Till Shallow, Roots Go Deep: Corn Mulch, Cabbage, Rice

How do you stop weeds and get deep roots without plowing?

Cho's slides: a mulched field with squash, cabbage between laid-down corn, paired rice plantings (natural farming left, conventional right), loaches and small fish from the paddy. He draws a rice plant and its roots on the flip chart with '1.1~1.2m'. Cho steps out at about 7396 s and Tanya leads qigong until about 7593 s. Joe writes the four handout titles on the board: 1. Pear 2. Peach 3. Rice 4. Prescription for natural farming.

• Corn mulch for no-till beds (Hawaiʻi) — Cho: in Korea the cover is rye; Hawaiʻi is too hot, so grow corn, planted within 20 cm each way. Before laying it down, spread Microbes (IMO4) at 150 kg per 300 pyeong. Cut the corn at about 1 m and lay it down; it makes a layer about 10 cm thick, and 6–7 cm already stops grass. Part the corn and plant into it. For cabbage, the corn goes in about 2 months before. The interpreter added soil treatment solution with the IMO4.
• Microbes on new land — Interpreter, after checking with Cho off-mic: on land that has never had IMO, apply about three times, six months apart. Cho's own words are not audible.

1. Grow grass to control grass: lay a cut cover crop down as mulch

   Korea uses rye; Hawaiʻi is too hot for rye, so use corn.

   ▶ 1:46:25 As spoken

2. Cut the corn at about 1 m and lay it down; 6–7 cm of cover stops grass

   Corn planted within 20 cm each way gives a layer about 10 cm thick.

   ▶ 1:47:01 As spoken

3. Plant by parting the laid-down corn: no weeds, little or no fertilizer

   Tomato and bell pepper do well; watermelon and melon come out clean; the cover holds moisture so crops stand drought.

   ▶ 1:48:12 As spoken

4. Cabbage: corn planted 2 months before, laid down, cabbage planted between

   No weeds, and the cabbage does well.

   ▶ 1:50:46 From the slides

5. Spread IMO4 at 150 kg per 300 pyeong before laying the corn down

   Then it ferments well and the corn itself becomes compost.

   ▶ 1:51:28 As spoken

6. A cabbage normally weighs 6–7 kg; a natural-farming one reached 20 kg

   An audience member cited 64 lb cabbages in Fairbanks, Alaska; Cho: 'that's Alaska.'

   ▶ 1:53:07 As spoken

7. Cabbage goes through 'morning sickness' four times; pin the dates and feed then

   The 'four times' was only in the interpreter's English; she named water-soluble calcium phosphate.

   ▶ 1:53:27 As spoken

8. Rice: conventional plants 8–12 seeds a hill, natural farming 2–3

   12 seeds shoot straight up with thin stems and small ears; 2–3 spread like a fan with thick stems and big ears.

   ▶ 1:54:28 From the slides

9. IMO4 in the paddy turns the water murky, and the murk keeps barnyard grass down

   Small animals and fish live there and cloud the water; the clear conventional paddy lets light in and grows weeds.

   ▶ 1:55:54 From the slides

10. No herbicide needed: loaches and fish appear and eat the weeds

    Slides of loaches and small fish from the paddy.

    ▶ 1:57:31 From the slides

11. Natural-farming rice stands in order, so it gets even sun and air

    Conventional rice looks like tangled hair.

    ▶ 1:57:55 From the slides

12. Till deep and roots go shallow; till shallow and roots go deep

    ▶ 1:59:50 As spoken

13. Roots go as deep as the plant stands tall; rice is 1.1–1.2 m, so its roots should reach 1.1–1.2 m

    Flip chart: a rice plant and roots with '1.1~1.2m'.

    ▶ 2:00:56 Written on the board

14. Tillage reaches only 15–20 cm; untilled soil isn't hard anyway

    Cho: rice roots must go 1.2 m; you can't till that deep, and the untilled soil is soft and tender.

    ▶ 2:02:21 As spoken

15. Old sugarcane land still holds microbes and beats soil that grew nothing

    Answer to an audience member who said Hawaiʻi's ag land is all contaminated.

    ▶ 2:07:02 As spoken

16. On land that never had IMO: about three applications, six months apart

    Interpreter's relay; wording ambiguous.

    ▶ 2:09:42 As spoken

17. Four handouts: 1. Pear 2. Peach 3. Rice 4. Prescription for natural farming by the nutritive cycle

    Drake hand-wrote English over the Korean sheets the night before with Google Translate, Kim Chang and Master Cho.

    ▶ 2:10:36 Written on the board

18. Pull test: a plant from tilled soil pulls out whole; one from untilled soil breaks off

    The root that breaks off is the strong one. Cho: 'you've been taken in by scholar-swindlers.'

    ▶ 2:13:27 As spoken

19. Farmers take the soil as their university and the crop as their professor

    Professors who farm after retiring do badly; crops grow toward the future, theory teaches the past, and every farm is different.

    ▶ 2:18:10 As spoken