Dry Farming

[Diane Whitehead]

I'm just getting ready to sow beans.

Two of the packages from Native Seeds Search are "dry farmed", one in Hotevilla Arizona and the other in Donato Guerra, Durango, Mexico.

I don't get any rain all summer, and water is my biggest summer expense.  The thought of growing vegetables without watering them is very appealing.

How is this managed?  Are the vegetables watered to begin with and then the watering stops? 

[Joseph Lofthouse]

They may be planted with the arrival of the fall monsoons.

[William Schlegel]

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31443857011&dest=usa&ref_=ps_ggl_18382194370&cm_mmc=ggl-_-US_Shopp_Trade0to10-_-product_id=COM9780912365756USED-_-keyword=&gclid=Cj0KCQjw6auyBhDzARIsALIo6v93FXNfldHV5TnyuxMKwyWTBymPpYiLN64ii7rjaH4kfAeKpvryzcMaAldzEALw_wcB

Steve Solomon has an excellent book on doing this in the PNW.

[Diane Whitehead]

Thank you.  I forgot I have that book.

It's possible to download it or read it on his website soilandhealth.org.

 The downloadable version has the title that he wanted for the print book, but was vetoed by the publisher:  Gardening Without Irrigation.

[reed]

The thought of growing vegetables without watering them is very appealing.

It sure is but plants have to have water, if it isn't provided by rain there is no choice. Some crops and some varieties are more or less tolerant of drier conditions of course, but everything still needs water. I gardened for more than forty years, rarely watering anything except when transplanting. I've already been watering some this year, earlier than I've needed to before.

[stone]

I practice dryland gardening in the drought-prone sandhills (200 feet of sand) imagine trying to grow something in that!

There are techniques of bulking up the moisture retention by turning under green manures, by mulching on top of the soil... and... simply growing stuff that doesn't require as much water...

For example, instead of planting cucumbers, plant maxixe (bur cucumber)... while I do plant lots of beans, I also plant the desert adapted Tepary beans (Phaseolus acutifolius)... Those grow fine at my house...

[stone]

Gardening Without Irrigation.

Downloaded yesterday...Some of the things he says... I've found to be true, other things?
I'm not impressed by...
Still reading, might find some new information.

[Cathy A]

I think it's very climate and soil dependent. It probably works very well in some places, not at all in others, and in still others simply isn't needed.

What little I've read of dry land farming techniques seems to have been developed for the western plains of North America.

The area gets enough rainfall for certain agricultural crops if you are careful to conserve the water in the soil, use larger plant spacings and lower density, avoid evaporation, avoid plowing in ways that trigger dust bowl erosion, and so forth.

"Dry" does not mean extreme desert. It refers to regions where rainfall is marginal for agriculture rather than totally inadequate.

[UnicornEmily]

Possibly you may consider this:

Dig a really deep swale next to your plants.  Fill it with wood chips until it's taller than before, which means it's now acting as both a swale and a berm.  Walk on it as a pathway.  Eventually, once the wood chips have rotted down enough to make nice compost, scoop that compost onto the garden and fill up the berm/swale combo with new wood chips to rot down.

That is what I'm planning to do for my food forest rows.