4 ms·

It's absolutely true that you can't keep farming the same soil year in and year out and expect it to produce. This is why crop rotation is done and why fields a

It's absolutely true that you can't keep farming the same soil year in and year out and expect it to produce. This is why crop rotation is done and why fields are allowed to remain fallow from time to time. It seems to me that these concepts are bundled in the term "long-term sustainable farming." Source: grew up in the sticks and worked on the family farm as a kid.

baybal2 5y ago
> is why crop rotation is done and why fields are allowed to remain fallow from time to time. Natural nitrogen replenishment rate is microscopic. And it will do absolutely nothing about phosphate depletion.
- throwaway9980 5y ago
  Crop rotation implies the selection and plating of nitrogen fixing crops. For example, because corn requires significant nitrogen, we would plan peas alongside corn. Peas are nitrogen fixing and the corn stalks provide a good structure for the vines. The next season, the corn field would be planted with something entirely different. Phosphate replenishment can be done by spreading manure or using fertilizers. It's a harder problem, but you have to work the problem.
  - baybal2 5y ago
    > Crop rotation implies the selection and plating of nitrogen fixing crops. Yes, and and the rate of replenishment, even if you dump many times more soy straw on the fields than you will harvest, will still be microscopic. It plainly doesn't work for anybody, but people who only farm for themselves. It's a grandly inefficient use of a scarce resource — land. Even if the soil will be squirming with nitrogen fixing organisms, and nothing else for many years, it's nitrogen intake will be like a single nitrate application, or less. > Phosphate replenishment can be done by spreading manure And catch god knows how much food borne diseases in the process. That's disgusting, and absurd in the 21st century.

4 ms·

It's absolutely true that you can't keep farming the same soil year in and year out and expect it to produce. This is why crop rotation is done and why fields a

by throwaway9980 5y ago

baybal2 5y ago
> is why crop rotation is done and why fields are allowed to remain fallow from time to time. Natural nitrogen replenishment rate is microscopic. And it will do absolutely nothing about phosphate depletion.
- throwaway9980 5y ago
  Crop rotation implies the selection and plating of nitrogen fixing crops. For example, because corn requires significant nitrogen, we would plan peas alongside corn. Peas are nitrogen fixing and the corn stalks provide a good structure for the vines. The next season, the corn field would be planted with something entirely different. Phosphate replenishment can be done by spreading manure or using fertilizers. It's a harder problem, but you have to work the problem.
  - baybal2 5y ago
    > Crop rotation implies the selection and plating of nitrogen fixing crops. Yes, and and the rate of replenishment, even if you dump many times more soy straw on the fields than you will harvest, will still be microscopic. It plainly doesn't work for anybody, but people who only farm for themselves. It's a grandly inefficient use of a scarce resource — land. Even if the soil will be squirming with nitrogen fixing organisms, and nothing else for many years, it's nitrogen intake will be like a single nitrate application, or less. > Phosphate replenishment can be done by spreading manure And catch god knows how much food borne diseases in the process. That's disgusting, and absurd in the 21st century.