Beans don't need nitrogenous soil as they get their nitrogen from the air. So, if you have tired soil after having crops notorious for needing nutrients like corn, beans are a good option rather than having to leave it fallow xxx❤️
Weirdly enough, it absorbs N² about as easily as it does Co². But I totally understand your logic. In a way, it would take more energy breaking KNO³ which is where the plants usually feed from in the soil xxx❤️
Yeah, its always odd because sometimes 'ok' answers getting connected to GREAT answers next door on a gene, so the OK answer just sticks around despite better answers around
This happens to be one of my areas of knowledge! Legumes themselves don’t absorb nitrogen from the air, their roots form a symbiotic relationship with specific bacteria species. The bacteria fix the nitrogen from the air for the plant and the plant supplies the bacteria with sugars for food. Win-win
Sorry about the late response. It's not that legumes evolved the ability to fix nitrogen, they just happen to have evolved into an ideal host for the bacteria that fixes nitrogen.
lol, now Jeff wants to plant rows of corn so the stalks can be used for beans to climb off the ground, and then he's doing squash in between the corn rows. What do you call that, Jeff -- the Three Sisters? lol
Depending on whether the internet was lying to me yesterday, the big squash leaves kind of shade the areas around the corn & bean stalks, preventing weeds that might annoy the corn & beans? I assumed part of it was just because squash can fill the space btw rows of corn?
Jeff was derided for suggesting they put stock animals on the bean field for a year.
His manure-enrichment idea failed to take off for a couple of centuries.
I knew someone who’d interned in my state’s department of industry and agriculture and I asked them if crop rotation was being discussed and they said people had brought it up but the farmers’ response was essentially “but I’d have to do something different, no thanks!”
Except crop rotation has been the traditional farming practice for thousands of years, and it only fell out of fashion when modern agriculture decided it was superior to traditional practices.
Funnily enough the way humans grew food in food forests for tens of thousands of years prior to modern agriculture didn’t require rotation and only took a fraction of the work because they were complete ecosystems then missionaries went around telling/forcing everyone to stop doing it that way
To be fair it didn't produce nearly the same amount of food per area of space. So it was less work and far less environmentally disruptive but limited population density. Which is fine until the "Granary with an army" proto-civilization next door comes and takes your shit.
my dad is a retired pilot and he told me every time there's a new mandatory feature all the pilots are up in arms but give it a couple years and they'll refuse to fly without it. every time. change is pain i guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
One of the issues for SoCal farmers is that the profitable market is very timing dependent and may only be a week long (and is hard to predict), so the idea of doing things that would interrupt that delicate game is not something they have an apatite for.
As a farmer, it's hard to learn new things and expensive to add new tools for doing those things.
Now, I rotate the hell out of my crops, but I understand where those farmers are coming from.
yeah it does mean losing one season while you set it up, though I’m in Australia and there have been examples of neighbouring farmers where one goes out of business due to drought while the other who did rotational cropping survived just fine so the motivation should be strong and yet…
Yeah, it makes sense in the 5 year term.
It does reduce your peak profitability but also reduces risk.
It's hard to want to change when things are "working"
there's a book where a guy invents crop rotation and indoor plumbing and everyone just calls him crazy for planting beans and digging a well in his house
I don't remember all the innovations he introduces but Twain's Connecticut Yankee is doing quite well in King Arthur's Court until the Pope excommunicates everyone.
I read that prior to hygienic discoveries, surgeons used to pride themselves on their filthy aprons as proof of their expertise and speak approvingly of the "surgical stink" 🤮🤮🤮
I highly recommend the James C Scott book “seeing like a state” which talks a lot about various histories of agricultures, including in the Soviet Union, and talks about farming systems in Tanzania which had multiple crops in the same field until (disastrous) attempts at rapid “modernisation”
I reckon that you are probably thinking of Lysenkoism which denied the existence of genetics & inheritance in the production of crops. The Soviets used Lamarckism instead which led to crop failures & famines in the 1930s -> 1950s.
Comments
I wonder why more plants dont just do that then?
Well, thats a rabbit hole for later
We're hacky messes from top to bottom
- Geoffrey game of thrones 👎
- Geoffrey Chaucer, author 👍
- Geoffrey Rush 👍
- Jeffrey Dahmer 👎
- Jeffrey Goldblum 👍
- Jeffrey Bezos 👎
- Geoffrey Arend 👍
- Geoffrey Owens 👍
His manure-enrichment idea failed to take off for a couple of centuries.
I agree with you about crop rotation:)
Per unit area food forests are generally more productive and they are *FAR* more sustainable without requiring pesticides/herbicides/fertiliser.
Also, "Ask for forgiveness not permission"
Now, I rotate the hell out of my crops, but I understand where those farmers are coming from.
It does reduce your peak profitability but also reduces risk.
It's hard to want to change when things are "working"
Amy: oooh, do they have to learn to share their toys too? do they need to be potty trained????
Oats, peas beans and barley grow!
Wish our current farm machinery was advanced enough to handle it, though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12W34XWIQwU
These lefty pinkos are deranged !
What next ? Washing your hands before surgery because of "invisible meanies" that make you sick?!?
Hang these people! /s