I'm in Texas so it's hotter and dryer, I'm 66 yrs old, last year I used blood and bone meal and my veggies where ok I did put on a lot of water. Now this yr after seeing some of your veggies I fertilized at planting and 1 or two more times after that . My potato plants went crazy. I got onions to bulb (never happened before) still not as big as yours,only baseball size but progress none the less. So you keep teaching and giving us your opinion
I think the issue we need to worry over is not how to grow food without fertilizer but rather how to fertilize with having access to commercial inputs .
👏👏👏 well said, Trav. I think part of the draw to those methods is the hope to set up a system that requires the least amount of human intervention/effort possible. Sure would be nice to “set it and forget it”. But in my experience, the presence, knowledge, and actions of the gardener have the biggest impact on the results we get.
Its true..my grand pa always had a picture perfect HUGE garden...made it look easy as hell...NO DRIP TAPE THO. but i didnt see the planting and fertilizing weeding and i KNOW HE USED DDT...hell i didnt see the picking much...just the weekend eating..then i think of the his basement with jars upon jars my grandma and aunt did. Hell i cant get a cabbage to grow bigger than a baseball....im pushing 80 and Sure as hell do not know how he did it physically...tho it makes me real happy to give away food...and to eat some of it.. Btw...costs me a fortune to do this. I just found an old video u did about spoon feeding tomatoes...and another about brassicas and what they need. And now know why those cabbages are so tiny!!!! I GOT ON AMAZON AND ORDERED THE FERTLIZERS...LOL..MU H EASIER FOR ME THAN GETTING IN THE TRUCK AND TOTTING IT HERE...BUT ACCORDING TO U I MISSED MY WINDOW OF USING IT.
Well said. I'm an organic farmer from Australia and I see too many people listening to the latest hype.. We use a rotary hoe. We till the soil regularly. We add stupid amounts of compost, trace minerals, cover crops... We do not replicate nature.. We manipulate it. Crops look great! Big ups from down under :)
@@JanetLavoie I do not think there is anything wrong with tilling and fertilizer when they are used properly. If your soil is lackluster I hope you grow a cover crop while your garden is idle. The addition of manure is also beneficial to your garden.
I absolutely believe in compost and generous mulch. They are great benefits to the soil, both microbial and fungal. I also believe in minimal tilling. But i am a firm believer in natural soil additives as fertilizer. Bone, blood meal feather meal, wood ash and any other good food for plants is usually good food for me. Oh yes, don't forget copious amounts of animal poo.
And that is my point. If you want to go natural cycle in your garden, you need to take your dump there. And with that there are other problems like illnesses and vermin. So... it is definitely not working as advertised.
Excellent video as usual...you figure out pretty quickly that "replicating nature" and "growing plants under optimized conditions" are two different things. Sub-optimal harvests were probably why people started isolating their gardens in the first place. 👍
I personally think people are looking for the best tasting crops in the garden, instead of the BIGGEST veggys & fruits. They attribute chemical fertilizer with bitter tasting vegetables and fruits because of an over abundance of salts it puts in the soil. Long ago I had delivered a few cubic yards of compost and made tea a lot. The plants grew great and tasted great without the need for other stuff in those years. You, yourself, use organic agrothrive. Most people are just looking for organic alternatives to the the blue stuff. BUT EVERYTHING IS CHEMICALS WHEN IT COMES RIGHT DOWN TO IT. You are a 'master' in the garden and have the midas touch to grow just about anything your climate allows. Congrats.
Well said, I’m 54 and have only been gardening for a few years. I look for advice from old timers who were gardeners before RUclipsrs. Love your channel, Hoss Tools, and Hollis & Nancy. You all each bring something to table for me, and I’m more successful each year. Enjoy the content, keep up the great work! Have a blessed day✝️🇺🇸
I think it’s all In what people want, but I agree that input in, must also meet input out. It’s an unobtainable system to expect permanent and unlimited growth without supplementing something in. You said it best though, you can grow stuff without inputs, but most of us want to maximize the work we put in. I am no till, mulch and cover crop all day long, but heavy feeders still need inputs.
Charles Dowding just only adds 1-2” of additional compost to his gardens every Fall. That’s it. I was trying to convince him he still needs to supplement to match the nitrogen growth profiles of hybrids, like commercial corn varieties, and onions. Developed hybrids have been tailored with a certain lifecycle nutrient expectation to achieve best results.
It takes a long time to build your soil and it is an ongoing process. I am in north florida with a loamy sand, heavy on the sand. I put much organic matter on my garden every year because my climate breaks it down fast and washes it through the soil. I also use commercial fertilizer. I need all the help I can get from every quarter.
Half my fertilizers are commercial grade and some I get from a local farmer who buys too much and then sells me some at a discount. Its the good stuff.
I am planning on moving to Florida at some point. Not sure when though. Florida gardening is going to be a real challenge to growing in North Carolina, zone 8a.
My garden has 18 inches of sand..I add compost..covercrops..and organic and light amounts of chemical fertilizer..mulches and lots of weeding...soil types make a huge difference in technique..growing in Texas
I think you’re right on point. It’s about being knowledgeable about the plants you grow and giving them what makes them thrive. Cover cropping and composting right along with it.
I tried the no fertilizer thing and my plants productivity suffered. I have short growing season and found that giving that boost of fertilizer really makes a difference. 😊
Good stuff Travis. I wouldn't hate on anyone using what they need to grow food. We lean heavy on minimum digging and organic inputs (fertilizers and sprays) ourselves. Homemade compost, diverse mulches , DFSW, etc. Got a cover crop of rye and peas in the beds now to promote soil life and improve crops next spring. I appreciate your work Sir .
Finally a sensible video, thank you for all you do. I am a new gardener with terrible Florida soil to amend, my third year and yes fertilizer is important.
Interesting. I’ve never seen the claim of no fertilizer with the no dig method. Personally, I have seen people say use no dig but add fertilizer and compost so as to not till up the weed seeds. The copper electro craze definitely got a side eye from me 😂 What drives me crazy is my mother in law constantly telling me what “organic” method I need to try. For example, putting orange peels around my plants or soaking banana peels in water for fertilizer. She sees something on social media and tells me to do it. AND to be fair, she’s from up north and doesn’t garden that much. I’m just going to keep watching you and the few other RUclipsrs I trust to get my gardening info. Anyway, thanks for the video!
Check out Charles Dowding. He just only adds 1-2" of compost every fall, no till. NO FERTILIZER. Swears by it. I think he could do better by supplementing with fertilizer, organic, synthetic, or animal based manure.
Charles Dowding who is basically the grandfather of no till, doesn't use fertilizers at all (at least according to him, I can't personally vouch for that). But he does use ample supplies of quality compost every year, which does feed the soil biology and add nutrients into the soil. Personally I have no problem throwing in some organic fertilizers, since I can't produce the quality (or quantity) of compost he does. The primary reason for not tilling, isn't the concern of bringing up weed seeds, it is to disrupt the soil biology as little as possible. Limiting weed pressure is just a side benefit. Soil biology is really the key aspect in no till. Why does soil biology matter? Many of your organic or "natural" fertilizers are not "plant ready", meaning plants can't benefit from them directly. These fertilizers require soil biology to break them down into a plant ready format. You aren't going to have much luck with organic fertilizers if you are tilling your garden once or twice a year... while synthetic fertilizers don't need the soil biology to become plant ready. If you need to till a new bed (or even create a new raised bed filled with store bought soil), synthetic fertilizer for the first year is the better option as it takes time for the soil biology to get properly established. In my limited experience, a general no till approach, with compost and some organic fertilizers works great and requires less overall fertilizer (and other chemicals) then the tilled and synthetic fertilizer approach. Both methods are fully capable of growing food though, which ultimately is the main point. One other aside... the tilling/synthetic approach does (back to one of your points) increase weed and pest pressure... which often leads to various herbicides and pesticides... that in turn negatively affect that soil biology and often the natural predators of many garden pests. Basically the till/synthetic approach (i.e. the kill off your soil biology method), forces you into a cycle of dependence. You are dependent on that fertilizer every year, you are more and more dependent on those herbicides and pesticides... because your soil biology never gets a chance to recover.
@@aileensmith3062 Charles Dowding adds it as part of his compost pile which he then applies just once per year in the Fall. I was trying to get him to add some more in the summer - as appropriate. Travis side dresses or adds fertilizers additional during the year if needed.
I'm cheap and lazy and I like growing the usual veggies in my raised beds. At the end of each growing season I add about 3" of compost to the top of my beds then cover them with leaves which I remove in spring. Sometimes I will supplement with fish fertilizer for my corn. Maybe a splash or two on my tomatoes and peppers. I heavily mulch my beds during the growing season and water with an automated drip system. And that's because I live in a semi-desert climate. Even though I do the same things in my garden every year, some years some crops do better than others. Not a big deal. I've learned that's just the nature of gardening. Gardening is simple.
I use some of everything including 10-10-10 and miracle gro. Had the best Ambrosia Cantelope ever! If you’ve never had it, it’s the BEST you’ll ever taste! Add epsom salt to muscadine one time and got about 13 lbs for jelly and wine. I just have a small backyard garden but my freezer was pretty full of Roma green beans, Silver Queen corn(10-10-10, miracle gro and chicken poop), purple hulls, carrots, broccoli, lettuce and lots of collards which got a little compost and chicken poop. It was a great year and I learned alot from your channel so thanks! ❤. Potatoes are still a work in progress but i got quite a few good size ones this time. Going to try Kennebec next time for better storage I hope. Zone 7. Happy Holidays! 🦃 🌲
Thank you for this video. It's very important and needs to be said more. A couple of tidbits from myself about those "trying to replicate nature" methods. 1. Woodchips are not natural. They are processed. There are no woodchips or shredded wood in nature. Using them is not replicating nature. It's controlling nature. 2. Soil disturbance and even some digging is natural. Squirrels dig. Moles really dig. Skunks dig. Bears will dig. In my garden I have dogs, birds, an occasional skunk and raccoon, and squirrels. All of them disturb the soil in some way. And my garden is just fine. One shouldn't feel guilty for using a tiller or spade in your soil.
Well said Travis!! I’ve been gardening now going on 30+ years now and I feel I get a little better at it each year. Good channels like yours and a few others provide wonderful resources for gardeners. I ignore the fads and conspiracy nuts - I figure they can play together in their own little sandbox. Hope you and the family had a great Thanksgiving. What did you fix from your garden?
I agree. What’s more they show picture perfect gardens and some pretty detailed and demanding ways of growing stuff. On thing I love about gardening is that you can let nature do most of the work. A good seed wants to sprout and grow and will if given halfway decent soil and enough water. And That’s our job. The size of the plant or the yield might not be as high as possible but that’s something to work on next year. It’s a long term project most of us won’t starve if our efforts aren’t perfect but we have learn a lot to help us in next year s garden
I found that a simple compost tea does take care of any lack in nutrients. Super cheap to make as well, throw in stinging nettles, cow patties.. use what you have around! Get a few fish, a pound of sugar and a few gallons of water, after a few months it’s ready and have great results!
Hey y'all, The best thing or way to garden is to wear a stocking cap while you garden even in the hot summer. Because you need that to cover the aluminum foil helmet you wear underneath cause folks ain't gonna understand why you got that helmet on. Long sleeves will cover up the 13 copper bracelets you got on also.
Been gardening nearly all my life and never have I grown a garden that didn’t need fertilizer. Organic or conventional. Organic fertilizer is definitely beneficial and helps soil biology but that takes years to perfect, regardless you still have to feed or fertilize your plants. Without fertilizer plant productivity suffers and often results in smaller plants and produce. You definitely have to be careful with social media Travis because a lot of the information is unrealistic or flat out false. Well said Travis!
Plants "eat atoms"/Nutrients, and they have to come from somewhere, especially after you use the same soil/medium several times. The trick is to find good, clean sources that don't cost and arm and a leg, but that's what the chickens, compost , etc...are for.
I have been gardening on a small backyard plot for a few years. I have watched the hype for some of the new growing methods!! I use raised beds mostly now to save space and obtain a larger crop of vegetables. I compost, make my own garden soils, potting and starter mixes. I use all types of fertilizers mostly to feed certain crops that need a certain ratio of NKP. Vertical Gardening is a must. Knowing what grows in your area the best is a learning experience that takes time. Only growing items that the family will consume is another important factor of what goes in my garden. Love to watch Lazy Dog Farms, Sandy Bottom Homestead, Living Traditions, and The Millennial Gardner to name a few. Watch a lot of smaller You Tube channels related to my growing Area 8B in North Carolina.
This is why I follow you, you pull back the veil on all the hoopla!! And I fertilize no matter what, mostly just a little at planting time and as it looks like my plants need it.
Nice video Travis. I do no dig and use mushroom compost and a little natural fertilizers. I add about an inch of compost once a year in the fall. But i am like you, the soil is going to need something added to it from time to time. Also, as the old saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat. I have not been watching very many gardening video's for the last few yrs and have been wondering what happened to you at Hoss tools. I had no idea that you had a you tube gardening channel until today. Glad i found you.
This video is an example of why I like your channel so much. Who really knows what is "natural" for growing vegetables when, as you said, they don't exist naturally where I live. * * * * I do have a question for your concerning tomatoes. You had a couple varieties of tomatoes that you grew this year that looked phenomenal and produced a lot of fruit. Could you tell me again what those varieties were and where to obtain the seeds? My wife and I grew Big Beef tomatoes exclusively for years because she liked them best for canning, and they did produce well in our area of SW Missouri. I have come to realize that the late tomatoes in the fall just don't have the good tomato flavor of a heritage variety which I grew along with my Big Beefs.
Sorry, I should have specified "indeterminate". I should have also asked where to obtain a few seeds of the varieties that you liked. Thanks for your first answer. Just got my computer fixed yesterday so am just now seeing it.@@LazyDogFarm
Spot on. I think it's important for more people to get into gardening on a home scale. Wether they want to garden in pots or raised beds or in ground. No till, back to eden, traditional till or whatever just get out there and try growing something!
I agree 100% especially in raised beds. I use a ton of compost and blood/bone meals, compost teas, rock dust, etc. That said I am not opposed to a 10-10-10 when necessary especially in a new raised bed. I wanna EAT!!! 😂 I can’t get me no mater sammich if I just let everything shrivel and die! Hope yall had a great Thanksgiving. Hugs to the babies. God bless you all. ~Lisa
Great video. I have been doing no dig for the last 5 years and have tried just compost and no added fertilizer. The results have been good on some things but my cabbage definitely lacked and needed additional feed.
I agree. People have been fertilizing crops for thousands of years. No-till has it's advantages of preserving a biome that you might have been trying to create but it takes time...sometimes years. I'm a believer in natural fertilizers(manure, blood meal, a commercial mix etc.) as synthetic types have a tendency to wreak havoc on the biome, but again they also release slower. We don't have the luxury of millions of bison (and mammoth) mob grazing back and forth across our garden plots as happened in Mid America for thousands of years naturally creating some of the most fertile soil on the planet. If you are growing your own food, do what ever works for you. If all you can do is heavy tilling and synthetic fertilizer then go for it. Your little back yard garden is not going to ruin the planet :)
Man your videos are always so perfectly timed! I was JUST thinking about this yesterday bc I watched one of those videos where they only feed their garden compost and I was like hmmm, yeah it looks nice, but how much nicer would it look if you fed your damn plants? Lol it also always has me second guessing myself, so should I really be feeding them this much? Lol
Preach it, brother! So much “hooey” out there! I’m a big fan of compost, but I’ve yet to see an analysis of it that tells me just how rich/poor it is (N,P,K, trace elements, etc), so we really don’t know exactly what we’re putting down and what it is, or isn’t, providing our gardens. I file most of that propaganda away with the other “fad” things we see thrown around. (You know what they are! 😉)
Well, this year (year 1 in new raised beds with new compost) I didn’t feed much. I saw that next year I need to feed a LOT more but I’m learning and have already started making a huge batch of compost tea as well as a couple of buckets with water, cuttings from the garden and some fish so hopefully next year will be a better harvest.
Travis, I think your knowledge and research on every subject that you present to us, your lazy dog fam, is always so impeccably done and presented. I appreciate your hard work and the fact that you have not mislead me. I have learned so much from you and I have implemented so much in my own life and garden. One request, I would love it if you and your wife would do more cooking videos.
Very good and informative video as always. I generally check out two or more ways on the subject to make an informed decision. I must call you out on the "only" way or best method that you use. I disagree on your theory on everything doing better when you use a "Dawgs" bucket or cup. LOL
I agree with you for the mast part. I cant speak on the no-till . I have some really hard Tn brown clay, It has to be worked if you want to dig. Until it rained 2 or 3 nights ago, a garden tiller would do much more than stir up the dust! The key is what you said about the businesses down the road, You have to give plants what the want/need!
The best way to garden is the way that gets you into the garden!! The more gardening the better whether in pots with miracle grow or in a food forest, if you’re growing food you’re winning. Love this channel :)
Wow! This! Thank you so much. I am a gardener, but not the best gardener. I have fed into these theories. Making me feel bad because it really doesn't work well. I will adjust my gardening thinking. Am in the process of binging on your content. 👩🏼🌾🧑🏼🌾👨🏼🌾
I think you are spot on ,,as usual,,I watch from the mountains of North Carolina and enjoy seeing you always ahead of me in your garden ,,,lol,,, by the time I get to see the videos they are just right timing to get me in gear for what I should be doing next ,,,you would love it up here but it would frustrate you immensely,,,we have had five nights in the forties since the first day of June lol ,,so it is just now time to plant cucumbers lol,,however ,I have ripe cabbage, squash,lettuce,,broccoli, and the tomato plants are hanging full of green tomatoes n five foot tall.
Great video Travis! I have heard some of those things and thought to myself that they didn't make sense. I am glad I am not the only one who questions things. Keep up the great work.
I love your cover crops with the chickens! I can’t have chickens where I live so I started an indoor worm bin. I’m hoping it will help me look forward to spring and gardening throughout winter here in 5B.
You have some very valid points.Not everyone has the ability to produce enough compost for their gardens. I use a combination of organic and some synthetic fertilizer. I use the synthetic sparingly. The organic matter in the soil is extremely important to a healthy garden for the fungis and bacteria to break down the matter into usable nutrients and that takes time. Vegetables need more nutrition than what's available in the soil.
You are absolutely right! I haven’t grown anything since I was a kid and I started late this year because work took away from getting started. I didn’t believe the hype anyway. If you want some food, then plant it and get what you get. If you want more food, then you have to at least feed your plants some decent nutrients and water to get them to make more than a few fruits.
You’ve got a point and a half. Long game nature does what it wants whether you like it or not. We do not know everything about how soil works with plants. We know what plants need in terms of food but as it stands even the experts will tell you it is still a mystery how roots and organisms work together. For moi gardening is a wip.
I think a balance is a good way. Maybe not the best way but somewhere in the middle leaves room for tweaks. I finally have enough castings to start to test the different recipes. On a bigger scale than just a container. Fingers cross. But if it works it might be away to save on the fertilizer if there budget issues
I enjoyed the common sense approach you take here. I look at things the same way. The only thing that keeps me from fertilizing more is $. That’s the truth! Here in Texas we call them puh-cahns.😉😂. Sure enjoy your videos and I think you have an excellent method of gardening. If I had a pinch more room, I would replicate your method exactly. Keep up the good work.
The last time I talked to a Master gardeners class I told them even if they want to go all organic, just cheat the first year and add synthetic fertilizer to their new raised beds. It takes time to get a raised bed to the proper nutrient level, so why wait. I have no problem with experienced gardeners going with back to eden or other garden methods, but for new gardeners I always suggest using a proper amount of fertilizer, and not to be scared of synthetic fertilizer.
That's very true in a sense, though the way you worded it is a bit misleading. It's VERY rarely a matter of "getting a garden up to the proper nutrient level". It's that organic fertilizers require soil biology to make those nutrients plant ready. Synthetic fertilizers don't need soil biology, they come in plant ready formats out of the box. A new bed (usually built in the spring or at best the late fall) doesn't have time to get that soil biology up to the proper levels... you can throw in all the organic fertilizer in you want... the soil will have plenty of "nutrients"... and little to none of it will be able to be used by your plants.
@@Metalgarn Yeah, I guess I should have said getting a garden up to the proper available nutrient level, but new gardeners may not even know what available nutrients means.
When I make a new raised bed and fill it up, I put in some of my soil blend, then put compost up top in the first like 6-7 inches. Then I mix in a very good organic fertilizer heavily onto the bed just to get it nice and loaded as it wont have many nutrients out of the gate, then I use Purple Cow Organics. CX1 product to add a bunch of soil microbes and add another mycorrhizae inoculant on top of that and redo that inoculant weekly for the first 2 months adds a ton of soil life to the bed and it gets going really fast and then as I plant stuff and grow it and then rotate to other crops I just keep mixing in new fertilizer.
Here in the US we approach gardening as an "additive" process. Good soil stewrdship is a "transformative" endeavor that takes time. Results are rarely instantaneous as a result and therefore disappointing. I had much better soil success when I realized changes would not be immediate and developed an implementation procudure for new beds & maintenance of older beds for better soil health. I have better CEC (much less mineral lock-up) & find that I can forego some organic fertilizer applications if I've covercropped, applied vermicompost & deep mulch.
100% agreed! I have my annual beds and I have my fruit orchard. I work to replicate the fruit orchard as much like nature but still give the fruit trees organic fertilizers and have them on drip irrigation This is true especially after a big harvest of fruit to replenish what was taken (and not rotting on the ground below and returning to the soil). My annual beds r low till, all organic fertilizers but even if I went 20 years of no till I wouldn’t not add anything for the soil biology to feed on. You can always make your own fish emulsion, compost and such to keep the costs even lower but my goal is abundant , nutritious food !
You got a tree grows pee cans? How you use those? You do know there's running water and you don't have to use a pee can to keep from running to the outhouse at night. HAHAHA! Couldn't resist. It's pahkahns..... LOL!
At my old house gardening "naturally" my harvests got poorer and poorer every year. Here at the new house, I have several different fertilizers and we are getting great results so far. I still have a compost bin and will add that to the garden too but so far the fertilizer works best.
I would like to learn more on how to make the no-till method work in my garden. How do you keep the weeds down and achieve results like your beautiful garden beds.
We still have to weed the no-till plots as much as we do the other plots. Wind, birds, and water will always deliver new weed seeds to your garden, regardless if you're no-till or not.
Do you amend lots of compost and let the worms to the tilling? I get odd weeds and such from wind and wildlife as well. Some not so friendly. Recently had the Chinese Privet invade my place. Very invasive. Looks like an elderberry.
No till and no fertilizer. Here is what I experienced. I have several plots and several raised beds. All of my plots were filled at one time but have not been tilled in the last 5 years. I haven’t added fertilizer in over 8 years. None other than I add some bone meal and blood meal, worm casing in the holes of my tomato plants. I’ve grown my tomatoes in the same exact spot for 8 years. My tomatoes grow great and no blossom end rot or desease and they are big and taste good. Same goes for my peppers. I did have a lot of issues growing onions. I didn’t fertilize so I was wondering if, but now I grow tons of softball size onions, so what changed. I got the right variety and stopped buying sets from the stores and start my own….and….i now water them more. I think water was the game changer. My brassicas have done well without rotations and fertize …however my broccoli and cabbage production has gone down and more insect pressure….inside no sprays and eat around the bugs. But I’m wondering if my soil is now getting weak, so I’m thinking about adding fertilizer this next season to my drip irrigation I’ve done well with potatoes, tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers and collards squash and lettuce and but have struggled with carrots, broccoli, celery My raised beds are not that productive…I think it’s watering so this fall I followed your lead and added irrigation and will add fertilizer to my beds Now I make my own compost from grass clippings and sawdust. I add compost on top and that’s it. I mulch on top with grass clippings and compost Tow years ago I went with plastic garden rolls to reduce weed pressure and my work. My soils is alive with worms. One season I never even watered at all and did decent. The compost and mulch made the difference and in my mind, because my soil was covered with mulch and compost and I didn’t till, my soils stayed alive with minimal to no watering. But like I said I now use drip irrigation but sparingly. I think I’m going to try your fertilizer next season and I’m going to try sweet corn in a raised bed with drip irrigation and fertilizer. Haven’t decided which variety yet. Live in zone 6a but it will one of these, any suggestions A. Temptress B. Honey Select C. Yellowstone D. American Dream
But if I remove the antennas the plants can't listen to music, which increases their stress levels, which cause less production.....you mean this isn't true?
A video should be made to compare what fertilizer equivalents would look like in a real scenario ..for example enough 10-10-10 to side dress a few tomato plants versus what that fertilizer application would look like if you didnt use pellet fertilizer but instead made the organc equivalent and show what it takes to match it to be an equal to 10-10-10 like biochar bone meal worm castings wood pot ash or manures of whatever type animal etc. Thats what is usually missing is a direct comparison where you have to see how much front loaded work well before hand it takes to achieve the same result rather than buying pelletized bag at your local co op.. in one you drive to the store and its a quick trip to town.. the other is multiple 6 month to 2 year long cycles with labor and time inputs that you gotta already have done the moment those tomatoes are planted and now its time to fertilize them.. thats what people dont usually think about..
We know that phosphorus can stay in the soil for a while so the phosphorus needs can be satisfied by no-till manure application. Not sure about the rest of the plant nutrients.
Hi Travis, Hope y’all had a nice Thanksgiving. How long does it take before I see broccoli heads on my broccoli? My plants look great but I don’t see any heads yet. My plants are about 2 feet tall maybe more.I started them off in a red solo cup back in July then I planted them in pot September 16,2023
I imagine things might be different, up North. LOL Organic matter lasts longer in the soil up there. I would imagine the breakdown of nitrogen is slower? Would it be possible to grow big cabbage on the amount of nitrogen released by a legume cover crop, if you could time the release with cabbage head formation? The nitrogen from a terminated legume cover crop is only available for uptake by the next crop for a limited time. I imagine in a hot, highly active soil in south Georgia the time would be much shorter.
I agree, and here where there is hard compacted clay soil, you have to amend or till at some point to get a decent plant to grow. Next year i am going to switch from the higher nitrogen 12-10-5 fertilizers to a 8-5-5 organic, just because the high nitrogen can hurt the root biology. but i’m still fertilizing them and using homemade compost
Agreed , but with the world as it is today I find peace in my heart knowing that the secret is shared with those like minded people who are in search of the truth so that they too can one day set old prejudices aside for the betterment of mankind. @@aileensmith3062
I'm in Texas so it's hotter and dryer, I'm 66 yrs old, last year I used blood and bone meal and my veggies where ok I did put on a lot of water. Now this yr after seeing some of your veggies I fertilized at planting and 1 or two more times after that . My potato plants went crazy. I got onions to bulb (never happened before) still not as big as yours,only baseball size but progress none the less. So you keep teaching and giving us your opinion
I think the issue we need to worry over is not how to grow food without fertilizer but rather how to fertilize with having access to commercial inputs .
I completely agree with you Travis.
Best advice I have gotten from RUclips is to reduce the “weed seed bank”.
👏👏👏 well said, Trav. I think part of the draw to those methods is the hope to set up a system that requires the least amount of human intervention/effort possible. Sure would be nice to “set it and forget it”. But in my experience, the presence, knowledge, and actions of the gardener have the biggest impact on the results we get.
Its true..my grand pa always had a picture perfect HUGE garden...made it look easy as hell...NO DRIP TAPE THO. but i didnt see the planting and fertilizing weeding and i KNOW HE USED DDT...hell i didnt see the picking much...just the weekend eating..then i think of the his basement with jars upon jars my grandma and aunt did. Hell i cant get a cabbage to grow bigger than a baseball....im pushing 80 and Sure as hell do not know how he did it physically...tho it makes me real happy to give away food...and to eat some of it..
Btw...costs me a fortune to do this. I just found an old video u did about spoon feeding tomatoes...and another about brassicas and what they need. And now know why those cabbages are so tiny!!!! I GOT ON AMAZON AND ORDERED THE FERTLIZERS...LOL..MU H EASIER FOR ME THAN GETTING IN THE TRUCK AND TOTTING IT HERE...BUT ACCORDING TO U I MISSED MY WINDOW OF USING IT.
Thanks for this great information! I needed to hear it.
Well said. I'm an organic farmer from Australia and I see too many people listening to the latest hype..
We use a rotary hoe. We till the soil regularly. We add stupid amounts of compost, trace minerals, cover crops... We do not replicate nature.. We manipulate it.
Crops look great!
Big ups from down under :)
Bet you have a garden full of eats too. 😊😊😊. The way it should be.
I use fertilizer and always will. Things just don't grow without the proper components. My soil is far from perfect.
@@JanetLavoie I do not think there is anything wrong with tilling and fertilizer when they are used properly.
If your soil is lackluster I hope you grow a cover crop while your garden is idle. The addition of manure is also beneficial to your garden.
Thank you Travis. I have seen some of the things you talked about and I really don’t know where people come up with stuff. Love watching you garden.
I absolutely believe in compost and generous mulch. They are great benefits to the soil, both microbial and fungal. I also believe in minimal tilling. But i am a firm believer in natural soil additives as fertilizer. Bone, blood meal feather meal, wood ash and any other good food for plants is usually good food for me. Oh yes, don't forget copious amounts of animal poo.
💯
And that is my point. If you want to go natural cycle in your garden, you need to take your dump there. And with that there are other problems like illnesses and vermin. So... it is definitely not working as advertised.
Excellent video as usual...you figure out pretty quickly that "replicating nature" and "growing plants under optimized conditions" are two different things. Sub-optimal harvests were probably why people started isolating their gardens in the first place. 👍
Amen!😊
I personally think people are looking for the best tasting crops in the garden, instead of the BIGGEST veggys & fruits. They attribute chemical fertilizer with bitter tasting vegetables and fruits because of an over abundance of salts it puts in the soil. Long ago I had delivered a few cubic yards of compost and made tea a lot. The plants grew great and tasted great without the need for other stuff in those years. You, yourself, use organic agrothrive. Most people are just looking for organic alternatives to the the blue stuff. BUT EVERYTHING IS CHEMICALS WHEN IT COMES RIGHT DOWN TO IT. You are a 'master' in the garden and have the midas touch to grow just about anything your climate allows. Congrats.
When I watched the Back to Eden video, I noticed the chicken fertilizer he was putting down, that’s the secret, wood chips just retained moisture.
Right on, right on Mr. Travis!
Well said, I’m 54 and have only been gardening for a few years. I look for advice from old timers who were gardeners before RUclipsrs. Love your channel, Hoss Tools, and Hollis & Nancy. You all each bring something to table for me, and I’m more successful each year. Enjoy the content, keep up the great work! Have a blessed day✝️🇺🇸
I think it’s all In what people want, but I agree that input in, must also meet input out. It’s an unobtainable system to expect permanent and unlimited growth without supplementing something in.
You said it best though, you can grow stuff without inputs, but most of us want to maximize the work we put in. I am no till, mulch and cover crop all day long, but heavy feeders still need inputs.
I have learned that water and fertilizer are very important in garden! Just do what you need to do.
Charles Dowding just only adds 1-2” of additional compost to his gardens every Fall. That’s it. I was trying to convince him he still needs to supplement to match the nitrogen growth profiles of hybrids, like commercial corn varieties, and onions. Developed hybrids have been tailored with a certain lifecycle nutrient expectation to achieve best results.
It takes a long time to build your soil and it is an ongoing process. I am in north florida with a loamy sand, heavy on the sand. I put much organic matter on my garden every year because my climate breaks it down fast and washes it through the soil. I also use commercial fertilizer. I need all the help I can get from every quarter.
Half my fertilizers are commercial grade and some I get from a local farmer who buys too much and then sells me some at a discount. Its the good stuff.
I am planning on moving to Florida at some point. Not sure when though. Florida gardening is going to be a real challenge to growing in North Carolina, zone 8a.
My garden has 18 inches of sand..I add compost..covercrops..and organic and light amounts of chemical fertilizer..mulches and lots of weeding...soil types make a huge difference in technique..growing in Texas
I think you’re right on point. It’s about being knowledgeable about the plants you grow and giving them what makes them thrive. Cover cropping and composting right along with it.
I tried the no fertilizer thing and my plants productivity suffered. I have short growing season and found that giving that boost of fertilizer really makes a difference. 😊
Good stuff Travis. I wouldn't hate on anyone using what they need to grow food. We lean heavy on minimum digging and organic inputs (fertilizers and sprays) ourselves. Homemade compost, diverse mulches , DFSW, etc. Got a cover crop of rye and peas in the beds now to promote soil life and improve crops next spring. I appreciate your work Sir .
Finally a sensible video, thank you for all you do. I am a new gardener with terrible Florida soil to amend, my third year and yes fertilizer is important.
Interesting. I’ve never seen the claim of no fertilizer with the no dig method. Personally, I have seen people say use no dig but add fertilizer and compost so as to not till up the weed seeds. The copper electro craze definitely got a side eye from me 😂
What drives me crazy is my mother in law constantly telling me what “organic” method I need to try. For example, putting orange peels around my plants or soaking banana peels in water for fertilizer. She sees something on social media and tells me to do it. AND to be fair, she’s from up north and doesn’t garden that much. I’m just going to keep watching you and the few other RUclipsrs I trust to get my gardening info. Anyway, thanks for the video!
Man, all these organic gardeners are like that. Remind me of vegans actually.
Nothing wrong with synthetic fertilizer in one’s garden
Check out Charles Dowding. He just only adds 1-2" of compost every fall, no till. NO FERTILIZER. Swears by it. I think he could do better by supplementing with fertilizer, organic, synthetic, or animal based manure.
Charles Dowding who is basically the grandfather of no till, doesn't use fertilizers at all (at least according to him, I can't personally vouch for that).
But he does use ample supplies of quality compost every year, which does feed the soil biology and add nutrients into the soil.
Personally I have no problem throwing in some organic fertilizers, since I can't produce the quality (or quantity) of compost he does.
The primary reason for not tilling, isn't the concern of bringing up weed seeds, it is to disrupt the soil biology as little as possible. Limiting weed pressure is just a side benefit.
Soil biology is really the key aspect in no till.
Why does soil biology matter? Many of your organic or "natural" fertilizers are not "plant ready", meaning plants can't benefit from them directly. These fertilizers require soil biology to break them down into a plant ready format.
You aren't going to have much luck with organic fertilizers if you are tilling your garden once or twice a year... while synthetic fertilizers don't need the soil biology to become plant ready. If you need to till a new bed (or even create a new raised bed filled with store bought soil), synthetic fertilizer for the first year is the better option as it takes time for the soil biology to get properly established.
In my limited experience, a general no till approach, with compost and some organic fertilizers works great and requires less overall fertilizer (and other chemicals) then the tilled and synthetic fertilizer approach. Both methods are fully capable of growing food though, which ultimately is the main point.
One other aside... the tilling/synthetic approach does (back to one of your points) increase weed and pest pressure... which often leads to various herbicides and pesticides... that in turn negatively affect that soil biology and often the natural predators of many garden pests.
Basically the till/synthetic approach (i.e. the kill off your soil biology method), forces you into a cycle of dependence. You are dependent on that fertilizer every year, you are more and more dependent on those herbicides and pesticides... because your soil biology never gets a chance to recover.
@@brianczuhai8909 He does use animal manure to his compost.
@@aileensmith3062 Charles Dowding adds it as part of his compost pile which he then applies just once per year in the Fall.
I was trying to get him to add some more in the summer - as appropriate.
Travis side dresses or adds fertilizers additional during the year if needed.
I am using the deep mulch method. But I'm also using different types of manure to fertilize with. It works for me but may not work for others.
I'm cheap and lazy and I like growing the usual veggies in my raised beds. At the end of each growing season I add about 3" of compost to the top of my beds then cover them with leaves which I remove in spring. Sometimes I will supplement with fish fertilizer for my corn. Maybe a splash or two on my tomatoes and peppers.
I heavily mulch my beds during the growing season and water with an automated drip system. And that's because I live in a semi-desert climate.
Even though I do the same things in my garden every year, some years some crops do better than others. Not a big deal. I've learned that's just the nature of gardening.
Gardening is simple.
I use some of everything including 10-10-10 and miracle gro. Had the best Ambrosia Cantelope ever! If you’ve never had it, it’s the BEST you’ll ever taste! Add epsom salt to muscadine one time and got about 13 lbs for jelly and wine. I just have a small backyard garden but my freezer was pretty full of Roma green beans, Silver Queen corn(10-10-10, miracle gro and chicken poop), purple hulls, carrots, broccoli, lettuce and lots of collards which got a little compost and chicken poop. It was a great year and I learned alot from your channel so thanks! ❤. Potatoes are still a work in progress but i got quite a few good size ones this time. Going to try Kennebec next time for better storage I hope. Zone 7. Happy Holidays! 🦃 🌲
Ha! "Yard nuts!" Never heard that one before!
The way I see it is everything you take from the garden you should put equal back( add more to build soil)
Thank you for this video. It's very important and needs to be said more.
A couple of tidbits from myself about those "trying to replicate nature" methods.
1. Woodchips are not natural. They are processed. There are no woodchips or shredded wood in nature. Using them is not replicating nature. It's controlling nature.
2. Soil disturbance and even some digging is natural. Squirrels dig. Moles really dig. Skunks dig. Bears will dig. In my garden I have dogs, birds, an occasional skunk and raccoon, and squirrels. All of them disturb the soil in some way. And my garden is just fine. One shouldn't feel guilty for using a tiller or spade in your soil.
Well said Travis!! I’ve been gardening now going on 30+ years now and I feel I get a little better at it each year. Good channels like yours and a few others provide wonderful resources for gardeners. I ignore the fads and conspiracy nuts - I figure they can play together in their own little sandbox. Hope you and the family had a great Thanksgiving. What did you fix from your garden?
Made a big pot of collard greens and they were delish!
I agree. What’s more they show picture perfect gardens and some pretty detailed and demanding ways of growing stuff.
On thing I love about gardening is that you can let nature do most of the work. A good seed wants to sprout and grow and will if given halfway decent soil and enough water. And That’s our job.
The size of the plant or the yield might not be as high as possible but that’s something to work on next year. It’s a long term project most of us won’t starve if our efforts aren’t perfect but we have learn a lot to help us in next year s garden
I found that a simple compost tea does take care of any lack in nutrients. Super cheap to make as well, throw in stinging nettles, cow patties.. use what you have around!
Get a few fish, a pound of sugar and a few gallons of water, after a few months it’s ready and have great results!
Hey y'all, The best thing or way to garden is to wear a stocking cap while you garden even in the hot summer. Because you need that to cover the aluminum foil helmet you wear underneath cause folks ain't gonna understand why you got that helmet on. Long sleeves will cover up the 13 copper bracelets you got on also.
Those folks gardening in sweaters and wool hats always make me a little suspicious. lol
Been gardening nearly all my life and never have I grown a garden that didn’t need fertilizer. Organic or conventional. Organic fertilizer is definitely beneficial and helps soil biology but that takes years to perfect, regardless you still have to feed or fertilize your plants. Without fertilizer plant productivity suffers and often results in smaller plants and produce. You definitely have to be careful with social media Travis because a lot of the information is unrealistic or flat out false. Well said Travis!
Plants "eat atoms"/Nutrients, and they have to come from somewhere, especially after you use the same soil/medium several times. The trick is to find good, clean sources that don't cost and arm and a leg, but that's what the chickens, compost , etc...are for.
You have to replenish what you remove from the soil. Even nature replaces with compost/animal waste etc.
I have been gardening on a small backyard plot for a few years. I have watched the hype for some of the new growing methods!! I use raised beds mostly now to save space and obtain a larger crop of vegetables. I compost, make my own garden soils, potting and starter mixes. I use all types of fertilizers mostly to feed certain crops that need a certain ratio of NKP. Vertical Gardening is a must. Knowing what grows in your area the best is a learning experience that takes time. Only growing items that the family will consume is another important factor of what goes in my garden. Love to watch Lazy Dog Farms, Sandy Bottom Homestead, Living Traditions, and The Millennial Gardner to name a few. Watch a lot of smaller You Tube channels related to my growing Area 8B in North Carolina.
This is why I follow you, you pull back the veil on all the hoopla!! And I fertilize no matter what, mostly just a little at planting time and as it looks like my plants need it.
Nice video Travis. I do no dig and use mushroom compost and a little natural fertilizers. I add about an inch of compost once a year in the fall. But i am like you, the soil is going to need something added to it from time to time. Also, as the old saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat. I have not been watching very many gardening video's for the last few yrs and have been wondering what happened to you at Hoss tools. I had no idea that you had a you tube gardening channel until today. Glad i found you.
Glad you found us too! Welcome!
This video is an example of why I like your channel so much. Who really knows what is "natural" for growing vegetables when, as you said, they don't exist naturally where I live.
* * * * I do have a question for your concerning tomatoes. You had a couple varieties of tomatoes that you grew this year that looked phenomenal and produced a lot of fruit. Could you tell me again what those varieties were and where to obtain the seeds? My wife and I grew Big Beef tomatoes exclusively for years because she liked them best for canning, and they did produce well in our area of SW Missouri. I have come to realize that the late tomatoes in the fall just don't have the good tomato flavor of a heritage variety which I grew along with my Big Beefs.
The two determinate varieties that we grew and really like are called Red Snapper and Roadster.
Sorry, I should have specified "indeterminate". I should have also asked where to obtain a few seeds of the varieties that you liked. Thanks for your first answer. Just got my computer fixed yesterday so am just now seeing it.@@LazyDogFarm
Spot on. I think it's important for more people to get into gardening on a home scale. Wether they want to garden in pots or raised beds or in ground. No till, back to eden, traditional till or whatever just get out there and try growing something!
Well done . I agree totally. Thank you for a dose of common sense.
i'm with you 100% my brother,thanks.
I agree 100% especially in raised beds. I use a ton of compost and blood/bone meals, compost teas, rock dust, etc. That said I am not opposed to a 10-10-10 when necessary especially in a new raised bed. I wanna EAT!!! 😂 I can’t get me no mater sammich if I just let everything shrivel and die!
Hope yall had a great Thanksgiving. Hugs to the babies. God bless you all. ~Lisa
Great video. I have been doing no dig for the last 5 years and have tried just compost and no added fertilizer. The results have been good on some things but my cabbage definitely lacked and needed additional feed.
I agree. People have been fertilizing crops for thousands of years. No-till has it's advantages of preserving a biome that you might have been trying to create but it takes time...sometimes years. I'm a believer in natural fertilizers(manure, blood meal, a commercial mix etc.) as synthetic types have a tendency to wreak havoc on the biome, but again they also release slower. We don't have the luxury of millions of bison (and mammoth) mob grazing back and forth across our garden plots as happened in Mid America for thousands of years naturally creating some of the most fertile soil on the planet. If you are growing your own food, do what ever works for you. If all you can do is heavy tilling and synthetic fertilizer then go for it. Your little back yard garden is not going to ruin the planet :)
Really good info love no till i love compost i love mulch fungi microbes etc etc i also love my foxfarm products
Man your videos are always so perfectly timed! I was JUST thinking about this yesterday bc I watched one of those videos where they only feed their garden compost and I was like hmmm, yeah it looks nice, but how much nicer would it look if you fed your damn plants? Lol it also always has me second guessing myself, so should I really be feeding them this much? Lol
Preach it, brother! So much “hooey” out there! I’m a big fan of compost, but I’ve yet to see an analysis of it that tells me just how rich/poor it is (N,P,K, trace elements, etc), so we really don’t know exactly what we’re putting down and what it is, or isn’t, providing our gardens. I file most of that propaganda away with the other “fad” things we see thrown around. (You know what they are! 😉)
Well, this year (year 1 in new raised beds with new compost) I didn’t feed much. I saw that next year I need to feed a LOT more but I’m learning and have already started making a huge batch of compost tea as well as a couple of buckets with water, cuttings from the garden and some fish so hopefully next year will be a better harvest.
I feel this video hit a home run
Great video Travis
Travis, I think your knowledge and research on every subject that you present to us, your lazy dog fam, is always so impeccably done and presented. I appreciate your hard work and the fact that you have not mislead me. I have learned so much from you and I have implemented so much in my own life and garden. One request, I would love it if you and your wife would do more cooking videos.
Thanks Dianne!
Very good and informative video as always. I generally check out two or more ways on the subject to make an informed decision. I must call you out on the "only" way or best method that you use. I disagree on your theory on everything doing better when you use a "Dawgs" bucket or cup. LOL
I agree with you for the mast part. I cant speak on the no-till . I have some really hard Tn brown clay, It has to be worked if you want to dig. Until it rained 2 or 3 nights ago, a garden tiller would do much more than stir up the dust! The key is what you said about the businesses down the road, You have to give plants what the want/need!
Man Travis you are spot on! I've been gardening for several years and I have yet to plant anything without having to feed it. Love your videos buddy!
The best way to garden is the way that gets you into the garden!! The more gardening the better whether in pots with miracle grow or in a food forest, if you’re growing food you’re winning.
Love this channel :)
Wow! This! Thank you so much. I am a gardener, but not the best gardener. I have fed into these theories. Making me feel bad because it really doesn't work well. I will adjust my gardening thinking. Am in the process of binging on your content. 👩🏼🌾🧑🏼🌾👨🏼🌾
I think you are spot on ,,as usual,,I watch from the mountains of North Carolina and enjoy seeing you always ahead of me in your garden ,,,lol,,, by the time I get to see the videos they are just right timing to get me in gear for what I should be doing next ,,,you would love it up here but it would frustrate you immensely,,,we have had five nights in the forties since the first day of June lol ,,so it is just now time to plant cucumbers lol,,however ,I have ripe cabbage, squash,lettuce,,broccoli, and the tomato plants are hanging full of green tomatoes n five foot tall.
Travis, when do you plan to harvest your turmeric? Will you be making a video on it?
Probably going to harvest it early next week. And yes, I'm planning on doing a video.
Great video Travis! I have heard some of those things and thought to myself that they didn't make sense. I am glad I am not the only one who questions things. Keep up the great work.
I love your cover crops with the chickens! I can’t have chickens where I live so I started an indoor worm bin. I’m hoping it will help me look forward to spring and gardening throughout winter here in 5B.
You have some very valid points.Not everyone has the ability to produce enough compost for their gardens. I use a combination of organic and some synthetic fertilizer. I use the synthetic sparingly. The organic matter in the soil is extremely important to a healthy garden for the fungis and bacteria to break down the matter into usable nutrients and that takes time. Vegetables need more nutrition than what's available in the soil.
You are absolutely right! I haven’t grown anything since I was a kid and I started late this year because work took away from getting started. I didn’t believe the hype anyway. If you want some food, then plant it and get what you get. If you want more food, then you have to at least feed your plants some decent nutrients and water to get them to make more than a few fruits.
You’ve got a point and a half. Long game nature does what it wants whether you like it or not. We do not know everything about how soil works with plants. We know what plants need in terms of food but as it stands even the experts will tell you it is still a mystery how roots and organisms work together. For moi gardening is a wip.
Thanks for saying this 😅
I think a balance is a good way. Maybe not the best way but somewhere in the middle leaves room for tweaks. I finally have enough castings to start to test the different recipes. On a bigger scale than just a container. Fingers cross. But if it works it might be away to save on the fertilizer if there budget issues
You are perfectly correct.
I love y'all's big cabbages... Not acorns & Pine Cones 😂🤣😅
I enjoyed the common sense approach you take here. I look at things the same way. The only thing that keeps me from fertilizing more is $. That’s the truth! Here in Texas we call them puh-cahns.😉😂. Sure enjoy your videos and I think you have an excellent method of gardening. If I had a pinch more room, I would replicate your method exactly. Keep up the good work.
I agree brother; there are many ways to grow food. Some more productive than others, some silly…
The last time I talked to a Master gardeners class I told them even if they want to go all organic, just cheat the first year and add synthetic fertilizer to their new raised beds. It takes time to get a raised bed to the proper nutrient level, so why wait. I have no problem with experienced gardeners going with back to eden or other garden methods, but for new gardeners I always suggest using a proper amount of fertilizer, and not to be scared of synthetic fertilizer.
That's a great point!
That's very true in a sense, though the way you worded it is a bit misleading.
It's VERY rarely a matter of "getting a garden up to the proper nutrient level".
It's that organic fertilizers require soil biology to make those nutrients plant ready.
Synthetic fertilizers don't need soil biology, they come in plant ready formats out of the box.
A new bed (usually built in the spring or at best the late fall) doesn't have time to get that soil biology up to the proper levels... you can throw in all the organic fertilizer in you want... the soil will have plenty of "nutrients"... and little to none of it will be able to be used by your plants.
@@Metalgarn Yeah, I guess I should have said getting a garden up to the proper available nutrient level, but new gardeners may not even know what available nutrients means.
When I make a new raised bed and fill it up, I put in some of my soil blend, then put compost up top in the first like 6-7 inches. Then I mix in a very good organic fertilizer heavily onto the bed just to get it nice and loaded as it wont have many nutrients out of the gate, then I use Purple Cow Organics. CX1 product to add a bunch of soil microbes and add another mycorrhizae inoculant on top of that and redo that inoculant weekly for the first 2 months adds a ton of soil life to the bed and it gets going really fast and then as I plant stuff and grow it and then rotate to other crops I just keep mixing in new fertilizer.
Good words!
Thanks Travis
You are right on base
Here in the US we approach gardening as an "additive" process. Good soil stewrdship is a "transformative" endeavor that takes time. Results are rarely instantaneous as a result and therefore disappointing.
I had much better soil success when I realized changes would not be immediate and developed an implementation procudure for new beds & maintenance of older beds for better soil health.
I have better CEC (much less mineral lock-up) & find that I can forego some organic fertilizer applications if I've covercropped, applied vermicompost & deep mulch.
I think you are exactly right!
100% agreed!
I have my annual beds and I have my fruit orchard. I work to replicate the fruit orchard as much like nature but still give the fruit trees organic fertilizers and have them on drip irrigation This is true especially after a big harvest of fruit to replenish what was taken (and not rotting on the ground below and returning to the soil).
My annual beds r low till, all organic fertilizers but even if I went 20 years of no till I wouldn’t not add anything for the soil biology to feed on. You can always make your own fish emulsion, compost and such to keep the costs even lower but my goal is abundant , nutritious food !
You got a tree grows pee cans? How you use those? You do know there's running water and you don't have to use a pee can to keep from running to the outhouse at night. HAHAHA! Couldn't resist. It's pahkahns..... LOL!
You probably say "carmel" too. lol
At my old house gardening "naturally" my harvests got poorer and poorer every year. Here at the new house, I have several different fertilizers and we are getting great results so far. I still have a compost bin and will add that to the garden too but so far the fertilizer works best.
I would like to learn more on how to make the no-till method work in my garden. How do you keep the weeds down and achieve results like your beautiful garden beds.
We still have to weed the no-till plots as much as we do the other plots. Wind, birds, and water will always deliver new weed seeds to your garden, regardless if you're no-till or not.
Do you amend lots of compost and let the worms to the tilling? I get odd weeds and such from wind and wildlife as well. Some not so friendly. Recently had the Chinese Privet invade my place. Very invasive. Looks like an elderberry.
Yep! I don't see the insects interested in nature, as much as the plants i grow!
Great information live the video
Great advice... 😊
No till and no fertilizer. Here is what I experienced. I have several plots and several raised beds. All of my plots were filled at one time but have not been tilled in the last 5 years.
I haven’t added fertilizer in over 8 years. None other than I add some bone meal and blood meal, worm casing in the holes of my tomato plants. I’ve grown my tomatoes in the same exact spot for 8 years. My tomatoes grow great and no blossom end rot or desease and they are big and taste good. Same goes for my peppers.
I did have a lot of issues growing onions. I didn’t fertilize so I was wondering if, but now I grow tons of softball size onions, so what changed. I got the right variety and stopped buying sets from the stores and start my own….and….i now water them more. I think water was the game changer.
My brassicas have done well without rotations and fertize …however my broccoli and cabbage production has gone down and more insect pressure….inside no sprays and eat around the bugs. But I’m wondering if my soil is now getting weak, so I’m thinking about adding fertilizer this next season to my drip irrigation
I’ve done well with potatoes, tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers and collards squash and lettuce and but have struggled with carrots, broccoli, celery
My raised beds are not that productive…I think it’s watering so this fall I followed your lead and added irrigation and will add fertilizer to my beds
Now I make my own compost from grass clippings and sawdust. I add compost on top and that’s it. I mulch on top with grass clippings and compost
Tow years ago I went with plastic garden rolls to reduce weed pressure and my work.
My soils is alive with worms. One season I never even watered at all and did decent. The compost and mulch made the difference and in my mind, because my soil was covered with mulch and compost and I didn’t till, my soils stayed alive with minimal to no watering.
But like I said I now use drip irrigation but sparingly.
I think I’m going to try your fertilizer next season and I’m going to try sweet corn in a raised bed with drip irrigation and fertilizer. Haven’t decided which variety yet. Live in zone 6a but it will one of these, any suggestions
A. Temptress
B. Honey Select
C. Yellowstone
D. American Dream
Yeah I've watched some of those videos and I'm inclined to believe I need to feed my plants, so I do.
But if I remove the antennas the plants can't listen to music, which increases their stress levels, which cause less production.....you mean this isn't true?
I'm afraid not. lol
A video should be made to compare what fertilizer equivalents would look like in a real scenario
..for example enough 10-10-10 to side dress a few tomato plants versus what that fertilizer application would look like if you didnt use pellet fertilizer but instead made the organc equivalent and show what it takes to match it to be an equal to 10-10-10 like biochar bone meal worm castings wood pot ash or manures of whatever type animal etc. Thats what is usually missing is a direct comparison where you have to see how much front loaded work well before hand it takes to achieve the same result rather than buying pelletized bag at your local co op.. in one you drive to the store and its a quick trip to town.. the other is multiple 6 month to 2 year long cycles with labor and time inputs that you gotta already have done the moment those tomatoes are planted and now its time to fertilize them.. thats what people dont usually think about..
Great video. Got to feed it.
Hey Travis I just one question it is very off topic/ subject but where do you get your cover crop seeds from?
I get most of them from Green Cover Seed online.
We know that phosphorus can stay in the soil for a while so the phosphorus needs can be satisfied by no-till manure application. Not sure about the rest of the plant nutrients.
I always bury me a speckled trout under my copper coils when I replicate nature in the garden soil.
That's the only way to do it IMO.
Hi Travis, Hope y’all had a nice Thanksgiving. How long does it take before I see broccoli heads on my broccoli? My plants look great but I don’t see any heads yet. My plants are about 2 feet tall maybe more.I started them off in a red solo cup back in July then I planted them in pot September 16,2023
It can depend on the weather a lot this time of year. But if you've got large plants, you're well on your way to having some big heads of broccoli.
@@LazyDogFarm Thank you!!
I imagine things might be different, up North. LOL
Organic matter lasts longer in the soil up there. I would imagine the breakdown of nitrogen is slower?
Would it be possible to grow big cabbage on the amount of nitrogen released by a legume cover crop, if you could time the release with cabbage head formation? The nitrogen from a terminated legume cover crop is only available for uptake by the next crop for a limited time. I imagine in a hot, highly active soil in south Georgia the time would be much shorter.
I'm sure it is much different up north where nutrients are retained and organic matter is preserved for much longer.
I just put my TV in the garden as the evening news is full of BS
😂😂 oh that was good 😂😂
Excellent! 😅
NPK of 6-6-6
I think that manure they’re making is void of any nutrition
That's using your knogin.
Fertilizer aversion… compost is great depending on what is going into the compost.
I agree, and here where there is hard compacted clay soil, you have to amend or till at some point to get a decent plant to grow. Next year i am going to switch from the higher nitrogen 12-10-5 fertilizers to a 8-5-5 organic, just because the high nitrogen can hurt the root biology. but i’m still fertilizing them and using homemade compost
Electroculture only works if you rub the copper coils in Snake Oil first
🤣
... counterclockwise...important detail!😊
Have you priced REAL Snake Oil lately? Of course we still get the free Ninja Knives with every order!
@@petersoos498 And know you share this Ancient Chinese Secret ................................... geesh!
Agreed , but with the world as it is today I find peace in my heart knowing that the secret is shared with those like minded people who are in search of the truth so that they too can one day set old prejudices aside for the betterment of mankind. @@aileensmith3062
Well said