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Breakthrough: "Electronic soil" boosts crop growth by over 50% (www.earth.com)

submitted 10 months ago by L4s to c/technology

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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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[–] reagansrottencorpse 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.

[–] diannetea 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

[–] reagansrottencorpse 1 points 10 months ago

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

I'm not Jesse though I promise.

[–] douglasg14b 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.

[–] Pipoca 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.