Just don’t get the
idea that it’s the ultimate in tomato growing. If you’re going to grow a
tomato, a tulip or turnip, you’re probably better off to watch how Mother
Nature does it; rather than the guys who want to sell you something that you
can’t possibly do without.
