Alfalfa is a suoer cheap animal feed and can feed your garden, build soil, start compost, Check out our new clothing line! http:www.freshpickedapparel.com
I do that too! I had people telling me I shouldn’t use it but I had plenty and I did anyway and I had the best garden I’ve ever had. Everything grows like crazy! I don’t add anything else except powdered eggs I save from my chickens. I usually put in about a 1/4 cup for each tomato plant and don’t have blossom end rot.
@@susieq725 i used egg shells and a couple teaspoons of crushed up Tums to supply calcium,it eliminated blossom end rot. I also sprinkled some Epsom salt around the drip line of my tomato plants. It created a new problem of too many tomatoes.
Alfalfa is not a grass at all! It’s actually a legume, like clover or peas. That’s why it is so nitrogen rich, it's a nitrogen fixer. We use it to keep weight on horses particularly over the winter because the high nitrogen is why they’re higher in protein.
When we had our horses we fed Alfalfa Cubes only. They had free range of 25 acres too, but when we fed them, instead of Hay, we fed them Alfalfa Cubes. When we bought them in 1995 they had a "poor" look to them, their hair wasn't shiny etc. But after going to the Alfalfa Cubes, they really did look good, healthy and had lots of muscle too. A lot of people told us we needed to stop feeding them these cubes ,but our Farrier said that it was the best of the best we could feed them. So we fed Alfalfa Cubes for about 10 years.
@Andrew Shay yes that's because alfalfa is more nutrient dense than other forages you can grow. High protein, lower sugar. As a crop, you often don't have to spray chemicals on it, so it's great to grow if you're doing a pesticide/herbicide-free farm. Recovering from a stroke is no small thing, glad it worked out.
If you read some of the "classic" gardening and composting books, they always talk about lucerne hay. Took me ages to realize that lucerne hay= alfalfa. Just fyi.
@@markr1550 The word "alfalfa" comes to American and Canadian English via Chilean Spanish, where it comes from Spanish Spanish, where it comes from the Spanish bungling pronouncing Arabic.
Great episode! I just have one correction. Alfalfa is in not a grass. It is a legume, like clover. In fact, it looks like really tall clover while growing. I also use it for soil building for container plants and think it is great. I soak and then drain my pellets to expand them. I place the mash on a window screen (over a bucket) to drain. I reserve the drainage for plant watering. Alfalfa also contains triacontanol, which is a growth stimulant. Where I live, a forty pound bag from TSC is around $10, so very affordable, and it lasts me a full season. I also use it for green in my compost bins during winter to keep heat up
I love your videos. Thanks. Unless you buy organic, animal feed alfalfa is GMO alfalfa. This makes them resistant to herbicides, allowing farmers to spray the crops heavily. I would not put GMO alfalfa in my garden. The herbicide residue will adversely affect soil's microbial life.
I spent years in a feed mill making alfalfa pellets. They definately NOT soaked in water. Steam is mixed with the finely ground alfalfa seconds before before entering the tie to be compressed into the pellets. Repeat they are Not soaked in water that would make it impossible to pellet!!!
I'm sorry i appreantly didn't read your post very well, i have been s bit under the weathet lately, sorry. But i do think it would be interesting to see how all yhat.is done
I have been adding alfalfa pellets to my raised beds all winter to beef up the nitrogen. They break down nicely in the rain and snow and I will turn it all in before I plant. I also use the pellets in my leaf compost to keep the heat up. My compost pile has been running at about 160 degrees all winter because of the alfalfa pellets.
FYI, to open the grain bags without having to tear them apart, face the front of the bag and pull the tape stitched into the closure. Pull the tape from the right end and it will open up like a zipper. Great video, thanks.
I'm picturing the roller coaster of emotions playing across the faces of my cow, horses, and goats as I come out of the house with an alfalfa mash... and dump it on the garden.
Welp, I better stock up on alfalfa pellets for my horses before all the local gardeners scoop them up. (They really are great for the garden, too.) Thanks for the warning, Luke! 😉😂🤣😂🤣
The people who use them for feed are going to wonder what happened. ?? Where did all of the alfalfa go?? There have been several videos on using alfalfa pallets for the garden this winter.
Another good feed store product is shredded beet pulp. I don't care about the nutrients I use BP in my containers to hold more water for slow release. Soak shreds untill they fully expand and mulch your container plants with the spongy mush. It will dry up and next watering will last much longer and soil will stay cooler. My kale was good all through the heat of summer for the first time.
I live on the side of a mountain in the Appalachians. My garden is on a slope that is terraced. I have lots and lots of leaves, but I do not have a yard with grass. Finally now I have a way to compost my leaves without grass clippings. Thank You!
I worked at horse farms as a teen & baled literally TONS of hay. Given the current cost of good hay, especially alfalfa, I can say "I've handled millions of dollars in products" 😆
Yes, Alfalfa is in the Fabaceae family, and not a grass. Furthermore it has an npk of 2.5 -.0.5- 2.5 which means it is not low in potassium, only low in phosphorous.
One thing I like about this channel is MI Gardener is that he explains things. A lot of time other people tell you to do this to do that but don't tell you what it does
Tractor Supply is great to have around, but both of ours are kinda quirky. What they're famous for in the poultry community is getting breeds/sexes wrong. 😅😂🤣
Be aware that alfalfa (& hay) is often sprayed with broad leaf weed killers, that will last a LONG time (even surviving the digestive system of what eats it and the composting process of the manure) and will still affect broad leaf plants like vegetables. So you might be adding some long lasting chemicals to your soil by adding any grasses that are grown commercially or in large quantities.
True of hay, but Grazon kills alfalfa just as much as any other legume. Alfalfa pellets are safe from that particular disaster, but of course there are other sprays that might contaminate them. You can find organic alfalfa pellets, though - just usually in smaller sizes and not as cheap.
I guess just like us humans who eat chemical sprayed veggies... The most important factor that chemical amount is controlled, not like in third countries where they spray out of control.
I like my alfalfa after it’s been processed by my rabbits. They actually add large amount of nitrogen as well! Seriously, as purely organic fertilizers go, I’ve never used anything more productive than rabbit droppings. It makes cleaning out the underside of my cages feel like a harvest of sorts. About a week before every planting season, I till in a few wheelbarrow loads into my soil and I’m done. I may use an occasional side dressing in the form of store bought plant food for some crops, but not often.
@@skimark8275 Triacontanol is a growth stimulant for many plants, most notably roses, in which it rapidly increases the number of basal breaks. 1-Triacontanol or n-triacontanol is a natural plant growth regulator. It has been widely used to enhance the yield of various crops around the world, mainly in Asia. same thing
I love your channel! I live in Chicago and having someone who gardens in the same zone is awesome. The other RUclips gardeners typically live in much warmer zones. It's awesome to see what you can do in a shorter growing season.
Rabbits 🐇 produce tons of cold manure!!! Plus you can breed them and eat them. IF you have a garden they are a huge help. You can use the manure during winter to amend your beds.
@@Juanrivers2022 I am thinking of also using it as a top dressing this year on top of my mutch I flipped my beds and flipped over a few new ones put about a wheel borrow on each of manure,(this has taken a couple months dumping them as I gathered enough) now I have the beds covered with a thick layer of straw and grass that we saved in piles from summer. Now I am ready to try a no dig approach where I keep top dressing with grass and rabbit droppings.
I have a house rabbit that I refer to as my indoor composter. Seems silly to spend months composting pellets when you can have them composted in a matter of hours by your bunny. And then there is your potassium. Easy. I never thought of using the pellets for nitrogen. She is too old for alfalfa though. I wonder if the Timothy and orchard hay have as much nitrogen.
Rabbit pellets - the kind that come OUT of live rabbits... are free and can be used directly in the beds. Been doing that for 30-40 years. Also one year old horse manure... again free. Do not use until aged for a year.
Laurie I grow fast growing beans and sweet potatoes which I use as my nitrogen source in our dry months. That way I get for for myself and nitrogen for the compost heap. But I'm too stingy to buy things like these Alfalfa bags 😄
Mine is not a one person household but I have a plastic dustbin that I drilled loads of half inch holes in (base and sides) and with no lid on but a plastic bag weighted with bricks I am really impressed with the rate at which organic matter decays in it. It’s almost impossible to fill up. Making a wormery is good too.
I collect grass from my local park right after they cut it. I know they don't use any herbicide on it. If you decide to give this a try, I would recommend avoiding dog waste. Most dogs are on worm medicine and you definitely don't want that making its way into your soil.
Never heard alfalfa being called a grass before. I knew it is a legume. I thought it was related to clover but read it is related to peas. Never would have thought to use alafala pellets/cubes sold as feed to use as fertilizer! And even cheaper than fertilizer. Like I have said before, always learning something new from your channel!
I saw a video on the "Impatient Gardener" yt channel, and she adds the alfalfa pellets (actually I think it is cubes she used in the video) to her compost bin. She has a video on this alone. And she explains how it works thoroughly.
Haha i actually bought 2 bags of 50lb of alfalfa (horse feed) from tractor supply last week. i soak them and just throw some on my raised beds.i’m making 14 more raised beds for this year so i need so many composts and fertilizers.
I truly appreciate how thorough you are in your research, (pellets vs. cubes) and the differences due to the process in which each are made. Thank you!
Thankfully we have chickens on our homestead so we use that to build up the nitrogen as well as potassium and phosphorus. I would think the alfalfa would probably be quicker to use as the chicken manure takes awhile to break down safe enough to garden with.
Good information, I'll put it to good use very soon. Thanks Also the 5 dollar bags of wood shavings at T supply work wonderful as ground cover in the garden and decompose very rapidly.adding humus.
If you have a saw mill nearby, you can buy wood chips, saw dust, etc much less expensive than bagged. A few months ago, $10 for trailer load (1 loader bucket full). I added a layer in chicken lot to give some traction after a rain. As would chips break down, soil is nourished and worms love being under the chips.
Botanically alfalfa is not a grass but a member of the #legume family (Medicago sativa, family fabaceae is the botanical identification)!!! Scientifically there is 2 main plant groups: dicotyledons (like alfalfa) and momocotyledons (such as grasses). Those legumes are associated with mycorrhiza to help fixing atmospheric nitrogen.
I needed this video a couple of days ago. I just dumped a bunch in my elevated garden beds, mixed it in, and covered them in preparation for the spring.
The word alfalfa is from latin meaning perfect food, the roots can go very deep where no other plant roots can reach, pulling minerals not many other plants reach.
Compost alfalfa pellets, beet pellets and coffee grounds along with saw dust pellets (all soaked n mixed) to kick-start hot composting, and keep adding your kitchen waste daily.
Roses do really great on alfalfa pellet tea, too. Alfalfa tea, anaerobically fermented about a week (it will smell like a drunk with dead fish in his pockets) has an NPK of 5-1-2. If you airate the tea and add wood ashes, manure, epsom salts, Ironite, or greensand, you can change your NPK and make it more balanced for use on other plants as well.
Good to know about the alfalfa pellets.... I always have them on hand for my 2 wethers, Eugene & Walter, and for my rabbit, Ebunny-zer, for a treat. Thanks for the info, from you Luke, and especially a big thanks to all of your very smart viewers.
I'm already struggling to find feed and will probably have to add this one to the list as well. I'm so glad I have already decided to extend the food plot for our critters.
Thank you! Learned a lot. I appreciate you explaining why you need to soak pellets vs just putting around plants. Thank you for showing the larger pieces and how to best use them. I need to some for my compost bin this winter!
I did a winter cover crop of alfalfa in one of my raised beds. I was going to just cut it and leave it but the compost pile really does need a wake up call. Thanks Luke!💜
The cubes for volume with be a great value as they will swell considerably. It would then be similar to mulching with hay. I’m a horse owner,so these products are not knew to me but it never occurred to me to use them in the garden. 🤷🏼♀️
If you are gardening organically you may want to find an unsprayed non-gmo alfalfa which is difficult. Alfalfa is not easy to grow without spraying for weeds etc.
Yes, I accidentally introduced a harmful herbicide through my tractor supply pellets. Pay the extra $$ for the organic pellets and save yourself the headache. Even better, spend those dollars on good weed free compost.
Great tip! It’s hard to find enough green material in the spring for new lasagna beds. This will help tremendously! Thank you for taking the time to share.❤️
Thank you for the soaking tip. Great idea! I learned these work great in my Hotbin composter by accident. I bought some of the small Timothy pellets for my chickens but they won't eat them so I was throwing them into my composter so they wouldn't go to waste and they have been keeping the temp nice and high; now I know why. Great channel!
I use alfalfa pellets. I use a lot of them especially when growing green beans. I also use hard wood pellets for grilling. Both will help improve your soil. Hard wood pellets need an addition of more alfalfa pellets to prevent tying up all the nitrogen. I use 3 coffee cans of alfalfa to 1 can of hardwood pellets to a 30 foot row.
It looks SO cold there. Great video! I’m going to try this. I noticed the first signs of Spring today-buds on trees getting fatter, and winter tomatoes are ripening in abundance, so it’s a good time to beef up my compost pile before planting time in a couple of weeks.
Ive used alfalfa pellets as chick bedding in an incubator because it smells nice, is easy to clean and can be tossed right into a compost or garden bed when cleaned out. Also chicks pecked at it and ate some and it was no big deal.
Right. But I don't put bedding in the incubator since I remove them within hours of hatching. So I was thinking of alfalfa pellets being more helpful in the brooder, under the heat lamp where their bedding gets smelly and damp.
@@JJo-zx5pg i meant brooder, you are right. I use same space just take lid off and forget not everyone uses word interchangeably. My bad sorry. Yes in brooder is best use. Also works beautifully with waterfowl babies as they get messy and the alfalfa pellets absorb so well
Thanks Luke! This is exactly what I needed! I have tons of material for composting but its all carbon. I needed some cheap nitrogen source to get my hay and leaves heated up. Sounds like this is it.
In parts of the anglosphere and germanic-speaking world, alfalfa is called lucerne (or similar). It's a legume, and you can grow it yourself. My understanding is that it can be cut with a scythe.
Luke that Is very interesting I did not know Alfalfa pellets were high In nitrogen and that you could put them In your compost pile or use them as a fertilizer I well definitely remember that when I start my compost
Yep it popped in my feed as well. I saw this guy from 2yrs ago. Fun ruclips.net/video/quUGuzed2kU/видео.html. But now I wonder if grazon is used on alfalfa.
So I have a question about the pellets heating up...could you put the mash in raised beds where you want to start direct sowing seeds earlier than usual for your zone so that it warms up the soil?
Great idea Luke. You can also use the pelleted bedding in your compost when you don't have enough brown in your bin. LUKE, I am interested to hear more about your chicken decision. Did you get them? Do you love the Blue eggs? Have you looked into fermented feed for chickens? Please do a video on "The Chicken Decision" Pros, Cons, This, That, and the Yes or No of it all. Very Exciting! Thank you for all you do for the Gardens all around the World. Blessings ~
I am so glad you popped up on my screen thismorning to explain the uses of alfalfa. Especially appreciate your comment about avoiding pellets coated with wax or oil.
We feed alfalfa hay to our mama cows when they are feeding their babies. Several years ago my mom started taking alfalfa hay from our field to feed her tomato plants. Guess she was on to something
you shouldn't feed any alfalfa. Except for organic to any nursing mother because those crops are genetically modified to withstand glyphosate spraying in the field, meaning weed killer. And studies have shown that that weed killer passes from the mothers to the babies
@@pinschrunner glyphosphate is primarily associated with cancer, a slow killer that isn't likely to significantly harm most calves in their lifetime so for this use the nutrient dense alfalfa is definitely doing more good than harm.
what sort of pesticides/herbicides are sprayed on alfalfa? I read that it used to be grown without applications of chemicals in the USA but that is no longer the case as of 2017 when the EPA changed some of its rules....
I was wondering that also. We put horse manure on some of our garden, contaminated with grazon. Couldn't gow tomatoes or beans or anything deep-rooted there even after we removed and replaced the soil for 3-4 years as there was evidently leaching. But in the beds we didn't put the horse manure, but had rabbit manure and there were alfalfa cubes, we also had evidence of either grazon or similar contamination. The rabbits also had hay with the alfalfa cubes, but the farmer said he didn't spray his fields with any herbicides so we never knew. I ended up not gardening for 3 more years until we moved. :-(
@@christineg5626 nah. Grazon and other herbicides will continue regardless of who is in office. Unless you have a lobbyist at the committee nothing will change.
The alfalfa pellets I bought were treated with Sencor. Found out contacting company. Haven’t heard back from university if ok to put in garden. Anybody know.
Thanks for the info , you are full of knowledge been watching your video's on lights and now alfalfa, can't wait to get started and I will start at TSC 1st ... I mostly grow flowers working on a cottage garden.
Any guess/ideas on how this would affect pests? We have some really aggressive squirrels and raccoons.. I don't want to put out even more appealing food for them. Thanks!
Get a dog or a .22 or pellet gun for the pests. I have an agreement with my furry neighbors, if you eat my garden, i eat you along with the onions, peppers, potatoes and garlic you didn't eat. So far it's been working.
Thanks for reminder to use alfalfa in compost pile. As you said, it is an excellent compost accelerator. Also I need to pick up coffee grounds today as a green to add to hefty leaf haul from Fall. Stay well, friend!
My time is valuable, I found this one to be the first migardener video that had 5mins of content in a 14 minute clip that I fast forwarded through, cautious now on viewing this channel sporadically instead of regularly
Thank you for this information. I have up on composing, because it wasn't producing like i thought it should. I'll definitely be adding this in and trying again.
I get alfalfa for my garden after its been through the horse.
It is vastly superior after it falls out of the southward end of a north bound horse...as long as your horse is chemical free
Must be nice. Your plants must be 8 ft tall lol.
I get it from a local with horses 🐎👍🏼
I do that too! I had people telling me I shouldn’t use it but I had plenty and I did anyway and I had the best garden I’ve ever had. Everything grows like crazy! I don’t add anything else except powdered eggs I save from my chickens. I usually put in about a 1/4 cup for each tomato plant and don’t have blossom end rot.
@@susieq725 i used egg shells and a couple teaspoons of crushed up Tums to supply calcium,it eliminated blossom end rot. I also sprinkled some Epsom salt around the drip line of my tomato plants. It created a new problem of too many tomatoes.
Alfalfa is not a grass at all! It’s actually a legume, like clover or peas. That’s why it is so nitrogen rich, it's a nitrogen fixer. We use it to keep weight on horses particularly over the winter because the high nitrogen is why they’re higher in protein.
Was about to comment this lol
When we had our horses we fed Alfalfa Cubes only. They had free range of 25 acres too, but when we fed them, instead of Hay, we fed them Alfalfa Cubes. When we bought them in 1995 they had a "poor" look to them, their hair wasn't shiny etc. But after going to the Alfalfa Cubes, they really did look good, healthy and had lots of muscle too. A lot of people told us we needed to stop feeding them these cubes ,but our Farrier said that it was the best of the best we could feed them. So we fed Alfalfa Cubes for about 10 years.
Thank you, I knew it was a legume. So when Migardener called it a grass, I doubted myself.
@Andrew Shay yes that's because alfalfa is more nutrient dense than other forages you can grow. High protein, lower sugar. As a crop, you often don't have to spray chemicals on it, so it's great to grow if you're doing a pesticide/herbicide-free farm. Recovering from a stroke is no small thing, glad it worked out.
@@cet765 do not doubt what you know :)
If you read some of the "classic" gardening and composting books, they always talk about lucerne hay. Took me ages to realize that lucerne hay= alfalfa. Just fyi.
Thank you for explaining that.
Lucerne is the name used in the UK, and other places, it's alfalfa in North America.
@@markr1550 The word "alfalfa" comes to American and Canadian English via Chilean Spanish, where it comes from Spanish Spanish, where it comes from the Spanish bungling pronouncing Arabic.
Great episode! I just have one correction. Alfalfa is in not a grass. It is a legume, like clover. In fact, it looks like really tall clover while growing. I also use it for soil building for container plants and think it is great. I soak and then drain my pellets to expand them. I place the mash on a window screen (over a bucket) to drain. I reserve the drainage for plant watering. Alfalfa also contains triacontanol, which is a growth stimulant. Where I live, a forty pound bag from TSC is around $10, so very affordable, and it lasts me a full season. I also use it for green in my compost bins during winter to keep heat up
Where does your mash go?
Thank You cheers from Pennsylvania 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸👍👍👍🙏🙏🙏
$23 at tsc here
very helpful - thank you!
Great advice! Thanks!
I love your videos. Thanks. Unless you buy organic, animal feed alfalfa is GMO alfalfa. This makes them resistant to herbicides, allowing farmers to spray the crops heavily.
I would not put GMO alfalfa in my garden. The herbicide residue will adversely affect soil's microbial life.
agreed! I was told to never use Roundup ready alfalfa which is what most US alfalfa is.
I spent years in a feed mill making alfalfa pellets. They definately NOT soaked in water. Steam is mixed with the finely ground alfalfa seconds before before entering the tie to be compressed into the pellets. Repeat they are Not soaked in water that would make it impossible to pellet!!!
I wonder why he ssaid they were soaked. Do you work at a plant that does this? Just interested
I’m thinking steam is made from water so he wasn’t completely wrong.
I'm sorry i appreantly didn't read your post very well, i have been s bit under the weathet lately, sorry. But i do think it would be interesting to see how all yhat.is done
He didn't say soaked in a huge vat of water but he could have said, with water
Water soaking is a seldom used process anymore. It's quite common in other countries with less modern equipment.
I have been adding alfalfa pellets to my raised beds all winter to beef up the nitrogen. They break down nicely in the rain and snow and I will turn it all in before I plant. I also use the pellets in my leaf compost to keep the heat up. My compost pile has been running at about 160 degrees all winter because of the alfalfa pellets.
Roughly how much alfalfa do you add to your compost pile?
FYI, to open the grain bags without having to tear them apart, face the front of the bag and pull the tape stitched into the closure. Pull the tape from the right end and it will open up like a zipper. Great video, thanks.
Just remember Right side Single strand
City boys. They need this kind of training.
@@dchall8 everybody did at some point.
I'm picturing the roller coaster of emotions playing across the faces of my cow, horses, and goats as I come out of the house with an alfalfa mash... and dump it on the garden.
🤣😂👍!!!
Lol I could think of a million jokes!😆😆😂
Haha.. Love the hand that feeds you!!
As I was watching this I was thinking the same thing, our horses LOVE their alfalfa cubes 😂🤣 and then I saw your comment.
🤣🤣🤣
Welp, I better stock up on alfalfa pellets for my horses before all the local gardeners scoop them up. (They really are great for the garden, too.) Thanks for the warning, Luke! 😉😂🤣😂🤣
The people who use them for feed are going to wonder what happened. ?? Where did all of the alfalfa go?? There have been several videos on using alfalfa pallets for the garden this winter.
Exactly
Yep
Get organic and grow your own.
I don’t even own horses and my immediate thought was “uh oh, I hope there will be enough left for the animals!”
Another good feed store product is shredded beet pulp. I don't care about the nutrients I use BP in my containers to hold more water for slow release. Soak shreds untill they fully expand and mulch your container plants with the spongy mush. It will dry up and next watering will last much longer and soil will stay cooler. My kale was good all through the heat of summer for the first time.
same thing worked for me in my container tubs of kale and swiss chard.
I live on the side of a mountain in the Appalachians. My garden is on a slope that is terraced. I have lots and lots of leaves, but I do not have a yard with grass. Finally now I have a way to compost my leaves without grass clippings. Thank You!
I worked at horse farms as a teen & baled literally TONS of hay. Given the current cost of good hay, especially alfalfa, I can say "I've handled millions of dollars in products" 😆
Not just to feed your garden, I use alfalfa pellets as supplement for straw to grow gourmet mushrooms.
Do tell...
Great tip! Can’t wait to try it❤️
@@cristymenapace677 It does put out a lot of heat so keep it to about 10-15% by weight.
@@andylee484 That’s what I was thinking too, thank you❤️
What kind d of mushrooms do you grow? Been wanting to learn mushroom growing 😊
Ah, alfalfa is not a grass. It a flowering member of legume family. That is why it is so high in nitrogen. Sorry.
sweet. So they wouldn't use Grazon on it because it's a broadleaf like clover. That was the thing that was holding me back.
Cool, glad you cleared that up! Also, don't be sorry ;)
Right
Thanks for the information. No need to be sorry.
Yes, Alfalfa is in the Fabaceae family, and not a grass. Furthermore it has an npk of 2.5 -.0.5- 2.5 which means it is not low in potassium, only low in phosphorous.
One thing I like about this channel is MI Gardener is that he explains things. A lot of time other people tell you to do this to do that but don't tell you what it does
there's no point in explaining, if you are explaining wrong information.
If I was a store manager I'd be honored to have Luke film there.... :D
I would be honored if anyone wanted to give me free publicity.
@@MIgardener Yeah exactly! They're crazy for turning that down
Tractor Supply is great to have around, but both of ours are kinda quirky. What they're famous for in the poultry community is getting breeds/sexes wrong. 😅😂🤣
Be aware that alfalfa (& hay) is often sprayed with broad leaf weed killers, that will last a LONG time (even surviving the digestive system of what eats it and the composting process of the manure) and will still affect broad leaf plants like vegetables. So you might be adding some long lasting chemicals to your soil by adding any grasses that are grown commercially or in large quantities.
True of hay, but Grazon kills alfalfa just as much as any other legume. Alfalfa pellets are safe from that particular disaster, but of course there are other sprays that might contaminate them. You can find organic alfalfa pellets, though - just usually in smaller sizes and not as cheap.
I wonder how are horse’s staying alive eating alfalfa?
I guess just like us humans who eat chemical sprayed veggies... The most important factor that chemical amount is controlled, not like in third countries where they spray out of control.
I like my alfalfa after it’s been processed by my rabbits. They actually add large amount of nitrogen as well! Seriously, as purely organic fertilizers go, I’ve never used anything more productive than rabbit droppings. It makes cleaning out the underside of my cages feel like a harvest of sorts. About a week before every planting season, I till in a few wheelbarrow loads into my soil and I’m done. I may use an occasional side dressing in the form of store bought plant food for some crops, but not often.
I run (ground) alfalfa pellets through my vermicompost bins as worm chow, plenty leftover to use as fertilizer too! Nice hack!
LOL, Worm Weirdo, cute moniker. I love my worm bin! I call it my worm condo.
What is the benefit of giving it to the worms rather than use it directly?
@@ThomasBomb45 The worms will break it down and make some of the nutrients available sooner rather than later.
Alfalfa also contains Triacontanol an extremely good plant growth regulator.
growth stimulant I think you mean
@@skimark8275 Triacontanol is a growth stimulant for many plants, most notably roses, in which it rapidly increases the number of basal breaks. 1-Triacontanol or n-triacontanol is a natural plant growth regulator. It has been widely used to enhance the yield of various crops around the world, mainly in Asia. same thing
Very interesting, thx!
I love your channel! I live in Chicago and having someone who gardens in the same zone is awesome. The other RUclips gardeners typically live in much warmer zones. It's awesome to see what you can do in a shorter growing season.
Rabbits 🐇 produce tons of cold manure!!! Plus you can breed them and eat them. IF you have a garden they are a huge help. You can use the manure during winter to amend your beds.
I use my only rabbits cold manure and spread it on my fruits and they make good soft soil.
@@Juanrivers2022 I am thinking of also using it as a top dressing this year on top of my mutch I flipped my beds and flipped over a few new ones put about a wheel borrow on each of manure,(this has taken a couple months dumping them as I gathered enough) now I have the beds covered with a thick layer of straw and grass that we saved in piles from summer. Now I am ready to try a no dig approach where I keep top dressing with grass and rabbit droppings.
I have a house rabbit that I refer to as my indoor composter. Seems silly to spend months composting pellets when you can have them composted in a matter of hours by your bunny. And then there is your potassium. Easy. I never thought of using the pellets for nitrogen. She is too old for alfalfa though. I wonder if the Timothy and orchard hay have as much nitrogen.
@@lienecarter6411 urine has nitrogen, so your rabbit's litter box has everything you need! 😁
@@lienecarter6411 nope. As noted above, alfalfa isn't a grass but a legume, hence the high nitrogen. No grass can come close in nitrogen content.
I love how the squirrel was like "run to the garden while he's at the compost pile"
Rabbit pellets - the kind that come OUT of live rabbits... are free and can be used directly in the beds. Been doing that for 30-40 years.
Also one year old horse manure... again free. Do not use until aged for a year.
This sounds cool as a compost addition, bc I can't generate enough green material in a single-person household to get some heat going.
If you do 2 bags of alfalfa pellets and a bag of wood pellets.... it will compost great and if you add to your pile if will 100 percent heat it up
Laurie I grow fast growing beans and sweet potatoes which I use as my nitrogen source in our dry months. That way I get for for myself and nitrogen for the compost heap.
But I'm too stingy to buy things like these Alfalfa bags 😄
That sounds like a euphemism for something.
Mine is not a one person household but I have a plastic dustbin that I drilled loads of half inch holes in (base and sides) and with no lid on but a plastic bag weighted with bricks I am really impressed with the rate at which organic matter decays in it. It’s almost impossible to fill up.
Making a wormery is good too.
I collect grass from my local park right after they cut it. I know they don't use any herbicide on it. If you decide to give this a try, I would recommend avoiding dog waste. Most dogs are on worm medicine and you definitely don't want that making its way into your soil.
Never heard alfalfa being called a grass before. I knew it is a legume. I thought it was related to clover but read it is related to peas. Never would have thought to use alafala pellets/cubes sold as feed to use as fertilizer! And even cheaper than fertilizer. Like I have said before, always learning something new from your channel!
It is a legume.
I saw a video on the "Impatient Gardener" yt channel, and she adds the alfalfa pellets (actually I think it is cubes she used in the video) to her compost bin. She has a video on this alone. And she explains how it works thoroughly.
You are right. It is not a grass.
Clover is also a legume and it fixes nitrogen as well. Clover used to be part of a healthy lawn and pastures.
He said it has a grassy smell
Haha i actually bought 2 bags of 50lb of alfalfa (horse feed) from tractor supply last week.
i soak them and just throw some on my raised beds.i’m making 14 more raised beds for this year so i need so many composts and fertilizers.
are you concerned about the GMO aspect of alfalfa or pesticides used on it in ? just wondering if it affects the garden produce and 'organic' method.
Must add to the chorus of - NOT GRASS! Alfalfa is in the legume family, like peas.
Alfalfa is not a grass, it's a legume.
I’ve only had a garden for 5 years, but I never even heard of this! Will give it a spin thru my compost and worm bins...can’t wait!
I truly appreciate how thorough you are in your research, (pellets vs. cubes) and the differences due to the process in which each are made. Thank you!
My uncle added pellets to his garden. The soil is the most beautiful I have ever seen.
Thankfully we have chickens on our homestead so we use that to build up the nitrogen as well as potassium and phosphorus. I would think the alfalfa would probably be quicker to use as the chicken manure takes awhile to break down safe enough to garden with.
Excellent video. I've use bales and cubes , for many years for the fruit trees.
Does it really help and what benefits do the tree get from alfalfa pallets?
Good information, I'll put it to good use very soon. Thanks Also the 5 dollar bags of wood shavings at T supply work wonderful as ground cover in the garden and decompose very rapidly.adding humus.
If you have a saw mill nearby, you can buy wood chips, saw dust, etc much less expensive than bagged. A few months ago, $10 for trailer load (1 loader bucket full). I added a layer in chicken lot to give some traction after a rain. As would chips break down, soil is nourished and worms love being under the chips.
Botanically alfalfa is not a grass but a member of the #legume family (Medicago sativa, family fabaceae is the botanical identification)!!! Scientifically there is 2 main plant groups: dicotyledons (like alfalfa) and momocotyledons (such as grasses). Those legumes are associated with mycorrhiza to help fixing atmospheric nitrogen.
I needed this video a couple of days ago. I just dumped a bunch in my elevated garden beds, mixed it in, and covered them in preparation for the spring.
That is what I did just planted everything in there. Is that not a good thing to do?
@@poolman8676 I think its about preference.
The word alfalfa is from latin meaning perfect food, the roots can go very deep where no other plant roots can reach, pulling minerals not many other plants reach.
I'll be skipping the alfalfa. The deer already try to eat everything I plant.
You can always eat the deer.
@@JohnBrown-wk4io 😋
Compost alfalfa pellets, beet pellets and coffee grounds along with saw dust pellets (all soaked n mixed) to kick-start hot composting, and keep adding your kitchen waste daily.
Roses do really great on alfalfa pellet tea, too. Alfalfa tea, anaerobically fermented about a week (it will smell like a drunk with dead fish in his pockets) has an NPK of 5-1-2. If you airate the tea and add wood ashes, manure, epsom salts, Ironite, or greensand, you can change your NPK and make it more balanced for use on other plants as well.
Good to know about the alfalfa pellets.... I always have them on hand for my 2 wethers, Eugene & Walter, and for my rabbit, Ebunny-zer, for a treat. Thanks for the info, from you Luke, and especially a big thanks to all of your very smart viewers.
I'm already struggling to find feed and will probably have to add this one to the list as well. I'm so glad I have already decided to extend the food plot for our critters.
Thanks Luke for all your knowledge and wisdom we all have learned from you
Thanks Luke! Be blessed!🙏
Thank you! Learned a lot. I appreciate you explaining why you need to soak pellets vs just putting around plants. Thank you for showing the larger pieces and how to best use them. I need to some for my compost bin this winter!
I did a winter cover crop of alfalfa in one of my raised beds. I was going to just cut it and leave it but the compost pile really does need a wake up call.
Thanks Luke!💜
The cubes for volume with be a great value as they will swell considerably. It would then be similar to mulching with hay. I’m a horse owner,so these products are not knew to me but it never occurred to me to use them in the garden. 🤷🏼♀️
If you are gardening organically you may want to find an unsprayed non-gmo alfalfa which is difficult. Alfalfa is not easy to grow without spraying for weeds etc.
Just buy Organic Alfalfa Pellets from the same store. About $5 a bag more expensive.
I thought most was nonGMO?
Yes, I accidentally introduced a harmful herbicide through my tractor supply pellets. Pay the extra $$ for the organic pellets and save yourself the headache. Even better, spend those dollars on good weed free compost.
Thanks for giving details of what to look for and why! I’m headed to Tractor Supply today!
Some feed stores/mills may also offer alfalfa meal.
Filming in the snow, not skipping a beat. Only in the north :)
Once again thank you so much MI guy! This was wonderful!! And I can’t learn enough about gardening! With you I go to class and take notes!! Xo
Great tip! It’s hard to find enough green material in the spring for new lasagna beds. This will help tremendously! Thank you for taking the time to share.❤️
Thank you for the soaking tip. Great idea! I learned these work great in my Hotbin composter by accident. I bought some of the small Timothy pellets for my chickens but they won't eat them so I was throwing them into my composter so they wouldn't go to waste and they have been keeping the temp nice and high; now I know why. Great channel!
I use alfalfa pellets. I use a lot of them especially when growing green beans. I also use hard wood pellets for grilling. Both will help improve your soil. Hard wood pellets need an addition of more alfalfa pellets to prevent tying up all the nitrogen. I use 3 coffee cans of alfalfa to 1 can of hardwood pellets to a 30 foot row.
This is wonderful information. I have never heard of using alfalfa pellets before. I'll definitely be using these in my garden.
It looks SO cold there. Great video! I’m going to try this. I noticed the first signs of Spring today-buds on trees getting fatter, and winter tomatoes are ripening in abundance, so it’s a good time to beef up my compost pile before planting time in a couple of weeks.
I love reading all of the comments....such good information. It's like an added bonus to an already informative video! And hilarious someone too!
I use alfalfa pellets every year. Best add-in to my soil since I have no area to compost. I grind mine up and sprinkle all around 🥬🥒🍅❤️❤️❤️
How do you grind them? Seems like that would get you more bang for the buck in a small garden. And easy to handle. Thanks for the reply.
@@christineg5626 I would use a drywall mud beater on a drill.
Ive used alfalfa pellets as chick bedding in an incubator because it smells nice, is easy to clean and can be tossed right into a compost or garden bed when cleaned out. Also chicks pecked at it and ate some and it was no big deal.
Genius
In the incubator or in the brooder? You're making me have thoughts here!
@@JJo-zx5pg with chicks
Right. But I don't put bedding in the incubator since I remove them within hours of hatching. So I was thinking of alfalfa pellets being more helpful in the brooder, under the heat lamp where their bedding gets smelly and damp.
@@JJo-zx5pg i meant brooder, you are right. I use same space just take lid off and forget not everyone uses word interchangeably. My bad sorry. Yes in brooder is best use. Also works beautifully with waterfowl babies as they get messy and the alfalfa pellets absorb so well
Thanks Luke! This is exactly what I needed! I have tons of material for composting but its all carbon. I needed some cheap nitrogen source to get my hay and leaves heated up. Sounds like this is it.
In parts of the anglosphere and germanic-speaking world, alfalfa is called lucerne (or similar).
It's a legume, and you can grow it yourself. My understanding is that it can be cut with a scythe.
Luke that Is very interesting I did not know Alfalfa pellets were high In nitrogen and that you could put them In your compost pile or use them as a fertilizer I well definitely remember that when I start my compost
Alfalfa pellets: this must be this month's topic for RUclips gardening channels.
One does it and others jump on it seems. Rusted Garden spoke about this 3 weeks ago. All good as I enjoy several channels and knowledge is power.
Yep it popped in my feed as well. I saw this guy from 2yrs ago. Fun ruclips.net/video/quUGuzed2kU/видео.html. But now I wonder if grazon is used on alfalfa.
I watched a video recently about using alfalfa from 2 years ago. The guy was an ole timer and seem to know gardening like the back of his hand.
@@jhgannon I got some alfalfa pellets after I watched Gary's video.
Different channels different viewers
Good tips on how to use this to fertilize Luke. Also the warning about the heat generated form the decomposition was great to point out. THanks
I am just starting a compost pile ... thank you for the insight! I appreciate it!
So I have a question about the pellets heating up...could you put the mash in raised beds where you want to start direct sowing seeds earlier than usual for your zone so that it warms up the soil?
Great idea Luke. You can also use the pelleted bedding in your compost when you don't have enough brown in your bin.
LUKE, I am interested to hear more about your chicken decision. Did you get them? Do you love the Blue eggs? Have you looked into fermented feed for chickens? Please do a video on "The Chicken Decision" Pros, Cons, This, That, and the Yes or No of it all. Very Exciting! Thank you for all you do for the Gardens all around the World. Blessings ~
I am so glad you popped up on my screen thismorning to explain the uses of alfalfa. Especially appreciate your comment about avoiding pellets coated with wax or oil.
You have so much knowledge, tips and tricks for the garden. Thank you for sharing!
I just bought the same 2 bags 2weeks ago from tractor supply for my gardening beds👍
Great idea for the alfalfa! I am planning on using it as a tea and drench my plants with that. Now I'll do both. :-)
I just bought a bag for use as fertilizer at the advice of a friend. Now I know exactly how to use it, thank you!! ❤️
You really cover your subject very well. I enjoyed listening to what you were covering.
Love you stuff, small correction alfalfa is a legume not a grass.
6:45 is where the actual application starts.
I agree, alfalfa smells so good. I never heard of using it as a fertilizer. Thanks, Luke.
I did learn something new. I use alfalfa at the stable, sparingly!
Thanks!
You could use this in a easy compost tea as well I would imagine.
We feed alfalfa hay to our mama cows when they are feeding their babies. Several years ago my mom started taking alfalfa hay from our field to feed her tomato plants. Guess she was on to something
you shouldn't feed any alfalfa. Except for organic to any nursing mother because those crops are genetically modified to withstand glyphosate spraying in the field, meaning weed killer. And studies have shown that that weed killer passes from the mothers to the babies
@@pinschrunner glyphosphate is primarily associated with cancer, a slow killer that isn't likely to significantly harm most calves in their lifetime so for this use the nutrient dense alfalfa is definitely doing more good than harm.
I use alfalfa pellets on my lawn in the fall or early spring. It is a good organic fertilizer. Some people use dried dog food.
Does it green up your lawn?
@@arielrodriguez6980 Yes
Thank you so much! I just found out my long-lost father grew alfafa for a living... this reminds me of him. Can't wait to try this.
what sort of pesticides/herbicides are sprayed on alfalfa? I read that it used to be grown without applications of chemicals in the USA but that is no longer the case as of 2017 when the EPA changed some of its rules....
TSC also sells organic alfalfa pellets if you're concerned about pesticides/herbicides on it. They are about $5 a bag more expensive, though.
I was wondering that also. We put horse manure on some of our garden, contaminated with grazon. Couldn't gow tomatoes or beans or anything deep-rooted there even after we removed and replaced the soil for 3-4 years as there was evidently leaching. But in the beds we didn't put the horse manure, but had rabbit manure and there were alfalfa cubes, we also had evidence of either grazon or similar contamination. The rabbits also had hay with the alfalfa cubes, but the farmer said he didn't spray his fields with any herbicides so we never knew. I ended up not gardening for 3 more years until we moved. :-(
@@christineg5626 nah. Grazon and other herbicides will continue regardless of who is in office. Unless you have a lobbyist at the committee nothing will change.
@@charlesbyrne71 Grazon is going to be a nightmare. Soon it will be contaminating garden beds all over the country.
The alfalfa pellets I bought were treated with Sencor. Found out contacting company. Haven’t heard back from university if ok to put in garden. Anybody know.
I buy the cubes for our rabbits and just place on the wire floor allowing a lot to drop below compost pile
Thanks for the info , you are full of knowledge been watching your video's on lights and now alfalfa, can't wait to get started and I will start at TSC 1st ... I mostly grow flowers working on a cottage garden.
It seems like the cubes would be cool to put into the bottom of a planting hole for 1 gallon plants/shrubs, etc.
Any guess/ideas on how this would affect pests? We have some really aggressive squirrels and raccoons.. I don't want to put out even more appealing food for them. Thanks!
Alfalfa is a magnet for deer and wild rabbits!
@@jampubs1 Ahh yeah i'll pass on this then, thank you!!
@@jampubs1 groundhogs too
@@jampubs1 Same thing I said.
Get a dog or a .22 or pellet gun for the pests. I have an agreement with my furry neighbors, if you eat my garden, i eat you along with the onions, peppers, potatoes and garlic you didn't eat. So far it's been working.
I bought a fifty pound bag of the pellets so excited to use them!
Thanks for reminder to use alfalfa in compost pile. As you said, it is an excellent compost accelerator. Also I need to pick up coffee grounds today as a green to add to hefty leaf haul from Fall. Stay well, friend!
I'll try it in my lettuce beds... Very happy, too, to learn about using it in compost. Our bin is always short on some element or another.
I heard that beet pellets are also great additions.
A bit too much beating around the bush, I wish you went more of a straight way to the points :)
RUclips pays by the longer you keep an audience watching, In doing a 5min instruction he wouldn't get much money
True but you can watch at 2x or find someone else who lists info
Main reason I unsubscribed.
My time is valuable, I found this one to be the first migardener video that had 5mins of content in a 14 minute clip that I fast forwarded through, cautious now on viewing this channel sporadically instead of regularly
Makes sense! We rotate alfalfa on our farm to add back into the soil.
I REALLY needed this, thank you Luke!!
Gary, Fitzpreacher Farm a week ago...God Bless, stay safe.
Alfalfa pellets huh? Gotta put that on my list.
Thank you for this information. I have up on composing, because it wasn't producing like i thought it should. I'll definitely be adding this in and trying again.