this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2023
231 points (95.3% liked)

Technology

59030 readers
3106 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
231
Breakthrough: "Electronic soil" boosts crop growth by over 50% (www.earth.com)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
70 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I grow using a technique known as "notill" where you guessed it, I never till the soil. Or replace it. It's organic, I even have helper bugs and worms. Inside. It's awesome.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's really weird to me that you write just like Jesse talks on the No Till Growers youtube channel

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

That's interesting, I'll check the channel out, thanks!

I'm not Jesse though I promise.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months 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.