I Stopped Buying Compost for Two Years
Deep composting (also called no-dig) has become a standard form of no-till gardening in recent years but what about those who do not have access to heaps and heaps of reliable compost? Two seasons ago, I took on the challenge of going without purchased compost to see what things would look like. And well, I learned some things. ...
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i Changed all my vegetable beds from compost to mulching the soil with shredded leaves and old animal manure i then planted directly into the soil and fertilize with my own JLF. We are having the best harvest in many years.
I am lucky to have a neighbor drop a couple of tons of manure over our fence. Manure is the secret and I chop and drop comfrey leaves throughout the year...
How much old manure u used sir???
@@CryptoSchool01. Enough to cover your beds with about a 3” depth (this worked well for me and my soil is sand. Literally.).
You mean you made your own compost LOL
I used cow manure well well rotted..it destroyed all my beds I used it on. It had herbicide in the feed or bedding the cows had been in or eaten and it twisted all my plants for nearly five years... so bbe careful about animal manure...even organic fed animals can be in herbicide ridden straw or bedding. It's so upsetting.
I always love to see videos about compost on a medium and small scale. What I'd really like to see is an detailed video on your irrigation setup. Domestic water? Well water? Rainwater collection? Everything from water pumps, main headers - all the way down to your drip tape or overhead sprinklers.
+1 on this. Maybe find someone out west who relies much more heavily on irrigation as well?
Hello! Your video is very good, I have been following you for a long time, wish you and your family always healthy and safe❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😊
I'm planning an irrigation video for the spring. We don't have to irrigate much here because of our rainfall so I just don't have a ton to say about it. That's why I haven't done much on irrigation, but I'm changing some systems so I'll be able to detail that. Thank you!
Hey Jesse, I’m Jesse. Doing something similar to what you’re doing but in the mountains of Ecuador. I’m taking a lot of value from your videos. Doing what I can to learn from your mistakes and successes.
Good video an alot of good comments. I grow about 5000 sq/ft of garden without mechanization. I put wood chips in my walkways. Once they finish breaking down I move it into my rows and add more to my walkways. I also have goats, chickens and rabbits for manure addmendments. It's alot of work and mine isn't a market garden, a tractor would be nice.
I've read the 'Teaming with' series, Charles Dowding's 'No Dig Gardening' as well as watching countless KZhead vids. I didn't think I needed your book. On a whim, much like your dried greens experiment, I bought it. It's fantastic. You've distilled the science of Jeff's 'Teaming with' books as well as your own experiences, failures and successes, into a thoroughly enjoyable and highly educational book. Thanks very much.
🙌
We had a total crop fail in our allotment one year after buying a reputable compost. Since we overfarmed our peat bogs we now rely on 'Municipal waste' compost but as we still use permanent herbicides (UK) to spray pavements in many areas our seedlings mostly failed and the few that grew were weak and sickly. Now we keep 3 worm bins indoors, collect waste coffee from a local coffee shop and get compost from a near
This is one of your most important videos! When someone scales up from a little garden using compost in all its varied ways and reasons and tries to farm at acre+ size farming there is no way to find nor afford enough compost like the old garden days. The only solution I found so far is growing compost in place (Winter Rye), plant into it while it is standing, when the crop sprouts then roll the rye flat, plant the crop dense enough to provide it's own cover last half of the season because the rye composts by then. I just broadcast dry and green beans into the standing rye and there was enough moisture (brought up by rye roots and dew capture by rye stalks) that the beans took off. For garden type strip beds I used a generic lawn roller down and back on the row to flatten the rye; the trip back bent over any rye that tried to stand up from the first trip,, the roller is pretty fast.
Thats really dependent on your scale and location. I can buy compost here to cover 3000m2 (bout an acre) 6 inch deep for less money than that acre would bring in in a week. Just because *you* can't buy that much affordably does not mean nobody can. Still an important video to me, because regulation says I can't just dump compost endlessly, even if its cheap and readily available.
When do you start growing the rye? When to spread the bean seeds and how tall should rye be? Would your bean sprouts be damaged when you crimp the rye? When to crimp/how tall? Any other cover crop to use?
You are very funny and a very good teacher too. Thanks for generously sharing your knowledge and experience.
Yep, initial amount of compost needed to start no-dig with 6 inch layer is staggering. After that you only need 1 inch each year. Glad that our ornamental garden now produces (after 6 yrs) more garden waste than needed for composting.
I think that Your garden is so well established that You could go a couple of years without much amendments to soil before You would see significant problems. But then it would also take some time to rebuild it afterwards. For me this shows how important it is to work on Your soil each year to keep it productive.
2:16 From Maine here: Thank you for talking about PFAS. Most people know so little about these chemicals, and talking about PFAS helps raise awareness. ❤
You’re the only person I know of that has brought up the issue of PFAS contamination and I’m commenting just to say THANK YOU!! We built our home garden this year with intention to be self sufficient, and I’m so grateful I learned about PFAS before I started adding any outside amendments. We even had our water tested. It’s really scary how these chemical contaminants are still not tested for in organic commercial products, and they can get in in so many ways since they essentially don’t break down. Animal manure, water, organic matter that has been watered or fertilized with contaminated with either of those.. it’s insane. The only thing I haven’t been able to test is the soil we filled our beds with, but it came from a great source so I am just praying it’s clean. If anyone can recommend a simple soil test for pfas let me know!
I think if you look it up you may find that certain plants are more susceptible to death. Charles Dowding discusses this. But I can’t remember which plants to plant to test the soil/compost.
Here in the Philippines, I have found that compost works great for a small urban setting - or the size where in you can supply your own compost just by putting food and garden wastes in a compost tumbler. For a big farm, it's just too much work and expense, as opposed to just letting organic matter rot on the ground. I do not have to point this out, but if land is left alone, plants can grow on their own. But of course we do not feed off weeds, so then just convert weed nutrients into our favorite plants. THIS WORKS!
Been there - Composted that. I too Worry about persistent herbicides from inputs. This content is great. Farmer Jessie is awesome. The book is a superb. Organic rules are not working everyone, i hope the “certified regenerative grown” certification will soon take hold.
I always appreciate the content! Thanks Jesse.
Our neighbor gives us chix manure/pine shavings from the coop plus we add mulched leaves. Best garden builder ever. Also the aged pine shavings keep weeds away. This is how to build soil for beds.
I do this as well. Plus. Check out “Garden like a Viking channel”. I started making some of the JDAM recipes. He is a great teacher and goes step by step, like this guy. I combine both these methods. And have built DEAD SAND in FL, to a great soil. It helped immensely collecting my friends chicken coop clean out too. I just pick up the bags. And add to my compost. I also have raised hugelkculture beds as well. But I am more amazed with the inground beds now after 1.5 yr of build up and layering. I even layer my chopped up bush trimmings. I chop them up good with my hedger and just add it as a layer. The FL sun really dissipates quickly. But this method works best here in SW FL. No body can believe all the stuff I can grow.
You are my favorite person today. Your videos are informative and hilarious! Thank you!
The Composter Podcast is such an awesome resource! Thank you for the hard work!!
Thanks for all the information 👍 Excellent source for this little backyard gardener, and what a show you have 😊🎉
We really enjoy watching your videos, and have learned so much about no-till gardening. Thanks for all the wonderful info!
Super informative. Thanks JF!
Love your humor. Never thought I would chuckle while watching a compost video
Growing up we had a 1/4 acre garden to start where dad used the row method with straw covering the entire garden ( I have replaced the straw with wood chips that have "composted" for a year) area all year round. We would pull back the straw in the planting season, and plant and recover the area with fresh straw. For fertility, we would let every 7th-row rest for a season, directly composting kitchen scraps into the ground. Mentioned (?) this before on this site but again never hurts, every year I would take the posthole digger and get as I could, adding the dirt to the compost pile and filling the hole with rocks (grew up in Rockland country). Always enjoy your videos.
Could you elaborate a little more on the posthole digger/ rock thing? I didn’t quite understand, but I’m very interested to know more.
@@mapinoita279 We would expand the back fence every year, usually adding two posts at a time. Going as deep as I could I would get into the dirt below where the roots grew. That was how we "remineralized" the garden.
@@compticny3138 , I see! Thank you for explaining!
I appreciate your humor and detailed info equally…smile.
Thank you for your this video. Also, your book was one of the 1st that I purchased and read when I started selling what I grow.
Hooray for Bill and the enormous pile of leaves he brings each fall. Woo hoo! I just felt like celebrating something. ;)
Very helpful video, Jesse. I don't bring in compost and do a lot of mulching and agree that it can make transplanting a pain. As a home gardener it's do-able on my scale. I have started trying to produce more compost so that I can do a little less mulching with leaves and straw, though.
Great video as always. I’m super obsessed with composting and probably need to spend more time on growing as the compost is overflowing now 🤦🏼♂️
Love your videos! You are hilarious, so quick witted. Who doesn't like having fun while learning? Better contact of soil & seed - makes perfect sense! So much great info; thank you! I teach permaculture on my property adjacent to a salt marsh & apply your research. Greetings from Virginia Beach, VA
Thanks for all your informative videos! This one hit on an issue I've wondered about for some time.
Amazing thank you 🙌
Before, on about an acre, I would drop the plants with a mower after harvest for things where the crop isn't the plant stalk and leaves. It is "ugly" mulch but it has diverse pore spacing and makes a nice healthy fungal mat that really holds onto the soil well and is super easy to pop your hand or plants into. Since some plants like onions etc that doesn't work, it's good to have something like lettuce around your perimeter. The wilder the better as it won't need nutrients more than a dandelion and it'll trap/kill aphids bolted. Works great as a cut and come again mulch, (PM resistant variety preferred by far) and some of it for your jdam or compost etc. Thank you for the videos.
Great information
Wonderful video. At the end of a bed, I would have thought of a water issue. Too much sitting water, too much flushing out by water or not enough. Thanks for your great work. Love your book!
A couple years back we bought acreage and buying compost of making enough of our own for everything is in no way possible now. Good information, thank you for sharing!!!
I loved your earlier vid about frost killed green manures. A light tillage with wheel hoe before sowing (much like a chicken scratching) to knock out volunteer plants (weeds) Love your work man!!
I think this is a pretty important topic, constant compost mulching can be expensive and if you try to make your own compost it's hard to have all that material without outsourcing. I would be interested in various methods of sheet mulching.
Always awesome Jesse. We are days away from making an offer on 30 acres in NY for an Amish farm. Yeah, after doubling the cost to bring the house, barn and pole barn up to code, I expect to be able to get sufficient animal manures locally. Expecting no more than 3/4 acres and looking to start at 1/4, there is a lot of infrastructure improvements beyond the house - class 2 soil, gentle slope, but rocky. Also, at 60yrs old , we’ll also look for one of the buildings to be housing for help my wife and I will need as we expand. So? Thx for the continued inspiration. Your book is on the night table - yeah… we are sick. :)
Raise rabbits and chickens if you can handle the workload! You won't have to buy or drive for manure. Befriend your local horse "people " especially if they have a way of loading your truck or trailer.
@@Disabled.Megatron I’m more interested in clearing/improving up to 3 acres / trommel and do more of what you suggest for the fruit nut trees areas and set a large portion (20 acres) for hay Alfafa that can be used by my neighbors in exchange for other stuff.
i always ask for spoiled hay. They are usually very happy to find someone who wants it. I have covered garlic beds with a rented straw/hay shooter. Rented fits on a pickup truck, drop a bale in to the hopper, gets chopped, goes thu 50' of hose and shoots out about another 20'. Field peas and oats are my favorite cover crop.
Thanks for the video. Good information
I've subscribed to many gardening channels. Personality goes along way 🎉 love the witty sarcasm. Thank you 🍻
I used to have a 3/4 garden and fed 5 families, ourselves friends and the Local food Bank. Miss that but at 76 going on 77 cannot handle the hard work. But am at Ocean when sand is the base and now using raided beds and a greenhouse. feeding friends and selves. Like your production and help in composting and space use.
You should write a book about how it was done from what you can remember!
Wow ! Thank you for explaining the reality now when buying.
Yeah, very nice. What you are achieving there is amazing..
a compost component i noticed yesterday in town was a large city truck with a leaf mulcher in tow ,it was full on nice looking ground leaves, my town has dropped of same trailer load of chipped wood at my house 2 miles out of town, all you have to do is maybe ask the street dept manager, also tree service company s and some lawn service businesses pick up green grass clippings they might drop off
Be aware that a lot of the landscaping and tree trimming companies, especially those maintaining the utility right of way vegetation, spray herbicides. The leaves they're collecting and their wood chips are very often contaminated and you definitely want to compost those before putting them on any valuable plants or garden beds! Test them on a sensitive plant (but not a valuable one) after composting them; some herbicides break down but some linger. Don't test them on a legume; most right-of-way approved herbicide chemicals target broadleaf and/or grass plants, not legumes.
I compost my grass clippings and make hot compost all summer. I am very particular though who I would get clippings from. Because most people use herbicides on their lawn. Which will totally kill your plants. If they have a spray lawn service, or use their own spreader w/weed and feed. DO NOT use those clippings.
I have the Good Fortune to use my bullpen as my garden when the garden is done I turn the pigs in there and then later on the Bulls go in there for the winter and of course weeds come with all of this but in between my rolls I lay down straw to help keep the moisture in and the weeds from coming up the straw rots into the ground and adds more nutrition along with the manure from the animals if you're fortunate enough to be in this situation try it
Interesting conclusions! I am surrounded by horse people and ranchers but no commercial compost producers. So I bought a tractor with a front end loader and a flail mower. The little Kioti CX2510 has been awesome! My mountain of compost is a steaming glorious thing! Most of my compost is made of bark mulch (100 yard dump load from the mill), garden waste and spent brewing grains from a local brewery. I'm starting to gather manures, but I'm gonna need to rent a truck and dump trailer for a few days -minivan is overwhelmed. A fellow farmer and a fab shop are helping me build the self loading compost spreader that Broadfork Farms made popular.
Three years without compost here. The experience has been very much the same. Very weedy this past year, returned to similar weed pressure as when we cultivated, but soil is still much better and easier to hoe. Crops under sown with winter cover crops and a scattering of composted woodchip are helping with fertility and soil aggregation most of the time.. Fortunate to have enough land to try strip tillage next year, really enjoyed Helen Atthowe’s book.
Thanks, Jayne! With the living pathways and decreasing mulch layers, weeds are definitely becoming a real concern for future years.
I do no till constant straw cover and don't have any issues or inconveniences planting. Bird nest to put individual plants in or trenches for rows of plants; pour in compost or soild and plant.
ThankQ
We have acreage and can make all the hay we want. But when we used it generously in the garden as a mulch it worked really well, until the grass seeds began to germinate and take root. The next thing we knew, our beautiful almost weed-free garden was carpeted in grasses. That took several years to overcome. We'll never use hay in our garden again, even though the barn is full of bales.
I have used straw and plan to again this year. Has almost no seed heads in it. I did have some sprout but very little
I have never thought about putting compost tea in my compost right before I use it that is a brilliant idea thank you
It works awesome!
I don’t have near the size garden beds that you do. But I use use weeds and grass clippings to feed a dozen chickens. They still cost me a little in feed. But I get eggs to eat. And dig up in the coop to get the manure and compost they generate to put on my beds. They will do a lot of the turning of the compost pile for you.
Thanks!
Thank you! 🙌
As for more goopy stuff, have you tried digging out one of your paths at the end of the fall season and filling them with grass, and anything else you can put together, along with some of the soil from it? You can spike it with compost etc too, to speed it up. Basically a winter in ground vermicompost trench. It will be your warmest early bed come spring or a lottt of compost, you pick heh.
Jesse, I love your content! I don’t always have time for a 20min video, so I scroll on a lot of the time but when I do click on a video, it’s always good. Maybe the KZhead shorts are destroying my brain.
You should hit up your county fairgrounds after the conclusion of their fair. At least in my area that stuff goes to the landfill. They are happy to give it away and if you have a trailer they have a bobcat with a bucket where they will happily load it for you. 😊
Great vid. I'm facing this situation right now... probably going to go with some kind of cover crop regime.
Thank you for keeping on educating us! I love how you keep it informative yet still relatable for the home gardener who is not a soil nerd ;) We have some chickens and rabbits here to supply nitrogen, and I am going focus on finding good hay. My concern is glyphosate that could be coming in through animal feed, even though we have been buying non-gmo feed, there's no way to know for sure.
Big reason I quite using straw. It’s sad. But it can kill your garden for years!!
@FloridaGirl- you can test it I mix it in with soil and soak some I'm water and will do a side by side with beans every time I get a new batch
try this: Grind the hay(primarily alfalfa) and use it as a mulch. Tried this many years ago after we had ground hay in a tub grinder for cattle feed. Even 'old' moldy hay will work, probably better than mixed hay(grass and alfalfa) since possible weed seeds not as prevalent! The ground hay was easier to spread in the garden that 'loose' hay!!!
Try worm bins, they are crazy resilient. Big Wide tray covered > add food plant scraps on one side and let them multiply and then add to other side (big thumbs edit) with a heat mat of some sort so they migrate over > remove soil from other side. Now just ping pong. When wet the soil capture the nutrient water. It may be a great solution for you.
Dude you're just plain awesome - the book is great - it's getting awful marked up now though - grow on
If a person has a little extra land, why not grow Sorghum Sudan grass? 3 cuttings would grow enough to deep mulch or compost for better than 1:1 maybe even 1:3 If you have room for growing bamboo and Miscanthus you could grow enough to do back to Eden mulch without depending on outside suppliers. This would allow persistent mulch. .. You would need a big chipper. Another idea: Plant 3 drilled rows of Rye in the fall with 2 rows of Mustard, Radishes, or Turnips that will winter kill. (Rye-Greens-Rye,Greens-Rye). In the spring, plant 2 rows of peas between the Rye where the winter greens died. As the Rye goes to seed, it will support the peas. By the time the peas are finished, the Rye will be dead and dry. Mow it down as mulch for July planting.
thanks
Great info… i swear the answer to my garden issue says wood chips and I can’t get wood chips here at all! It’s frustrating but I will find an alternative
This is a very slow way to make compost. Establish a big biochar pile far from plants. Make sure the biochar particles are as small as half inch to rice grain sizes. Everyday throw away kitchen waste into the pile and cover with biochar. Add biodegradeables like leaf litter, cut grass and plants. Mix in and cover with biochar. From your most fertile soil get a handful of earth. Sprinkle on top of the biochar pile. Mix in. Water with your fermented compost. Mix in. You don't need to mix in all the biochar thoroughly. Take it easy. Keep doing it for one year. After one year it will be ready. The soil will keep on getting more fertile. You can add those 1/4 inch small hard clay balls but it is added cost. It is just an option to increase fertility faster. Do add unglazed shattered clay pottery shards into biochar.
First, thanks for the content! I've been eagerly waiting for this update. I may be way off here and could be just me. My challenge with not having copious amounts of good compost is with direct seeding beds. With leaving roots in the ground etc, I find direct seeding a flipped bed extremely challenging in a no till system without the ability to creat a new seedbed without a healthy layer of compost. I viewed the mulching aspect of compost as an added benefit to creating a pretty seed bed for direct seeding. Marking beds with a dibbler or gridder for transplant is a challenge to. How do you do prep your beds for direct seeding without compost?
Yes! The compost episode!!
I am fortunate, our municipality sucks up leaves left by the road. They make big wind rows and turn them a few times. I think the finish pile is close to two years old. Black gold. I can get as much as I want for free. Stuff grows good in it. Just have to pick out a few peaces of trash now and then. It also has a few sticks to add that woody material. I use that as a base and use my compost for teas or toppings.
I use my grass clippings as a summer mulch, and find i only have to water half as much as naked compost. Also, jam packing beds, inter planting tight (in space and time) keeps weeds down and evaporation down.
I’ve been using organic wheat straw for top cover for years it’s great
I've been looking at the different methods of static composting, even in large volumes. Automated fans to aerate the pile from within is one method--no turning, and no tractor necessary. Or even the Johnson-Su method, which also needs no turning. Personally I think the manure can be replaced to large extent by green material
Another great video
A way you can get free clean compost is to be very patient. Get some Chip Drop arborist chips delivered and let them age for a few years. Chips break down into beautiful compost; they do take a long time, but it's a way to get high volume compost at a low price and it's really unlikely to have herbicides in it.
Have you thought about inoculating hay with oyster mushroom mycelium to accelerate decomposition before spreading it out? I use oyster and wine cap mycelium to accelerate the decomposition of my spent goat bedding and it makes a huge difference in the turnaround time from raw material into compost
How do you go about doing that ? i.e Where do you get the material?
@@mooreevair i grow my own.
@@mooreevair you start with inoculum or spawn and work up to whatever you plan to grow them in
@@mooreevair i also sell my kits
@@anthonysurrency7134 do you think oysters and\or winecap would grow in leaves?
I am pursuing a track much like you describe and face same challenge of finding quality manure. I introduced a rabbit house with 170 rabbits for the purpose of generating manure and fertilizer. The cages catch and separate the poop and the pee. The poop can safely be added to the beds without composting. The pee is an excellent foliage fertilizer and also deters most bugs and pests. Rabbits are easier than chickens and can eat weeds or hay. The meat output from the rabbits is just a freebie, as their cost can be justified just for the manure and pee. Love your channel and continue to learn lots.
Your video was recommended. I am happy I clicked on it. Soldier flies and their grotesque babies are great composters. You might want to look into them
Thanks for this video Jesse with your experiment. I have this huge challenge for the couple acres we just purchased. All thorns and thistles in pasture, not many leafy trees to be able to get enough mulch. It’s ground zero for regeneration. I have your book but haven’t got to the part about how to calculate the amount of compost I’ll need. Can you make a video about what questions to ask the dirt makers? Trying to navigate and find a trusted resource since we plan on doing organic. It’s feeling like I’ll need to get into collecting leaves from neighborhoods. 🤔 FYI- I'm onboard with your composting credit card debt idea 😸
get a tractor front end loader will change your life $400/month is my financing -easily pays for itself
I'm actually in Kentucky and I'm trying to start an industrial composting company eventually
Extrenely interesting and helpful. I am growing in Florida which is basically white beach sand with a bit of clay. I Always struggle to get enough compost to keep the soild in good shape. Going to try the JADAM to stretch the compost out. Thanks for the info. Also if any other people are southern growers nematodes are a real pain. I tried cover cropping an infested garden bed with French Merrigolds and it worked wonders.
David the Good has a good channel for southern gardeners on sandy soil. Also entertaining.
I'm in NE Florida, growing in raised metal beds. When you did a cover crop of French marigolds, did you allow them to flower, remove the blooms, then chop and drop the stems and leaves? Did you work any of the vegetation into the soil?
West central Florida here. The main bummer in our climate is buying in a bunch of compost and seeing it burnt back into beach sand in about one season. I have been adding clay (non-clumping natural catty litter), biochar and topping with woody mulch to good effect. Hoping that increasing the stable soil carbon will have longer lasting benefits.
@@stonerubber yeah I watch his channel too sometimes
@@justbeachy4666 I live in SW Fl. I did a full 72 cell tray of plants for a 4x8 metal raised bed. I grew them from June (planted) untill the second week in august. Basically I was lazy and let them bloom. I terminated them by cutting off and leaving the roots in the soil to decay for about 6 weeks before my fall crop. I expected a problem with lots of merrigild weeds but for whatever reason they only seemed to grow in random places around the bed which was actually nice, so the bed it'self was mostly weed-free. I also did a second bed as a test and used SunHemp as a thick cover crop. this also seemed to get rid of the nematode issue but the root system was a lot smaller. The sunhemp grew like a weed, and made a nice block of green that the bees when nuts for when it bloomed. it was very fibberous though so terminateing the sunhemp was a lot more work. Both of these beds had nematodes bad that had destroyed my pepper plant roots in the previous planting and not I have tomatoes in them and they are doing great. I found a lot of info about merrigolds as a nematode suppresor around, but a lot of other cover crops can work too.
Thanks
amazing, thank you!
Regarding the pfas, short chain and micro chain pfas. can get into the water cycle and just rain down. so eventually the baseline contamination will be everywhere do take into consideration this is in the ng/l range
The past two years while everything was crazy, I used mustard and buckwheat to improve my garden space by incorporating the biomas into the soil. My normal practices involve spreading a thin layer of homemade compost and mulching with grass clippings once the garden is established.. I use grass clippings and wood chips as the majority of my compost pile and whatever other materials are available. Organic material makes more sense than the commercial products sold in stores. I do use Fish/Kelp because of the amino acids they provide. I'm not No-Till but do incorporate some of the practices.
Im making my own compost and also topping my beds in the fall eith leaves. I didnt get a cover crop in this year though.
For folks who aren't space-limited and live in a non-arid environment, rotted wood chips are one option for moisture retention. In places like paths where I've mulched deeply (8-12 inches), after approx 2 years the chips become spongy and heavily colonized with mycelium, and makes a nice addition to compost and soil mixes or garden beds. Yes, it's slow to start, but the input is nearly free (chip drop, utility companies) and after several years we now have a steady supply of aged mulch flowing through our system. Good hydration is key - i get the best rotting in shaded areas and in layers up to about 2 feet thick (check bottom after 3-6 months). Also, leafy spring and summer trimmings rot faster and have noticably higher nitrogen levels.
Thanks Jesse. What about worm farming and use your garden scraps for food?
A Tractor with a loader is so tempting but may in the end, be a waste of Time/Money. Composters compost and Growers grow. Keep up the good work Jesse.
For most growers a FEL is essential. Especially when you are short handed and as always behind on the innumerable tasks on a market grower/homstead farm.
We are just starting to get into composting and it has been a bit flustering. Trying to get a hot compost pile going and we haven't. Might be time to reread your book for the third time! Also our first attempt at covercropping and we were pleased there as were our honeybees. Especially with the ultra dry summer that we had. Anyhow forward we will slowly march and eventually be no till and happier about our tiny spot of Mother Earth!
It's amazing just how much water compost needs. Anyone who tells me they're having a problem getting their compost to start steaming, I ask if they've tried watering the pile yet. It's almost always just too dry to get going. Hose the layers in with abundant water and it should be much happier.
My best result was when I used a compost starter mix you poured over it. Friendly bacteria I guess?
@@singingway Interesting well I am not aware of any compost starter being sold around here. Going to need to check around and finding some. Agree and the friendly bacteria will be a jump start and getting our soon to be compost going. Thank You for the reply and sharing!
Larger piles are easier to get up to temperature and, in my experience, most people start too small. I use soaked organic alfalfa pellets ($25 per 40 lbs bag at TS) to kick-start my piles - i mix the pellets with rotted mulch, a bit of soil, and some previous compost (if its handy) in 5 gallon buckets and let them sit a day, and then mix them into the pile. If I'm not careful, I can hit 170F (too hot). Green grass clippings also good for kick-starting.
@@aileensmith3062You don't need starter. All the necessary microbes are omnipresent in your compost materials. Moisture, adequate nitrogen sources, and SIZE, and it will heat. Go big if you want hot compost. The bigger the better.
Ask your farmer’s market customers to start using Bokashi food waste collectors. Then you can haul a full truck load of their slime goopy stuff back after you’ve sold them a truck full of your veg. :) They will love it and will have more reason to come back to your stall. :)
I would be embarrassed to show my Farmer how much of the food I let go bad...
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Great video! Thanks so much. I have rabbits so a shit load (pun intended 😂) of my compost input comes from them, but you gave me some other ideas here too. We can't buy good commercial compost so expanding our beds while maintaining existing ones has been slow. I wanted to ask, when sowing peas into your lettuce mix for ground coverage, do you harvest the pea shoots to add to the mix as well?
Regarding wasted vegetation - I started doing this over a decade ago - 1st year, yeah no just tossing it in didn't do much - it didn't really break down enough - the following year I ran the material thru a small wood chipper a few times - now you don't get enough to cover the whole garden - but it does seem to help as I get better results in the areas where I do spread and turn it in - My short conclusion is yeah it helps - you just need to break it down
I would love to start a compost business. I’m so good at it on a Al scale I can only imagine what would happen when the floodgates are sprung. I literally love compost.
Makes perfect sense. Compost isn't much of a fertilizer (about equal to a 1-1-1 extreme slow release fertilizer, if you had to quantify it). Personally I find mulched up leaves each fall to be a great mulch (and extremely abundant).
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We have a great source of leaves as the town sucks then up and takes them to the landfill. I've detoured some of the arborists who also take their chippings to the landfill. After watching this video, I'm thinking I'll ask the town to drop those leaves off at the farm, too.
I’m kinda surprised you haven’t looked into having a little tilapia pond or bass pond or outdoor tank for the liquid fertilizer.
I think if you have a pigeon/dove tower where the birds make nest you can collect every three months a lot of droppings that you can use as fertilizer. Ancient Persian pigeon tower where the birds sleep at night and make their nests when raising their young, as a result dropping tons of manure. The practice originated in Persian empire and moved all the way to Britain. Perhaps try looking for that if you can make a mini tower
I always love the compost talk. The podcast has been invaluable. I’d love to hear about your irrigation setup. I know you’re in a pretty rainy climate, so it’s probably not as important as it would be for someone in New Mexico or AZ, but how are you watering the high tunnels and crops when the rain just isn’t cutting it?
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Good questions. We use drip tape in the tunnels and we water almost every day through the summer depending on moisture. Compost piles are more complicated because it takes a lot of water, but getting them wet and then covering them to hold in moisture is key. More on irrigation in a future video. Thank you!
Producing enough compost for your farm will be quite a challenge. For my backyard garden, I can do this easily but for your scale, you would need a compost setup at least the size of what Charles Dowding has. Maybe some more chickens so you get more of the manure they produce?