All About Magazine - Issue 12

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Growing organically...
by Mike Robin at
‘Old fashioned’ organic farming and growing is still
alive and well, albeit at a ‘minority’ level. Using the
‘waste’ of the system (eg. to make compost) to then
provide fertility in the future no doubt attracts thrifty
minds, and may yet prove to be more necessary in
the future - ?
There’s also the appeal that organic growing ties in
with an ‘innate’ feeling of ‘working with nature’ which
no doubt appeals to more than a few. Because in
organic growing there’s no chemical ‘quick fix’, the
longer term approach is sought, and a mixture of
‘exhaustive’ crops and ‘restorative’ crops are needed,
to ensure longer-term on-going soil fertility, and to
combat crop disease.
Rotational growing is therefore required , based on
centuries old patterns - the old Norfolk ‘four-course
rotation’ - yr.1 wheat, yr.2 fallow/roots, yr.3 barley/
oats, yr.4 clover/grass . This means that more of a mix
of cropping/land use is needed in the organic way.
On, say a 100ha’s block of land, for instance, in any
one year only 25% of it could be devoted to ,say,
wheat production, whereas with the use of chemical
fertilisers and sprays, the whole area could be put
down to wheat. In practice, organic growing also
generally means that grass and clover are needed
as a ‘restorative’ crop(s), so mixed farming (crops
and livestock) is generally the order of the day, also
providing needed organic matter in the soil.
A recent scientific report recently identified a serious
problem of top soil erosion in East Anglia, thought to
be caused by croppingmonoculturewithout livestock,
and facilitated by chemical farming methods.
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