Your book on compost was just suggested by Huw Richards (I think.. sometimes I go down video rabbit holes and end up watching 7 year old stuff). I sat down and figured out that, for the next 3 years, I need to manufacture 4.78 cubic yards of compost annually to fully establish my 32" beds while maintaining my existing lay out. The prospect of sourcing 15+ cubic yards of raw organic material this year has me shell shocked. The manures in our area are compromised due to oversaturation of aminopyralids in the grass and feed markets. Even a very small local rabbit farm had their orchard grass supply compromised by "I only spray once in the spring" farmer. All state maintained roadside areas are now poisoned, we have runoff from herbicide controlled solar farms... at this point I'm considering that there may be a better market in producing clean compost and soil for gardens then there is for market produce.
@@nobodyimportant7567 it'll probably cost a million just to get set up as an organic compost maker....first find a good 50 or so acres of unpolluted farmland, then the equipment (or perhaps learn to train draft horses) but perhaps you already have land and equipment? Go for it!
What about a bottom layer of arboreal wood chips mixed with something like grass clippings or organic chicken manure in place of all soil and compost? Don’t forget you can “stretch” your compost benefits with a good compost tea.
We are researching KNF and IMO with Cornell University on our farm in upstate NY. We have a trial in progress using IMO4 vs conventional compost, store bought inoculants, and a control group. We hope to have some solid data soon.
Do you mind sharing the name of your farm? I just moved to the area and am extremely interested in learning about KNF techniques. I'm also looking to volunteer at local farms if that is something you're interested in. Thanks!
I absolutely love your attention to research and spreading fact-based information. I find it frustrating when I see farmers declaring that certain complex and questionable things they do definitively work even when there is no evidence. I think it is so refreshing and I love all your videos. For science!!!
He doesn't produce UA-cam's anymore, but you may also like the OYR (1 yard revolution) videos. I'm glad I found this no-till channel because it's similar.
Observation is the best science. None of this is new. We've just become conditioned to not allow observation to be enough. We need peer reviewed papers to believe the same practices that have been used throughout history can still be applied.
@@jarredkushnerd13 "Bio-char" has been around for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, it's nothing new at all. It's "new" now because it's trendy like compost teas was a few years ago. Observation long ago taught people that fires going through an area cleared it off and green foliage started appearing soon after. So, burn an area and then plant.
@@jarredkushnerd13 observation is great. The problem is so many people declare a cause when there were a lot of other variables involved and not even brought into consideration.
Here in Japan we have several traditional techniques to turn large amounts of bamboo or rice husks into huge quantities of biochar very quickly that could probably be adapted to other materials with a little imagination.
@@ReapingTheHarvestposted a link to somewhere that documented the entire process but it got deleted for some reason. Not really sure why. Perhaps the admins of the channel can tell us what happened to the comment and why it was deleted ? Do you have somewhere I can send you that link ?
@@ReapingTheHarvest If you search Google for "momigara kuntan" you'll find information on the technique plus the source I linked to. Hint - it's a very small forum for living in the Japanese countryside.
Jesse, Thanks for the great content... I know I’m not your target audience, as I only cultivate about 50 square feet, but I love learning new things about gardening.
My compost bins are full of leaves, and as you probably know, leaves pack flat and need to be aerated in order to break down in any reasonable time. I gather them from my yard in the fall, but don't have much green foliage to mix in until mid to late spring when my yard grows and needs trimming. (I don't have a lawn.) So, I spend spring and summer culling greens from my flower areas, mixing with the held over leaves, and putting the mixture into another bin. I put my two chickens into the bins and they churn up the heavy, wet leaves enough for me to lift. (My mother used to call chickens "little rototillers.") There must be a better way, but I haven't found it yet. Obtaining lawn clippings from neighbors in suburbia is tricky because they use chemicals or their yards are weedy, or there's other debris mixed in. Besides, what would you think if some old lady came to your door and asked for your clippings? Being gardeners, you'd want them for yourself! Being a not gardener, you'd think I was crazy. Happy gardening, one and all!
This was one of the best gardening videos I've seen as of late. I've become fascinated with no till gardening, composting, and biochar so it's all 3 in one. Great job and thank you!
Diversity of organic matter appears to be the key. I love to put straw in but no longer trust I will get herbicide free straw. I think making compost is my favorite part of gardening
I have a hot composter that has been going pretty well so far this summer. I also have a bokashi system going and I'm near zero food waste at the moment. I'm super happy that I have several ways of adding nutrients to my garden. Ironically the municipality just added a specialized food waste bin that the households are supposed to recycle into. It's a complete waste for my household lol
You don't have to use the specialized food waste bin provided by the municipality. Those bins are for households which do not compost. If you want, you can put items in it which you don't want to put into your compost. For me, that would be materials such as the top leaves of pineapple because those don't break down readily.
I would recommend starting your own pile(s) before using the community resources. You do not know the inputs used or if it was processed hot enough not to make your site conditions worse. My 2 cents.
Hey Jesse, Just got your book as a Father’s Day gift…. Extreme rookie soil nerd, but very excited to see where this leads me. Thanks for all your hard work!
Oof, yeah flood irrigation is not great for soil, for microbes, for plants. That's wild that it's required. I'm not sure if there are ways to improve it unfortunately, but I'm sure there are other people in your situation who have found work-arounds hopefully?
Thanks. This is super helpful information and well presented so it's easy to understand. I'm looking forward to your video on biochar as I'm enjoying experimenting with it myself
The information one can learn is so endlessly interesting! People ask me how I know so much about [this or that gardening topic] - I just keep learning because it's so fascinating. Your videos are in the top tier. Thanks so much!
I'm in central Texas where there's frequent droughts, so my big additive is water. I freeze kitchen scraps. To use them I add used kitchen water. Make a slurry then put on compost, it adds moisture & the food breaks down so fast.
Always ready to get nerdy! I have my first pile with biochar going right now. I used biochar in a couple of my beds last year and omg those beds are *amazing* this year!
The video was well-titled and itself next-level compost video. I have been focused on low input organic gardening to avoid time and energy "penalties", but most importantly to manage the risks around contamination and contagion. Biochar and finishing compost by feeding to worms fit well with that strategy. Thank you, your efforts are appreciated.
I added urine/chicken pellet/rainwater soaked biochar to my last two piles of compost which finished in March. They're currently under tarp maturing to be used in the fall. Great vid btw.
@@Dlrnckgoekwk The tarp is covering the compost I made through the winter. It's just thrown over the top and weighed down to stop it blowing away. Its job is to protect the compost from heavy rain and weed seeds etc. I plan to leave the tarp on until the autumn.
Growing up every year I would take the posthole digger and get down as deep as I could and added the dirt to the compost pile. We save the eggshells and put them threw the food processor, had to pick up one at a garage sale when the DW caught me. Again we would add the finely ground shells to the pile along with kitchen scraps. Great video.
Just discovered your channel!! After spending a couple of years studying up on no till gardening I jumped into this year. I learned more on one of your videos than all the research combined. I love your no nonsense approach and appreciate that you don't ramble on. Oh, and being from Kentucky I LOVED the mushroom t-shirt.
I have learned SOOOOO much from Chris Trump. I have fish fermenting and am doing the water soluble calcium with vinegar and egg shells. Mad scientists unite. It is an endlessly fascinating world - KNF. Thanks for reminding us.
I like to make " Compost Tea" from any 3 different types of manure and worm castings and water the compost at same time as plants . It seems to give a boost to finish compost that is near ready.
I'm trying to figure out how I want to do compost in our new backyard garden, so this kind of general information is perfect! Now I can decide what I need to research further and do that.
I frigging love you! Our brains are wired so similarly and your content plugs directly in 🤘😎. I'm also playing around with inputs/kmf/jadam but waiting for hard science before going all-in.
Jesse! Dude, just want to say thanks for sharing all of the content that you create! Huge blessing. I got you book, “The Living Soil Handbook” and have incorporated it into my kids school curriculum. Thanks again. You rock!
With you on everything except using more finished compost! Might be our climate, but my raised beds work better with just after heating finishes compost, lumpy and all, layered under the mulch at crop turnover. We don't have a winter rest period really either. We have a period from late November through March where it's possible to grow cool weather crops, and cover periodically from freezes. Plus it rains! (I can't begin to say how wonderful that is.) Crop turnover is the main problem for application because often it's a half crop turnover, so there is a cramped aspect to application, but the worms in the beds thrive better with the compost at that point vs the nicer looking stages. Mulch, clean uncomplicated non-problematic large quantities of mulch, is still the most difficult issue we are encountering. Does make it annoying to supply enough carbonaceous materials to the composting process. These days I'm just telling the compost it's got to work with remaining dead plant fibers, and added charcoal bits! Only issues are when I'm trying to push a large sudden quantity of meat type waste through a specific pile, but otherwise the plant debris is usually sufficient. We don't have enough soil in general on the property yet to be robbing grass clippings. After 6 years we can finally use a stainless fork to carefully dig out a shallow hole, vs needing a pickaxe, and being unsure if we are hitting a large rock or just the soil. Improvements!
My way since 3 years now: -Kitchen scraps with a lot of bananas and coffee grounds -straw -gras clippings - a lot of shredded plant material from the pruning I do a lot. -horse manure with wood chips/straw Layering this to a huge pile with a lot of straw layers in-between the Ingredients and add a little bit of molasses via watering. Turn the pile around once the temperature drops. And also I add more gras clippings and kitchen scraps everytime its getting below 60 °c. After the season I store it in a thermocomposter and worms do their stuff in there (natural, i never bought a worm). In spring I use it for everything in the garden. I do add dolomite lime before I use it, but not while the compost is being made, because I also need compost for my rhododendron (that one doesn't get the dolomite lime) Had great experience in mixing my own soil with it on peppers and tomatoes. Planning to add bio char in the future and experiment with that. Also I ordered comfreyplants, so I can harvest it as a compost component. My compost will be perfect for me one day , but I will always experiment and change stuff.
You mention Peru... Me (in Peru): 😊 We use biochar, ash, manure, vermicompost, frass and mulches. Soil has improved from the dead gray dirt it was when we first purchased our land to a rich, black, sweet smelling soil. Still improving as we work the land.
I can't express how glad I am that I found your channel. A successful farmer researching science and sharing it with his community is a real gift. I just bought your book and hope to get more great insights. Greetings from Germany.
I inoculate my compost piles with indigenous microbes by going out to the nearby forest and gathering leaf and needle litter from under the oldest trees. Partially broken down already, and scrape a few handfuls right down to mineral soil to get some of that thin layer of fully composted organic horizon. Couple 5 gallon buckets worth, and mix it into my piles. That way i get, i think, a fuller profile of existing microbes through all the stages of forest decomposition. A home brew using rice may only attract a certain subset of forest microbes that thrive on the carbohidrate rich rice. The few scrapes down to mineral soil, under my favorite maple tree, may, maybe, also gather some native mycorrhizal fungal spores. My research paper on the matter is not forthcoming 😂
Everyone should have access to a forest, or a stand of trees. That’s crazy to me that you guys say that it may be normal to not have access to a forest or a tree. Wow😖
The Living Soil Handbook is a great reference book. Thank you for everything your doing. Home Gardening in Michigan zone 5 b. This year have several beds with leaf mulch that was applied last fall. Planting into the mulched bed is interesting seeing the worms and other life. Hopefully the seeds and plants are gonna love it too......
I'm a leaf mulch believer. Be careful, however, about turning them into the soil as they have a similar effect as wood chips requiring nitrogen to break down. Learned this the hard way.
We love adding Basalt to compost, really electrifies that soil allegedly. Add a layer of biochar, then basalt on top of that followed by dried seaweed and then a sprinkle of our EM1 to inoculate the biochar and bring in the microbes to help break down our compost.
I love composting videos. I almost have as much fun composting as growing vegetables 🙃 I purchased a chipper shredder this year and have been shredding my leaves down to tiny particles which when combined with grass clippings and other yard/kitchen waste makes the composting process even faster. I also like to churn up my pile when I turn using my small rototiller to help aerate and break up any matting that's taking place. I know this disturbs the worms and microbes doing this but I feel the benefits out weight the harms. And the worms always come back!
Just bought your NTG book, and extremely impressed with the research and detail it contains. Well done, and great source of information and inspiration for a new farmer (and soon to be retired professional).
thank you...thank you...thank you...for everything you have shared in all your videos...I'm a small plant farmer and love everything you have put out...
I add Red Wigglers to my finishing stage of compost. I bought 25 RW and six months later, after feeding them vegetable scraps, dried and ground eggshells, leaves, cardboard, and coffee grounds, I had over 600 worms and multiple new eggs. All of this was done in a Tupperware container under my bathroom sink. I never smelled anything rotten. So easy! Recently, I added the lard off my cooked hamburger...and it is gone! Even though I try to avoid woodchips, I had recently read a University study where woodchips help reduce long term biohazards from pesticides. Woodchips also help absorb to much moisture. I recently found a worm who had bored all the way through the center of a wood chip. Just a thought that requires little time for a great return in the garden.
No better topic to geek out on. Time/resources only allows for me to take the guess and check method so I error on the side of diversity: shredded leaves, aged wood chips, bokashi food scraps, biochar, straw chicken bedding, goat manure, lawn clippings, basalt dust, kelp, native clay soil and run that through Ingram thermo process. Then broadcast a cover crop, straw mulch, and leave to age a good 3-6 months. Hasn’t let me down yet. Thanks so much for sharing all the wonderful knowledge Farmer Jesse!!
I'm just at home gardener but I am a high intensity maximum yield for minimum square footage home gardener. I don't have the space to do hot compost and rarely do I have a cubic yard or more of materials. But I designed a compost tumbler that allows me to produce 50 gallons of usable compost every 2 months. It does have lots of weed seeds but as you said running it through the composting worms will get a lot of those seeds to sprout and not end up in the final product. If I don't have the space to store that finished compost I use it directly and it works great. But ideally I do let it sit for another 2 months and then use it up and place the next batch of compost where it was. My compost is very diverse but is fungally dominated because I'll use fine wood chips and I will add either fish carcasses or last year's leftover homemade fish fertilizer to jumpstart each batch. Every time I turn my tumbler, the compost is covered in new mycelial growth. When I empty my tumbler I will screen out in a large pieces of woody debris that did not break down and add those to the next batch as innoculant. I don't use biochar but I do use the charcoal from my fire pit and it really does make a huge improvement. I'll add crushed charcoal to my worm bins also and they'll eat it but it also just absorbs all the bacterial goodness and boosts the value of the worm compost. I give my worms crushed egg shells as their grit, and I add crushed egg shells to my compost.
I read one needs to take care that your worms are native, from your own environment due to the damage invasive species can bring to an area..some worms brought in by recreational fisher folk and tossed into the banks and weeds have led to damage of forest areas in Michigan and parts of Maine. Anyone else heard similar? Love the information in these videos-thanks!
Where I live in NE Thailand I find that indigenous smooth millipedes (5cm/2" length) amend my composts to superb effect; the result is a finely granular, crumbly compost that provides a positive boost to our well-mulched fruit trees.
Enjoyed todays episode, one thinks they know all about a subject, but I always found out that from watching his videos that I can always learn something new. I do need to step up my game when making compost. Thank you and keep the videos coming.
My experience with biochar…. I have 12 raised beds filled with 30% biochar and feed all beds with an automated drip system daily. Attached to this system is a Dosatron that introduces liquid nutrients at a 10% to water ratio. I feed boiled potato water mixed with other natural nutrients. I found all these recipes in the JADAM book series. I’ve also read your book, very nice. This combination of liquid natural nutrients and the daily automated feed schedule make for very nice growth.
I have struggled to find quality finished compost for sale. Most of the suppliers near me take in yard waste and the finished compost often contains herbicides and getting sensitive crops to grow is impossible. I live on a farm and have animals and access to manure/bedding/loader etc. but making quality compost takes time and I can never produce enough. I love the content you are producing and your energy inspires me to do more or maybe just drink more coffee, not sure but keep up the good works.
Terra Preta fascinated me when I first heard of it! I wish I could manage a hot composting system, but after back injury decades ago, my back just won’t take turning the pile, so I do worm bins (3 of them) & put seeds and bones into my city green bin for them to hot compost. Love the info on adding various amendments to the compost pile. Love the composting videos, even though I have small suburban garden. “Please, sir, may I have some more please?”
Nice video and I like your presentation style. I'm just a suburban grower but already include most of the compost level-ups you listed. Now I've found you, I'd better check out more of your videos - Cheers!
Great!! idea I was just thinking what should I do with all my charcoal and wood ash 🤔. I learned you should sprinkle it in your garden but wasn't sure why until now I know why that it's a good source of calcium or potassium? Not sure which one😅 but putting it inside my compost just made happy 😁
Good information. Thanks for sharing. I'm looking at making bio-char! That's a new area for me. My garden is big enough so that I can compost areas within it. This reduces my having to move it very far. And the lucky plants who get planted in recent pile spots grow like mad! I'm a lazy composter same as I'm a lazy no-till gardener. I don't turn the pile. (Life is too short.) I also sheet compost using bio-mass. I don't weed; I harvest bio-mass. (he-he-ha-ha-lol.) But in my mind this works to keep me cheerful. All the formerly unwanted plants and grasses and weeds suddenly have high value. Bio-mass is super valuable. The heaps in my garden sit for about two years. Then the rough top layer is raked off to start a new pile, and the black gold is exposed for use. It's usually about 30 inches deep by a 14 foot diameter circle. I have a moveable fence section to surround the new area which contains everything and screens out racoons and opossums. It's pretty amazing to watch a 7 foot high pile of mass reduce in days to 3 feet and then on down. Long post but you know how we love to talk gardens. Cheers
Nice one Jesse Yes, I add all of these things and have been for years. But consider that a very small particle of clay is the center of the Humus Crumb! Adding clay to your compost at the beginning of the mix, only a few % by volume, will make you compost more sticky, And thus have more developed humus in it. Humus significantly adds to the ability of organic matter to hold onto Cations. It gives the compost a much higher CEC, Cation Exchange Capacity! Bentonite is an easy way to apply it, as it’s dust in this state, but any clay will work. Break it up in a bucket of water with a paint stirrer, run water into the bucket as you stir, fine clay will overflow the top and wet your compost! Also with regard to nitrogen in animal dung. Birds and reptiles excrete their nitrogen waste as Uric Acid bound up in their poo. Mammals excrete their waste nitrogen as urea in urine. So their poos are far less nitrogen rich. Unless you can that bit!! John Australia
Really enjoy your videos and the different viewpoints you have from the others I subscribe to on this app. Keep up the great work. You’re doing inspiring work/research.
Jesse, great video and channel. Always looking forward to your content. I completely agree with your approach of running any soil amendments through the composting process instead of applying directly. My situation is a constant lack of green vs. brown balance depending on the season. My approach is to save wood ash/char from my stove and to add the ash/char to the compost in layers PLUS a 1:12-16 elemental sulfur to ash ratio to minimize pH change. I would love to hear about other's ratios. Another UA-cam channel that operates a rose farm uses this same ratio, and I believe it's accurate for a number of reasons. I also tracked down a peer-reviewed article in Nature that reported good results for compost + ash/char + S2. I would appreciate any feedback on this approach.
I’d like to hear more on anaerobic composting. We’re experimenting with fermenting our weeds. Since they can’t go into the compost pile, we’ve been dumping them into a barrel and topping it with water. We happen to have some bokashi on hand, but it seems to be fine without it too.
Hey there Farmer Jesse! I just want to say thanks for all the knowledge. I'm currently making my first hot compost pile. Its been sitting for about a week after turning it 7 times in 18 days. I used wood bedding from my pets along with cardboard, leaves, and fresh cut grass from the yard. When would be a good time to add in my imo3
Salt Spring Island Biochar has the best kiln. The size is good as the amount of input needed to make a reasonable amount of biochar without the constant need to make more. The specific materials needed and dimensions can be found on their UA-cam channel in their only video in the comments section you will find our conversation for the angles of the metal. I ordered the metal precut and welded together. The only thing I added was I had scrap 4x4 wall square tube as the base legs. I added three; one on each end and one in the center, along the width, as to prevent bowing at the base of the kiln. I also made them so the kiln is at a 1/4” slope towards the drain, so when the fire is extinguished w/H2O, the water can be easily drained, and collected to use for compost teas! Lastly, in his video he discusses specific range of sized material that he uses, however I have found that as long as the material being burned are of relatively similar sizes they will burn at the same-ish rate and make perfect biochar. Chip drop in my area has the option to have logs 🪵 delivered for free (in addition to chips) I use a wood splitter to make firewood for my biochar, they take a bit longer than smaller material but I just don’t have the time to get them smaller. They are then easily crushed w/a sledge after the water has been drained and left in the kiln to dry. If only there was a way to upload a photo! Hope this is helpful! 🌱
Your book on compost was just suggested by Huw Richards (I think.. sometimes I go down video rabbit holes and end up watching 7 year old stuff). I sat down and figured out that, for the next 3 years, I need to manufacture 4.78 cubic yards of compost annually to fully establish my 32" beds while maintaining my existing lay out. The prospect of sourcing 15+ cubic yards of raw organic material this year has me shell shocked. The manures in our area are compromised due to oversaturation of aminopyralids in the grass and feed markets. Even a very small local rabbit farm had their orchard grass supply compromised by "I only spray once in the spring" farmer. All state maintained roadside areas are now poisoned, we have runoff from herbicide controlled solar farms... at this point I'm considering that there may be a better market in producing clean compost and soil for gardens then there is for market produce.
There's your million dollar idea!!
In the austin-metro area, straw is really hard to come by. I'd like someone here to grow crops just for the straw, not caring about the wheat quality.
You're not wrong--farmers are clamoring for compost they can trust. Myself included.
@@nobodyimportant7567 it'll probably cost a million just to get set up as an organic compost maker....first find a good 50 or so acres of unpolluted farmland, then the equipment (or perhaps learn to train draft horses) but perhaps you already have land and equipment? Go for it!
What about a bottom layer of arboreal wood chips mixed with something like grass clippings or organic chicken manure in place of all soil and compost? Don’t forget you can “stretch” your compost benefits with a good compost tea.
We are researching KNF and IMO with Cornell University on our farm in upstate NY. We have a trial in progress using IMO4 vs conventional compost, store bought inoculants, and a control group. We hope to have some solid data soon.
Please share when data is available!
Please feel free to email us once you have data!
Do you mind sharing the name of your farm? I just moved to the area and am extremely interested in learning about KNF techniques. I'm also looking to volunteer at local farms if that is something you're interested in. Thanks!
Interested to hear.
Yes please, comment here when you got results!
I absolutely love your attention to research and spreading fact-based information. I find it frustrating when I see farmers declaring that certain complex and questionable things they do definitively work even when there is no evidence. I think it is so refreshing and I love all your videos. For science!!!
He doesn't produce UA-cam's anymore, but you may also like the OYR (1 yard revolution) videos. I'm glad I found this no-till channel because it's similar.
Observation is the best science. None of this is new. We've just become conditioned to not allow observation to be enough. We need peer reviewed papers to believe the same practices that have been used throughout history can still be applied.
@@jarredkushnerd13 "Bio-char" has been around for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, it's nothing new at all. It's "new" now because it's trendy like compost teas was a few years ago. Observation long ago taught people that fires going through an area cleared it off and green foliage started appearing soon after. So, burn an area and then plant.
@@jarredkushnerd13 observation is great. The problem is so many people declare a cause when there were a lot of other variables involved and not even brought into consideration.
Here in Japan we have several traditional techniques to turn large amounts of bamboo or rice husks into huge quantities of biochar very quickly that could probably be adapted to other materials with a little imagination.
I'd love to see that process being done.
Some references would be nice.
@@ReapingTheHarvestposted a link to somewhere that documented the entire process but it got deleted for some reason. Not really sure why. Perhaps the admins of the channel can tell us what happened to the comment and why it was deleted ?
Do you have somewhere I can send you that link ?
@@ReapingTheHarvest If you search Google for "momigara kuntan" you'll find information on the technique plus the source I linked to. Hint - it's a very small forum for living in the Japanese countryside.
@@zassonoukathank you my friend, really appreciate that. Ike Nippon!
The most brilliant and down to earth people are gardeners/farmers. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and the lost art of soil science. ❤
Definitely my favorite gardening channel, you rock farmer Jesse!
Jesse, Thanks for the great content... I know I’m not your target audience, as I only cultivate about 50 square feet, but I love learning new things about gardening.
I'm having an embarrassingly good time with your content! Will look into biochar for sure!
I've bought the book - watched the video's - listened to the podcasts - and just hope you never burn out - keep it fun for you
My compost bins are full of leaves, and as you probably know, leaves pack flat and need to be aerated in order to break down in any reasonable time. I gather them from my yard in the fall, but don't have much green foliage to mix in until mid to late spring when my yard grows and needs trimming. (I don't have a lawn.) So, I spend spring and summer culling greens from my flower areas, mixing with the held over leaves, and putting the mixture into another bin. I put my two chickens into the bins and they churn up the heavy, wet leaves enough for me to lift. (My mother used to call chickens "little rototillers.") There must be a better way, but I haven't found it yet. Obtaining lawn clippings from neighbors in suburbia is tricky because they use chemicals or their yards are weedy, or there's other debris mixed in. Besides, what would you think if some old lady came to your door and asked for your clippings? Being gardeners, you'd want them for yourself! Being a not gardener, you'd think I was crazy. Happy gardening, one and all!
This was one of the best gardening videos I've seen as of late. I've become fascinated with no till gardening, composting, and biochar so it's all 3 in one. Great job and thank you!
Once I got started on no-till with heavy mulching, I wondered why all the years I thought I had to till and have exposed bare starving soil.
Diversity of organic matter appears to be the key. I love to put straw in but no longer trust I will get herbicide free straw. I think making compost is my favorite part of gardening
I have a hot composter that has been going pretty well so far this summer. I also have a bokashi system going and I'm near zero food waste at the moment. I'm super happy that I have several ways of adding nutrients to my garden. Ironically the municipality just added a specialized food waste bin that the households are supposed to recycle into. It's a complete waste for my household lol
You don't have to use the specialized food waste bin provided by the municipality. Those bins are for households which do not compost. If you want, you can put items in it which you don't want to put into your compost. For me, that would be materials such as the top leaves of pineapple because those don't break down readily.
I only use my city green bin for cat litter, which they accept!
@@conniewojahn6445 That is my intention, yes. :D Too fatty stuffs and too liquid stuffs don't go in my compost.
@@janew5351 good to know :D
I would recommend starting your own pile(s) before using the community resources. You do not know the inputs used or if it was processed hot enough not to make your site conditions worse. My 2 cents.
Hey Jesse,
Just got your book as a Father’s Day gift…. Extreme rookie soil nerd, but very excited to see where this leads me. Thanks for all your hard work!
Oof, yeah flood irrigation is not great for soil, for microbes, for plants. That's wild that it's required. I'm not sure if there are ways to improve it unfortunately, but I'm sure there are other people in your situation who have found work-arounds hopefully?
Good stuff man! Thank you.
Thank you so much for sharing this video!! 💚💚💚
Thanks. This is super helpful information and well presented so it's easy to understand. I'm looking forward to your video on biochar as I'm enjoying experimenting with it myself
Thank you for such a wonderfully informative and entertaining video, as always, Farmer Jesse (and Kitty) you rock!!!
Dudeman, you have most excellent videos! And your snippets of humor are wonderful!! Thanks for sharing excellent content and information!!
The information one can learn is so endlessly interesting! People ask me how I know so much about [this or that gardening topic] - I just keep learning because it's so fascinating. Your videos are in the top tier. Thanks so much!
I'm in central Texas where there's frequent droughts, so my big additive is water. I freeze kitchen scraps. To use them I add used kitchen water. Make a slurry then put on compost, it adds moisture & the food breaks down so fast.
Your book is so great! So worth it, entertaining and also informative. Best of both worlds!
Thank you!
Was just about to build a box for my compost pile, this came just in time!
Love your channel. The level of information and direct presentation style is very helpful
I appreciate that! Thank YOU!
Always ready to get nerdy! I have my first pile with biochar going right now. I used biochar in a couple of my beds last year and omg those beds are *amazing* this year!
Amazing! Thank you
The video was well-titled and itself next-level compost video. I have been focused on low input organic gardening to avoid time and energy "penalties", but most importantly to manage the risks around contamination and contagion. Biochar and finishing compost by feeding to worms fit well with that strategy. Thank you, your efforts are appreciated.
I added urine/chicken pellet/rainwater soaked biochar to my last two piles of compost which finished in March. They're currently under tarp maturing to be used in the fall. Great vid btw.
Wonder how and when you’re using the tarp!? Mediterranean climate here with hot dry summers…please advice a novice 🙏
@@Dlrnckgoekwk The tarp is covering the compost I made through the winter. It's just thrown over the top and weighed down to stop it blowing away. Its job is to protect the compost from heavy rain and weed seeds etc. I plan to leave the tarp on until the autumn.
Growing up every year I would take the posthole digger and get down as deep as I could and added the dirt to the compost pile. We save the eggshells and put them threw the food processor, had to pick up one at a garage sale when the DW caught me. Again we would add the finely ground shells to the pile along with kitchen scraps. Great video.
Just discovered your channel!! After spending a couple of years studying up on no till gardening I jumped into this year. I learned more on one of your videos than all the research combined. I love your no nonsense approach and appreciate that you don't ramble on. Oh, and being from Kentucky I LOVED the mushroom t-shirt.
I have learned SOOOOO much from Chris Trump. I have fish fermenting and am doing the water soluble calcium with vinegar and egg shells. Mad scientists unite. It is an endlessly fascinating world - KNF. Thanks for reminding us.
I like to make " Compost Tea" from any 3 different types of manure and worm castings and water the compost at same time as plants . It seems to give a boost to finish compost that is near ready.
Good quality hats and good quality information. I could put your videos on shuffle and run them all day! Thank you for being you sir!
I'm trying to figure out how I want to do compost in our new backyard garden, so this kind of general information is perfect! Now I can decide what I need to research further and do that.
Thanks! Happy Father's day
Amazing! Thank you
I frigging love you! Our brains are wired so similarly and your content plugs directly in 🤘😎. I'm also playing around with inputs/kmf/jadam but waiting for hard science before going all-in.
Don't fermented carrot tops also provide calcium? Love the book! No till conservation growing the only way to go, sorry, grow-from a UK allotmenteer
Very extraordinary video. I like watching the video. Greetings healthy and successful always.
👍👍👍
Ya'll my new fav channel! thanks for being awesome!
Jesse! Dude, just want to say thanks for sharing all of the content that you create! Huge blessing. I got you book, “The Living Soil Handbook” and have incorporated it into my kids school curriculum. Thanks again. You rock!
With you on everything except using more finished compost! Might be our climate, but my raised beds work better with just after heating finishes compost, lumpy and all, layered under the mulch at crop turnover. We don't have a winter rest period really either. We have a period from late November through March where it's possible to grow cool weather crops, and cover periodically from freezes. Plus it rains! (I can't begin to say how wonderful that is.)
Crop turnover is the main problem for application because often it's a half crop turnover, so there is a cramped aspect to application, but the worms in the beds thrive better with the compost at that point vs the nicer looking stages. Mulch, clean uncomplicated non-problematic large quantities of mulch, is still the most difficult issue we are encountering. Does make it annoying to supply enough carbonaceous materials to the composting process.
These days I'm just telling the compost it's got to work with remaining dead plant fibers, and added charcoal bits! Only issues are when I'm trying to push a large sudden quantity of meat type waste through a specific pile, but otherwise the plant debris is usually sufficient. We don't have enough soil in general on the property yet to be robbing grass clippings. After 6 years we can finally use a stainless fork to carefully dig out a shallow hole, vs needing a pickaxe, and being unsure if we are hitting a large rock or just the soil. Improvements!
My way since 3 years now:
-Kitchen scraps with a lot of bananas and coffee grounds
-straw
-gras clippings
- a lot of shredded plant material from the pruning I do a lot.
-horse manure with wood chips/straw
Layering this to a huge pile with a lot of straw layers in-between the Ingredients and add a little bit of molasses via watering.
Turn the pile around once the temperature drops. And also I add more gras clippings and kitchen scraps everytime its getting below 60 °c.
After the season I store it in a thermocomposter and worms do their stuff in there (natural, i never bought a worm). In spring I use it for everything in the garden. I do add dolomite lime before I use it, but not while the compost is being made, because I also need compost for my rhododendron (that one doesn't get the dolomite lime)
Had great experience in mixing my own soil with it on peppers and tomatoes.
Planning to add bio char in the future and experiment with that. Also I ordered comfreyplants, so I can harvest it as a compost component.
My compost will be perfect for me one day , but I will always experiment and change stuff.
Great, informative video as always, Jesse. Thanks. The Blooper reel at the end is golden! 😂🤣😅
You mention Peru...
Me (in Peru): 😊
We use biochar, ash, manure, vermicompost, frass and mulches. Soil has improved from the dead gray dirt it was when we first purchased our land to a rich, black, sweet smelling soil. Still improving as we work the land.
I can't express how glad I am that I found your channel. A successful farmer researching science and sharing it with his community is a real gift. I just bought your book and hope to get more great insights. Greetings from Germany.
I really appreciate these videos :)
Amazing! Thank you
I inoculate my compost piles with indigenous microbes by going out to the nearby forest and gathering leaf and needle litter from under the oldest trees. Partially broken down already, and scrape a few handfuls right down to mineral soil to get some of that thin layer of fully composted organic horizon. Couple 5 gallon buckets worth, and mix it into my piles. That way i get, i think, a fuller profile of existing microbes through all the stages of forest decomposition. A home brew using rice may only attract a certain subset of forest microbes that thrive on the carbohidrate rich rice. The few scrapes down to mineral soil, under my favorite maple tree, may, maybe, also gather some native mycorrhizal fungal spores. My research paper on the matter is not forthcoming 😂
Interesting method. However, not everyone has access to a forest and/or a specific tree.
@@conniewojahn6445Not everyone will have access to that which you may have access to
Everyone should have access to a forest, or a stand of trees. That’s crazy to me that you guys say that it may be normal to not have access to a forest or a tree. Wow😖
I really hope that the internet eventually gets to the point where yelling "THIS DOESN'T APPLY TO ME!" is frowned upon.
How funny that's exactly what I have been doing for 22 years now, great minds think alike 😉😆✌️.
Wonderful, as always very very informative and watching is just so nice
The Living Soil Handbook is a great reference book. Thank you for everything your doing. Home Gardening in Michigan zone 5 b. This year have several beds with leaf mulch that was applied last fall. Planting into the mulched bed is interesting seeing the worms and other life. Hopefully the seeds and plants are gonna love it too......
I'm a leaf mulch believer. Be careful, however, about turning them into the soil as they have a similar effect as wood chips requiring nitrogen to break down. Learned this the hard way.
@@karenr7931 thank you for the heads up. Already having issues with the leaves but on the learning curve. They sure look great thu!
We love adding Basalt to compost, really electrifies that soil allegedly. Add a layer of biochar, then basalt on top of that followed by dried seaweed and then a sprinkle of our EM1 to inoculate the biochar and bring in the microbes to help break down our compost.
Totally agree with the use of worms! My finished vermicast looks like used coffee grounds and grows some gargantuan tomato plants
Always a good time.
This is the only channel I have EVER liked, and subscribed to.
I love composting videos. I almost have as much fun composting as growing vegetables 🙃 I purchased a chipper shredder this year and have been shredding my leaves down to tiny particles which when combined with grass clippings and other yard/kitchen waste makes the composting process even faster. I also like to churn up my pile when I turn using my small rototiller to help aerate and break up any matting that's taking place. I know this disturbs the worms and microbes doing this but I feel the benefits out weight the harms. And the worms always come back!
Adjacent to the KNF stream... Bokashi. Absolutely love our bokashi building block for our compost and directly improving soilbeds.
Just bought your NTG book, and extremely impressed with the research and detail it contains.
Well done, and great source of information and inspiration for a new farmer (and soon to be retired professional).
I have just a tote with holes in it for my compost hope these all will apply to thst
This is really good quality advice.
I have done enough deep reading to know what you say is pretty much spot on.
Thanks for the great content.
thank you...thank you...thank you...for everything you have shared in all your videos...I'm a small plant farmer and love everything you have put out...
😊 topic compost: awesome.
I add Red Wigglers to my finishing stage of compost. I bought 25 RW and six months later, after feeding them vegetable scraps, dried and ground eggshells, leaves, cardboard, and coffee grounds, I had over 600 worms and multiple new eggs. All of this was done in a Tupperware container under my bathroom sink. I never smelled anything rotten. So easy! Recently, I added the lard off my cooked hamburger...and it is gone! Even though I try to avoid woodchips, I had recently read a University study where woodchips help reduce long term biohazards from pesticides. Woodchips also help absorb to much moisture. I recently found a worm who had bored all the way through the center of a wood chip. Just a thought that requires little time for a great return in the garden.
The Compost Nerd Urge is fully satiated! Thank you. I always feel I should be making notes. I have ordered the book.😂
Yes, please do a video on bio-char!
Thank you for another great video!
thank you
Thanks!
Thank you!
I love compsting.
Respect from Africa 🇿🇦
I love biochar since I learned about it back is school, it’s such a good component. So awesome to see others using it!
Very interesting
Good job
No better topic to geek out on. Time/resources only allows for me to take the guess and check method so I error on the side of diversity: shredded leaves, aged wood chips, bokashi food scraps, biochar, straw chicken bedding, goat manure, lawn clippings, basalt dust, kelp, native clay soil and run that through Ingram thermo process. Then broadcast a cover crop, straw mulch, and leave to age a good 3-6 months. Hasn’t let me down yet. Thanks so much for sharing all the wonderful knowledge Farmer Jesse!!
I'm just at home gardener but I am a high intensity maximum yield for minimum square footage home gardener. I don't have the space to do hot compost and rarely do I have a cubic yard or more of materials. But I designed a compost tumbler that allows me to produce 50 gallons of usable compost every 2 months. It does have lots of weed seeds but as you said running it through the composting worms will get a lot of those seeds to sprout and not end up in the final product. If I don't have the space to store that finished compost I use it directly and it works great. But ideally I do let it sit for another 2 months and then use it up and place the next batch of compost where it was. My compost is very diverse but is fungally dominated because I'll use fine wood chips and I will add either fish carcasses or last year's leftover homemade fish fertilizer to jumpstart each batch. Every time I turn my tumbler, the compost is covered in new mycelial growth. When I empty my tumbler I will screen out in a large pieces of woody debris that did not break down and add those to the next batch as innoculant. I don't use biochar but I do use the charcoal from my fire pit and it really does make a huge improvement. I'll add crushed charcoal to my worm bins also and they'll eat it but it also just absorbs all the bacterial goodness and boosts the value of the worm compost. I give my worms crushed egg shells as their grit, and I add crushed egg shells to my compost.
My husband loves your book. He has barely put it down sense we got it😁
I read one needs to take care that your worms are native, from your own environment due to the damage invasive species can bring to an area..some worms brought in by recreational fisher folk and tossed into the banks and weeds have led to damage of forest areas in Michigan and parts of Maine. Anyone else heard similar? Love the information in these videos-thanks!
Your view on compost and soil are very similar to my own. I'd love to see your farm someday.
Where I live in NE Thailand I find that indigenous smooth millipedes (5cm/2" length) amend my composts to superb effect; the result is a finely granular, crumbly compost that provides a positive boost to our well-mulched fruit trees.
Enjoyed todays episode, one thinks they know all about a subject, but I always found out that from watching his videos that I can always learn something new. I do need to step up my game when making compost. Thank you and keep the videos coming.
My experience with biochar…. I have 12 raised beds filled with 30% biochar and feed all beds with an automated drip system daily. Attached to this system is a Dosatron that introduces liquid nutrients at a 10% to water ratio. I feed boiled potato water mixed with other natural nutrients. I found all these recipes in the JADAM book series. I’ve also read your book, very nice. This combination of liquid natural nutrients and the daily automated feed schedule make for very nice growth.
I have struggled to find quality finished compost for sale. Most of the suppliers near me take in yard waste and the finished compost often contains herbicides and getting sensitive crops to grow is impossible. I live on a farm and have animals and access to manure/bedding/loader etc. but making quality compost takes time and I can never produce enough. I love the content you are producing and your energy inspires me to do more or maybe just drink more coffee, not sure but keep up the good works.
Terra Preta fascinated me when I first heard of it! I wish I could manage a hot composting system, but after back injury decades ago, my back just won’t take turning the pile, so I do worm bins (3 of them) & put seeds and bones into my city green bin for them to hot compost. Love the info on adding various amendments to the compost pile. Love the composting videos, even though I have small suburban garden. “Please, sir, may I have some more please?”
Thank you, Jesse! I have learned so much!
Awesome
Nice video and I like your presentation style.
I'm just a suburban grower but already include most of the compost level-ups you listed.
Now I've found you, I'd better check out more of your videos - Cheers!
Jesse... we need to cook.. some compost.
Omg the cat 😂 icing on the cake
Great!! idea I was just thinking what should I do with all my charcoal and wood ash 🤔. I learned you should sprinkle it in your garden but wasn't sure why until now I know why that it's a good source of calcium or potassium? Not sure which one😅 but putting it inside my compost just made happy 😁
the process of making compost, cool friends 11:38
Yes please to a video on biochar!😀
Good information. Thanks for sharing. I'm looking at making bio-char! That's a new area for me.
My garden is big enough so that I can compost areas within it. This reduces my having to move it very far. And the lucky plants who get planted in recent pile spots grow like mad! I'm a lazy composter same as I'm a lazy no-till gardener. I don't turn the pile. (Life is too short.) I also sheet compost using bio-mass. I don't weed; I harvest bio-mass. (he-he-ha-ha-lol.) But in my mind this works to keep me cheerful. All the formerly unwanted plants and grasses and weeds suddenly have high value. Bio-mass is super valuable.
The heaps in my garden sit for about two years. Then the rough top layer is raked off to start a new pile, and the black gold is exposed for use. It's usually about 30 inches deep by a 14 foot diameter circle. I have a moveable fence section to surround the new area which contains everything and screens out racoons and opossums. It's pretty amazing to watch a 7 foot high pile of mass reduce in days to 3 feet and then on down.
Long post but you know how we love to talk gardens. Cheers
Bring us a video of biochar research!! We nerds needs it!
Nice one Jesse
Yes, I add all of these things and have been for years.
But consider that a very small particle of clay is the center of the Humus Crumb!
Adding clay to your compost at the beginning of the mix, only a few % by volume, will make you compost more sticky,
And thus have more developed humus in it.
Humus significantly adds to the ability of organic matter to hold onto Cations.
It gives the compost a much higher CEC,
Cation Exchange Capacity!
Bentonite is an easy way to apply it, as it’s dust in this state, but any clay will work.
Break it up in a bucket of water with a paint stirrer, run water into the bucket as you stir, fine clay will overflow the top and wet your compost!
Also with regard to nitrogen in animal dung.
Birds and reptiles excrete their nitrogen waste as Uric Acid bound up in their poo.
Mammals excrete their waste nitrogen as urea in urine.
So their poos are far less nitrogen rich.
Unless you can that bit!!
John
Australia
Really enjoy your videos and the different viewpoints you have from the others I subscribe to on this app. Keep up the great work. You’re doing inspiring work/research.
Activated biochar is great.
Jesse, great video and channel. Always looking forward to your content. I completely agree with your approach of running any soil amendments through the composting process instead of applying directly. My situation is a constant lack of green vs. brown balance depending on the season. My approach is to save wood ash/char from my stove and to add the ash/char to the compost in layers PLUS a 1:12-16 elemental sulfur to ash ratio to minimize pH change. I would love to hear about other's ratios. Another UA-cam channel that operates a rose farm uses this same ratio, and I believe it's accurate for a number of reasons. I also tracked down a peer-reviewed article in Nature that reported good results for compost + ash/char + S2. I would appreciate any feedback on this approach.
Your books great and i use as much advice as i can in the uk on my allotment
I've really been enjoying all of your videos very informative I love in western Kentucky would love to visit your farm sometime .
We'll post some more tours at some point soon I think!
Nailed It
I’d like to hear more on anaerobic composting. We’re experimenting with fermenting our weeds. Since they can’t go into the compost pile, we’ve been dumping them into a barrel and topping it with water. We happen to have some bokashi on hand, but it seems to be fine without it too.
I used the andersons bio char on my lawn in the winter can I add it to my raised bed during the winter season as well? I have cover crop then .
Hey there Farmer Jesse! I just want to say thanks for all the knowledge. I'm currently making my first hot compost pile. Its been sitting for about a week after turning it 7 times in 18 days. I used wood bedding from my pets along with cardboard, leaves, and fresh cut grass from the yard.
When would be a good time to add in my imo3
Interesting topic, lots of good info. Do you make your own bio char? I'd like more info on that if possible.
No not yet, though I'm researching the most practical options now and investigating some different products!
Salt Spring Island Biochar has the best kiln. The size is good as the amount of input needed to make a reasonable amount of biochar without the constant need to make more. The specific materials needed and dimensions can be found on their UA-cam channel in their only video in the comments section you will find our conversation for the angles of the metal. I ordered the metal precut and welded together. The only thing I added was I had scrap 4x4 wall square tube as the base legs. I added three; one on each end and one in the center, along the width, as to prevent bowing at the base of the kiln. I also made them so the kiln is at a 1/4” slope towards the drain, so when the fire is extinguished w/H2O, the water can be easily drained, and collected to use for compost teas! Lastly, in his video he discusses specific range of sized material that he uses, however I have found that as long as the material being burned are of relatively similar sizes they will burn at the same-ish rate and make perfect biochar. Chip drop in my area has the option to have logs 🪵 delivered for free (in addition to chips) I use a wood splitter to make firewood for my biochar, they take a bit longer than smaller material but I just don’t have the time to get them smaller. They are then easily crushed w/a sledge after the water has been drained and left in the kiln to dry. If only there was a way to upload a photo! Hope this is helpful! 🌱