Footstep seed planting technique - GIF

[Jon]

Footstep seed planting technique.




Previously:

Plant trellis stringing tool - GIF
Paperpot chain-fed rapid planter - GIF, video, photos
Rice planting machine GIF
Potato planter GIF

[ranald]

How soft, fryable & aerated is that. looks almost perfect for sowing some types of seed.Obviously good method for whatever they grow.

[neilbourjaily]

The Japanese are great rototillers of their farmland. If you take a close look at their low hp (kW) tractors, you'll see the gears are such they can spin the rototiller multiple times while traveling at incredibly low rates of speed. I don't recall the exact numbers, but they spin a lot while traveling little. This leads to such friable soil.

[ranald]

It looks like rice but the next section has what looks like maize/corn : wouldn't think of those as companions. Interesting that there are quite a lot of Pinus in the area probably to stabalise and avoid salinity. Nothing much grows well under pines due to the chemicals released from needles ;somewhat like Eucalypts, Corymbias & Cinamomon sp. etc, but as they are sentinel like ,dont thake up much ground space. It is a shame that in 100 years of farming we have done more damage to the planet using chemicals (fertilizer etc) than the previous 1000's years using manures & hand work.

[PJs]

I agree in principle but we have gone from a population of 300m to 7b in that 1000 years...feeding that many with foot setting seeds probably wouldn't work. I do think humans could use more barefoot time in the dirt though. I absolutely do agree we should be more discerning with how we manage the soil and crops. I'm not much for GMO stuff either and Distributions could be handled better, imho. Our Mississippi river is a mess from all the run off from the food belt and its heading out to sea.

PJ

[ranald]

Yep, but it was a German scientist, in around 1860, that published a paper on NPK in fertilizer: if my horticultural brain memories recall correctly. The whole world went nuts producing chemical versions of the combination. The only one to question the formula was the scientist who published the data, as companies all over the planet were too busy making money from it & researching better ways(cheaper) to develop it. He later posted another paper that mentioned TRACE elements but these were hard to measure. It was basically ignored until more recent times.

I imagine the population in around his time, 1860, the worlds population was about 1B. which is only about 15% of todays pop. If we hadn't greedily rushed in, a better solution may well have been reached. All hypothetical I know. We love to use Urea/ nitrogen as a quick fertilizer for leaf growth esp crops like sugar cane however it has the same -ve charge as Earth resulting in only about 8% being retained and the remainder leeching to our rivers & into the atmosphere & the ocean.

I've fished around pristene looking streams where cane is grown & the crabs & fish taste like something of the order of Kerosene (not that I have drunk it).This taste was similar to fish in the Brisbane river before the Council started earnest investigation into "trade waste" & those avoiding proper disposal (1970's).

It is a good thing we are learning & some of us taking notice & even some extremests that most of us think are mad.

Nature is surely wonderful.

sorry I don't remember the German scientists name.

cheers

[PJs]

Thanks Ranald for the history...didn't know that about the early papers but there have been plenty published since...and imho, it still comes down to feeding billions and making $billions. The more souls to feed the more we get stuck in that loop of "Whatever the cost to the planet".

I'm a big Catfish fan for years but when they started pond growing them...Yuck...but I wouldn't eat any wild unless it was from up in the mountains somewhere that I caught. Also when I was up in Cairns I had a Blue Crayfish which I thought were from Florida. It was dinosaur narly looking but tastey, just an interesting shade of unnatural blue (Procambarus alleni). It made me wonder is it nature or what.

Hopefully we finger it out before we move on to Soilent Green times.

[ranald]

Our salt water green catfish are ok to eat. the brownish ones are not worth the bother but the freshies from flowing streams are delicious but scarce.

There has been trials for farming fish but some cost more in feeding than is viable. Our Tassie southeners are doing well with salmon. Hope they find other viable sp. before the oceans are recked.

[Wildwilly]

I wonder how those rows would look after "happy hour"?