It’s where I would love precise discussions around our understandings in breeding landraces, i.e. the debate “compensating” - or not - “imbalances”.
Right now my understanding is that:
- There, we all want to breed for adaptation to our soils. Meaning : all we correct or compensate with heavy hands-on techniques during the first years selection processes is contradictory to the objective of local adaptation…
- … but we still want to make a harvest, and of good quality…
- …not everyone sees the same techniques and products as super “hands-on”, or even destructive. Not the same understandings also (see the “compost as a limiting factor” topic for example, could have been tilling, or many other subjects).
Then it’s up to each of us to understand what is most important, and put things in his/her personal context, perspective.
My personal inclination is to go with these principles :
- no tilling
- “winter” cover cropping in between summer crops
- and then do minimal corrections to help boost the soil food web itself… as I don’t want to boost my crops themselves… I help the soil getting better, a.k.a. let’s say I am “landracing my soil” using home-made products (lactofermentations)… Maybe adding calcium, as it is a relatively low energy and low cost product, for such surfaces.
My belief (after Joseph), is that if plants can do well in my place they could do well anywhere else. From experience I know that this is not exactly that, but that gives an idea, and as nearly all breeding work has been done on balanced soil, with “balance climate” over the past 150 years, it seems relatively consistent.
Then, even if I tend to be firm on principles, it’s all about adjustments… I have had to rototill my field this year unfortunately… otherwise I just could not start a growing season! I was supposed to leave the place, but eventually not. So adjusted. Then I went into heavy selection pressure on early vigor, with nearly 100% of the plants direct sown and selection pressure up to 95-99% on that criteria, i.e. culling 95-99% of young plants.