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Breakthrough: "Electronic soil" boosts crop growth by over 50% (www.earth.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [M, B] to c/technology@lemmy.world
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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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[–] 1 point 2 years ago* (1 child)

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.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years 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.

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