How to CHOP & DROP like a Pro: Growing Biomass Plants for Fertilizer
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- Опубликовано: 4 авг 2017
- If you missed our video yesterday, we talked about cutting back mass amounts of our farm's Mexican Sunflower, to spread it around the farm. If you missed that footage, you can find it here:
• 1000 POUNDS of VEGAN M...
About once a month, we cut back all of the Mexican sunflower (Tithonia diversifolia)& our native clumping grass, Fakahatchee, growing around the farm. In this video, we show you how we apply this 'green manure' to our heavy feeding plants to create a slow-release fertilizer that acts as an alternative to chicken manure.
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Lemon grass and arrowroot, are two other chop and drop plants, which may be more readily available to people. Nice video. If people have the space, they should be cramming the garden with chop and drop plants. It's so much easier to go around the garden with a set of pruners and wheelbarrow, to get your mulch supply, than drive to the produce store. Far more pleasant, and better for your health too!
Chris , you can use any plants, especially any plants that grow vigorously in poor soil
I'd love it if y'all made a video on all the plants that make great chop and drop mulch/fertilizer pretty please. 🙏🙏🙏
So, so helpful!!! Keep this powerful info coming. I'm very grateful Justin Rhodes came to your farm; introducing me to you.
What I think? I'm sitting here, 3 years later, stunned and in gratitude for the amount and quality of information you give out in your videos. How many hours I've spent in classrooms and poring over texts. I enjoyed tropical ag, and had a wonderful professor, Ernest Rezents. Yet I learn light years more from one video here. Thank you. Aloha.
Thanks for this. These practical "how to's" are exactly what keeps me coming back!
Apv Vossie no problem! I'm trying to bring back a shorter video weekly, I've lost control 😬
I love watching your videos i bought 5.6 acres in French Settlement Louisiana and cleared an 80’x600’ section I’m working on setting up my own food forest in but trying to get the ground ready first then start planting
Digging your videos, thanks for taking the time to make them!
tapar11 thank you! These videos are my favorite part of my day.
Great idea. This stuff grows in Puerto Rico and the flowers attract honey bees. Love it. Thanks.
Hi ! I learn a lot from guys . thank you. We just move here in Texas so I don't know where to start. I like to plant veg. and I start my compost and worm compost half of my worm dried on me because is so hot here last few month ,I move it inside my house . I injoy watching you guys learn a lot .Thank you.
super awesome. thanks for posting this video.
I have learn't alot please keep posting these informative videos i have Mexican sunflower right on my yard wow
Very neat. Great vid.
Everything in my food forest box is rocking except the mulberries never made it. I'm going to pick one up today and plant it. I also added avocados, merringia, bananas, oranges, sweet potatoes, papaya and Malabar spinach. Thanks for getting me started.
Really like learning from your channel
Awesome! Thank you.
Interesting..... indeed. I Learn something new every day. Nice vid.
Linda Hodgkinson sweet! It's all about learning something new. Best thing about the plant world is we'll never learn it all.
Very helpful, thanks!
i started my garden in 2021 and I have harvested an amazing amount of food out of it, I had so much arugula that I used it for making compost. I planted 6 trees from cutting or seed, and they are still very small. I have very tough grass and had to dig it out although behind my concrete shed I covered the small area with lawn cutting and put a sweet potato in the corner. As my garden gets bigger I will eventually do chop and drop.
I'm also growing a premier loquat. I'm struggling with pest issues on this tree in SW Florida. I never thought to use tanglefoot . I usually use tanglefoot on my mangos. Thanks for the recommendation 🌱
great to see this
Chickens love them.
Love your work….hi from Tasmania, Australia 🤗
Thank you! 😊
Yeah safety glasses normally thought unnecessary are actually a good idea when doing any sort of pruning IMO. I have gotten careless and whacked myself across the face with a spring loaded limb while bending and breaking/condensing a pile of tree trimmings a while back, may have sustained an eye injury if not for glasses.
Big up ian
Its a great plant!! I use it all around my fruit trees.
Great mulch!! I guess I'm
Going to try that grass you talked about also. Lynda
Awesome! We also use a lot of Vetiver grass these days.
Great video dripping with mucho info. 😎✌👊
PS ....... Ian is a machine !!! 😎👍
Thanks! You should see him now, kid is beast👊
Down here in St Pete. lnteresting about your eyes and the Fakahatchee grass. My wife plays with it all the time, l'll have to let her know.
Daumm dude skilled with the blades
Riight????
Very good information however I have noticed that a number of these videos on the subject of chop and drop don't tell you the actual fact that you can use any and all kinds of vegetation. Hell I put videos up like this and pointed out the fact that any vegetation can be used to create fertilizer. Keep up the good work
MORNING GARDENER'S SHOW, That's exactly what I always think when I watch these videos. None of these videos tell you the full truth. I shredd up and drop all the prunnings on my soil and they get mixed in with all the fallen leaves from all my trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants. They all feed the microorganisms that enrich the soil and feed the plants. There's no benefit in just using a specific plant species or variety. Composting is done using a variety of materials and so should chop and drop be done.
There is a rare compound called Urushiol that might be worth avoiding (mango). Allelopathic plants can be used, but slow down decomposition unless crushed/moist or mixed in with other materials. Otherwise, go nuts.
Invasive = More biomass, more compost, more mulch, more organic fertilizer.
Ants promotes fungi, they farm fungi for their colony. Fungi are excellent for plant roots and soil health. Please don't kill ants :)
You can also plant the sunflower next to the plant you want to benefit from what it pulls from the soil.
Thanks for your advice bro, am nolonger buying NPK for my plants, this tithonia works best and is wild and free in Africa
I bought seed for the Tithonia diversifolia I'm not sure if it would grow before winter & either survive or seed. So I haven't planted the small amount of seed that was sent. I really want to grow these on the property up north for chop & drop. I plan to garden, have chickens & either a few goats or a heritage milk cow.
Great info in the video as always Pete. I love watching your vlog!
🌱Be Blessed ღ 🌼
Comfrey's a swell food/medicine for pets and livestock of all kinds. I don't have any land yet but my cats loved my small Comfrey plant to death!
If the climate allows grow Black pepper plants to "medicate" your chickens, ducks, etcétera. Also some small hot peppers like the "Charapita", both replace antibiotics and keep the flu away from your birds. Even baby chicks should be fed a pepper grain per day
Where are Ian's shades!!? Great stuff dudes.
Very cool stuff! I live in Saskatchewan, Canada and only get a window to grow outdoors each year.
A fellow Saskatchewan gardener here, too. I am excited for spring to come because I ordered a lot of chop and drop seeds. Learning so much from these videos.
@@tanyaweller309 Right on! Can you recommend some good ones for our climate?
Colloidal silver with a drop of neroli oil used as an eye drop twice a day will heal a cut on the eyeball. I just used it on my 17yr old daughter when an accident caused a cut on her retina. I had it healed within 24 hrs using this 'potion' that I created. Just wanted to let you know just in case....
Cristina Proctor very cool thanks for sharing! I’m very familiar with colloidal silver but I’ve never heard that before.
Once again thanks for the info!! I guess your never to old to learn,,if we would just listen.😉 Lynda Ft.Pierce.
Thanks 🙏
Not sure if comfrey grows by you, but it too produces wildly and is a know fertilizer. Awesome video, thanks
We are very familiar with comfrey. Unfortunately it doesn’t grow wild where we are. We can cultivate it but it’s challenging to grow in hot & humid Florida & it doesn’t spread here like it does elsewhere.
Seen a video growing Tithonia around saplings as a windbreak as well as for mulch...
Yes, both good functions for that species
Thanks for the affirmation… I’m on the right track by covering my green biomass drops with wood chips… is any grass good? I’m in the Sonoran low desert (Phoenix)… we have some limitations to consider
is there any way you can talk about Savannah style permaculture. as well as cut flowers in possible rotation. also perennial plants and cut flowers? bit more bamboo information would be nice as well. is there a patreon?
can this be fed to black solider flies or crickets? if it goes through the chipper?
Always wear protective gear!
Just wondering that grass you think I can use lemon grass instead
What do you think about using wax myrtle as a chop and drop? I have that stuff popping up around my 5 acres near Clewiston. It handles both the dry spells and the soggy soils well, and I hear its a nitrogen fixer.
Go for it! Wax myrtle is a nitrogen fixer too, so when you cut the plant releases nitrogen in the surrounding soil. It’s also great for biomass.
With all the people asking about the Mexican Sunflower and where to get it (you said it doesn't seed), why don't you send cuttings to people who may want to give an offering?
What if you put it in a bucket of water for a week and added as a liquid fertilizer would that work good
Time planting the seed for that magnificent plant?
What is the name of the clipper you recommended .
Nice but better planting lemongrass. Also good for mulching
Where do you get the sunflower and grass at ? I live in Florida as well. The Mexican sunflower do you grow it from seed ? Is there a specific verity ? Thanks I do appreciate it.
Paul Hadden any native nursery should carry the grass. Yes this variety is Tithonia diversifolia and can only be started from cuttings. I've never seen it set seed, at least in my experience.
Hi Pete I'm just south of you. Would banana leaves be a good chop and drop for Mulberry tree's ? Oh and I've had the same pair of felcro hand pruners for 30 years lol. I panic when i misplace them.
They would work great for shading the soil an adding biomass. The trunks are great also because of how much moisture they contain.
Dude! How can I get some of this? Will it grow if I put a clipping in the ground? Are those Felco pruners! Nice
Calvin Gruber my dude! You know I have you covered. You need to tighten up with the pruners my friend.
do you have cuttings for sale from your mexican sunflowers? great videos, very inspiring
I have plenty in my farm but how?
Do you how many times I can cut Faba Bean plant as fodder and still can get seeds?
I like the idea but I’ve seen another site where he regrets planting it as it’s so much work keeping it in check.
This stuff would would be nice for the chop and drop and tall shade that I need but I’m 70 years old and don’t want anything that will create additional work for me.
I’m in Texas where would I even find starts
What is the name of the two chop and drop plants? sorry deaf and you don't have CC.
Hey Janis! Those are Mexican sunflower( Tithonia diversifolia) and native fakahatchee grass :)
Ka-Bar 2-1249-9 Kukri would work better than those pruners on that application.
my tithonia has no flowers,unlike other trees in the area.any thoughts on helping it along with that? we use it as fertilizer and would love some flowers.
It will only flower if it gets really tall.
Can you lay some palm frond on top of the Mexican sunflower since it has a really slow break down time??
Yes, definitely. Anything to shade the green material will work. In fact palm fronds are super high in silica too.
Hi Pete
Are all Florida ornament grasses good carbon sources?
Yes! Some are better than others but all work.
Helpful video, thank you! Can I use Biden’s Alba, the daisy style weed that’s all over my yard? Would I have to be careful that it’s not dropping seeds when using for mulch? How can we know if it’s dropping seeds?
I would avoid it because the amount of seeds you will spread.
@@PeteKanarisGreenDreamsFL thank you so much!!
Hi Pete, can you suggest any trust source for Mexican Sunflower seeds. I am in Calgary Canada.
FlourishingLight ,wow really? Bolivian sunflower is one of the most common yard plants where I live in St. Pete, Florida. I have several 15' plants in my yard. I started them all from cuttings
FlourishingLight , I started all but my oldest specimen straight in the ground. They need to spread their roots deep and wide to grow well. But If you feel more confident starting the cuttings in a pot as I did the first time around, then move them straight into the ground as soon as you see roots emerging from the drainage holes. They don't really like being potted for long although they're tolerate it for a while if the pots are big enough. Also Their roots are more sensitive to heat and cold when in a pot. roots are so much better insulated in the ground. I'm assuming you're in a relatively freeze free area. I should forewarn you that these plants are not at all self cleaning. Meaning that they hold onto their dead leaves for long periods. I remove them manually to keep the plants looking at their best. The plants flower very heavy while days are shorter (late fall to early spring) I cut mine all back to about a foot from the ground as soon as the days get long again because they pretty much quite blooming at that point and I then like to see fresh new growth from close to the ground . If you don't care for flowers you can prune or hack them back anytime of year but they won't bloom if cut back too late in the season. At least that's been my experience.
www.echocommunity.org is a great non-profit organization that sells seeds. You can even get them for free if you show that you are a community gardener.
Do you know if american pokeweed is good for chop and drop?
I’d say if it’s not covered in seed it could work fine.
I am looking for a good place to buy sweet and red potato seeds, bee balm, artichoke, ( basically all chop and drop plants) strawberries. I need an online catalogue because I am always adding to my food forest.
Can you use lemon grass the same way as thackahatchie grass?
Yes, it works well also.
Can you tell me what variety is the dwarf loquat? Thanks.
Chaneltsai I don't know of any variety to be truly Dwarf, some say Premier. All loquats can be pruned and kept compact.
Any tips for me on growing tithonia? In my yard it's always attacked by mealy bugs or gets some sort of wilt or fungal issue and dies off before it gets 3 feet tall. I'm in the sarasota area, planted in good draining soil and full sun. I just can't get them to survive for some reason.
Hey Kelly! They are normally super easy to get going, I’ve never had any issues. Are you sure you have the right species?
@@PeteKanarisGreenDreamsFL yes, I've had starts that grow just fine until they're transplanted into my soil. Some have grown 3 foot tall and then start showing signs of wilting. When I pulled up one plant there was an infestation of mealy bugs in the roots and lower stalk. Since they're underground, I'm not sure how to combat them. I've gotten seeds from 2 different companies, so I know it's not the seeds, and they're fine in pots, it's just when planted into my soil. My pigeon pea starts have now been doing the same thing. Maybe I just need to stick with large pots for now? Lol. I don't want to use pesticide in my yard and poison the soil, but I'm not sure what to do about subterranean pests like these. They also attacked my peanuts last year in my raised beds. It's disheartening.
Where can I get Fakahatchee grass? Does it go by any other names?
Cathy Sanders , It's real name (botanical name) is Tripsacum dactyloides. It's also known as gamma grass.
are thoose cannabis plants at the back or yuca alias cassave plants?
Ronnie Santos yes those are Cassava ( Manihot esculenta ) .
I need to get mex. sunflower seeds
connie frye He said tough to start from seed. He will send cutting to you.
@@renewilliams5909 they start very easy from seeds he said the grass was hard to start from seeds. If you plant the sunflower seeds in 2 weeks the plant will be a foot tall. I grow these and use for chop and drop.
You ever grow sign hemp?
Yes! Sun hemp is a great cover crop
Pete, I'm confused about how to use sunn hemp as a "cover crop" versus growing Mexican sunflower as a chop and drop. Can you explain when and how to use sunn hemp as a cover crop?
I've always called this pig weed
If Mexican sunflower is allelopathic, it’s not harmful to use as fertilizer.
Felco prunners are too expensive due to them getting lost or stolen as was pointed out.
Consider yourself lucky if they last a month.
One of the cardinal rules about You Tube videos is never start off with a face filling the monitor screen (the selfie mode).
wrong! there are no rules.
Hope you don't put DE under the tree for the ants. they are making soil for you.
I don't think you've said High Carbon High Silica enough
I can work on that 👍
Plants are cannibals.
You sure thats mexican sunglower? It looks like giant ragweed.
haha until they get stolen yeah. florida
Pound dirt!
why dont use machete
We do sometimes, but not on these old woody ones. It works well on young green growth.
id love to support you, but id hate to support amazon. You should see if you can get an affiliate code directly with the manufacturer! you will better benefit them and potentially yourself and cut out a bad middleman like amazon.
Swiss made is ok, but American made is always better.
Who makes good American made hand pruners?
@@PeteKanarisGreenDreamsFL You're joking right? You are on the internet, use the search engine to learn about them!
I hate to tell you those hand snipers are shit unless you own a pair of Sandvik roller handled hand snipers you don't have a good pair of snipers