this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2023
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Breakthrough: "Electronic soil" boosts crop growth by over 50%::This research introduces an innovative approach to soilless cultivation, or hydroponics, by integrating electronic soil, or eSoil.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Don't you have to till at least once?

I tried growing on ground that was matted deep with decades old dead vegetation. And even after raking the crap out of it and trying to dethatch it, I couldn't get anything to stick.

After giving it a good till and mixing in a decent bit of old herbivore manure, my plants took and grew wonderfully.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Nope. The idea in no till is just adding stuff to the top and letting worms and roots handle the tilling.

I've had good luck just dumping a foot or two of finished compost on the ground and growing in it.

Another solid no-till approach is sheet mulching. You put down a layer of cardboard (to kill weeds), then layers of carbon and nitrogen like straw and kitchen scraps. Wait a few months, then plant. So you could do that in the late summer or fall to prepare a site for spring planting.

A lot of these things depend on location, though. Something that works great in Pennsylvania might not work as well in Utah.