In a field trial of several years duration, an organic cultivation technique (BIO) was
compared to ploughing, shallow tillage and no tillage. In the case of BIO, soil tillage
was accomplished both by ploughing (prior to maize) and by mulch seeding (prior to
cereals). The maize yields of the various techniques showed no significant differences
in the case of slurry application. BIO-wheat yielded slightly lower in certain years, a
fact attributable to low plant density. Wide spacing between rows (25 cm) and hoeing
of the cereals enabled mulch seeding without weed-regulation problems in the case of
BIO. Where slurry fertiliser was applied, the apparent nitrogen utilisation of the plants
– despite application via an umbilical-hose spreader – was low, with values of 30-70%.
Clearly, significant unused potential lurks here
