I had a very similar result with my test that I did a while back....very inconsistent results as well. I'm honestly not very confident that these are very accurate. I'm not good with amendments...yet, but I'm watching and listening to what you're doing. It's something I need to learn, thank's for doing this video Jared!
Nice video, I think you should plant in the existing soil, and put mulch around your plants so that whenever water hits it the plants will get naturally fertilized by the mulch. Did you test the soil that was under the wood chips? I know Paul's soil was terrible and hard as a rock and he just put the wood chip mulch around his plants and that fed them.
People are so focused on npk but it is the trace minerals and beneficial fungi that allow the npk to be take up by the plants. Look into endo and ecto inoculants. Go to the smiling gardeners website for info about that. He explains everything nicely. If You have a pond with fish you can make your own wonderful fishfert. You blend a whole fish bones and all,however it can be strong, and needs diluted if it is going directly to plants. If it is just going to soil with no plants I'm sure it'd be fine. Again, back to Eden film and the smiling gardeners website are two good organic resources.
G'day Jared, yep organic materials added to the soil, just mulch with what ever you have even dried grass clippings and water it with your duck pond water, it will be as good as bought stuff, you can dilute it if you want to make it go further, and apply your rabbit dung as it becomes available.
My recommendation: 1. Realize that your test results are better than you seem to understand in your vid. 2. Assuming your test results are: pH=~6.8-7, N=0, P=low, K=med Then all you need to do is increase your N, P, & K (a little bit) 3. For this growing season, do the following: a. add finished manure compost (6-12 months old) to your garden. b. add urine to your garden. (0.76 fluid oz. of urine applied to 1 sf (square foot) of soil provides 10 ppm of N). Note: The amount of urine will depend on how much finished manure compost you add to your soil, how much nutrient is already in your soil, & how much each of your plants requires (e.g. Total N needs for: beans=~20 ppm, tomatoes=30 ppm, corn=60 ppm, potatoes=105 ppm). Note: large Total N amounts are often added in 2 applications (e.g.: 2/3 at pre-plant/plant/transplant and 1/3 after the plant flowers). Here's a manure application guide that should be helpful to you: learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/A3392.pdf You may have to search the internet for data on the specific types of manure that you have available, but basically that guide will provide you with other information that you will find essential. *Make sure* to pay attention to *available* nutrient levels that are provided by applied manure. Nutrients that are *available* are those that can be easily dissolved & therefore uptakeable by plants. Nutrients that are locked-up in organic matter take time to dissolve & are therefore not immediately available to plant roots for plant nutrition. Urine contains urea. Urea is quickly available for plant nutrient uptake, but it only lasts for 4 to 6 weeks (which is ok, because it is free, easily obtained, & easy to apply). 4. Start composting now & through the fall & winter. I suggest you make a pile big enough so that you have at least 4 inches of finished compost for your next spring garden. Here's an excellent guide: deepgreenpermaculture.com/diy-instructions/hot-compost-composting-in-18-days/ I also suggest you start worm composting for: worm tea (excellent liquid foilar fertilizer), worm manure (excellent soil fertilizer), & worms (excellent to add to your garden in the fall, winter, & spring) 5. Cover your finished garden with wood mulch. If you have shredded wood mulch or chips, you could make a 4"-6" deep layer over your garden after this seasons garden is done & then remove the wood before planting your next spring garden. Wood chips provide excellent decomposition products for your soil, excellent ground cover for moisture retention, & excellent space for soil bugs/worms to flourish. 6. Repeat the above process year after year & you'll have outstanding garden soil!
Hi there J&J Acres. Could you tell me where you are located? I am in south UK but have family in CT. Now i feel that it might be worth while composting for your household. I do that here at home. Last year my wife and me produced about 500 kilos of waste foods, shredded paper and burnt ground coffee suds in about 9 months. This has produced wonderful nutrient rich compost which i add to the soil. I have not tested the NPK as yet, but its in the pipeline once our winter / and rain season passes. I know you have a heck more land there than us, but you could ask neighbours to put their waste to one side for you to increase yield. And share any crops you have with them. The chickens waste will definitely help with breaking down your waste matter, as well as anything you can get from local farmers such as cow or horse manure. Its a good way of putting back into the land what we take out. And your plants will be happier, produce more flower and greater yields. Once you have created your own compost, then test it... I bet you your results will be different, then you can water down the compost and mix it into your land. Hope this is of help
Coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells, fish scraps, wood ash, bananas, powdered milk. All everyday items that can instantly improve your NPK. Should I keep going?
I'm wondering how accurate these tests really are. My broken down wood chip soil tested very high in phosphorus and potassium. I did a video on it several months back. I had sent my soil to my local agricultural center.
Yeah Jared I would take it to the extension office...I wouldn't rely on just that test. And to me...if my stuff grows...it stays alive...and it tastes good then my soil is just fine...I have seen your other videos and I believe your soil is just fine to me...but that's from what I just seen from you...I am not the one standing there each day trying to grow it.So I am not sure if you are having issues "behind the scenes" kind of deal. So I wouldn't worry to much about the results...your a great farmer. Just do what you do...is what I say Jared.
Leesville Aquaponics Homestead that is false, I have sandy soil and it works great in my garden. Gardening has a lot less to do with nutrients than most people think,
Whatever the mechanics of it all are, you might enjoy james prigioni channel, Leesville Aquaponics Homestead. He has a very lush garden established on permaculture design. Whatever the case is, and whatever may be happening that is not being considered, it is working for him.
First off buddy, I will say this was a great video. You did not do anything wrong, and from what I could see in your soil, before you even tested it, I could see what its ph roughly was, and the NPK levels of it. I will also say that those soil tests are completely broken for nitrogen. The reason you can ignore it, is because those test packets test for water soluble nitrogen. That is the nitrogen that us organic gardens don't like. If you added compost and manure to your garden, you have enough organic matter that will be turned into nitrogen. ALSO, to fix the potash simply add wood ash. this will boost up your levels. However, you will need to add a decent amount of sulfur to the soil to balance the pH.
J&J Acres I almost had a biology minor, and i am a master gardener. I also worked 3 years as the soil amendments salesman. I did thousands of soil tests..
***** You are a stronger man than I! That was painful to go through that 1 set of tests! (Not because of the results, because of the "1 Tb of this and 1/4 tsp of that and a pinch of this and a dash of that" I thought I was filming some creepy cooking show for a minute there! ;-) What say you about the wood chips? Rip them off and just compost or cover with leave mulch instead of wood chips?
J&J Acres they are great, but you need real good soil underneath, otherwise it makes it really hard to amend. since it takes about 2 years for the mulch to break down, you can't mix it into the soil or it will rob nitrogen. so having great soil will allow you to mulch, and you can last 2 years without turning the soil to add new compost or anything.
***** So wood chips are not evil, but my soil is not where it needs to be in order for me to add the wood chips yet. I need to get the soil up to par and then I can cover it. Did I get that right? Thanks for all the help!
Plant a bunch of snow peas/clover etc AND allow your chickens free range grazing for this coming winter. As far as immediate boosts; plant a good variety of legumes around your crops which are heavy feeders (tomatoes etc) and brew large amounts of compost tea.
Im no expert but I think I remember reading that leaves, and I would think wood chips also, will bring down your ph because it needs it to rot. I started my 8x16 raised bed with about 1/2 box store topsoil and 1/2 my own. Then I added a good 1" of chicken/rabbit manure then my wood chips. I pour a little manure tea over it every once in a while to speed up the decomp process and to add more ph to help break down the wood chips. Not sure if its correct, but it feels right so thats what Im doing. Good luck friend!
Hello there! For immediate help pull wood chips back add composted rabbit manure. If you purchase some comfrey online ... It's inexpensive... Plant them... It grows fast ...and do the chop and drop method of the leaves and stems. Research comfrey used as fertilizer online.... I started my garden for all the same reasons as you did ! I add lots of fall leaves and grass clippings too... It helps also..just keep layering ... Wishing you luck!
When you are mulching your branches make sure they have leaves on them they increase the nitrogen and make the mulch break down faster. You could also use grass clipping I think they increase nitrogen.
Just thought of something. If for some reason, God forbid, it doesnt work out, a small test could be done instead of going for broke. Use small containers and plant the same plant in them. Corn seems to take a lot out of the soil so it would be a good visible test subject. Prepare your soil in different containers in different ways and plant a corn seed in it. May take awhile but you could cover more soil prep/repair ideas at one time. Heck I may even try it!
One last comment is though the soil chemical tester seems sketchy for the N P K values/readings i do say you got good ph or the ph soil test part is pretty decent with this kit to get the ph where you want it.
Grow plantain and comfrey as a cover crop, cut before seeding or flowering occurs, add to compost and plough the standing stalks under. Let animals graze, let chooks rake over, enjoy watching nature do the hard yards.
Compost. Lots of compost. However that is slow release.i would plant nitrogen cover crops overwinter and then maybe for the first season bring in organic fert. After that you will need to add less and less compost each year as you see that your site condition improves. Go watch back to Eden film it's free on the website.just go a google search you may learn a lot from it. Best of luck brother.
Not really knowing what you have for resources on your farm, I am going to go along with most of what has been said about the compost and manure. If you have a pond on your property, that contains plant growth in it, you may try harvesting some of the green plant growth and adding that in. I do this every year. It breaks down quickly and will help to amend your soil quickly. If you have dried leaves in the area and old mulch hay and the bedding from your birds, collect them and run them over with a lawn mower. These too will help things along. Try to stay organic with your additives. If you need to build your soil, try Kelp meal, Cottonseed meal, Bat Guano, and Crustacean meal, along with some Gaia Glacial Green rock dust. Can be a bit expensive, but much better than manufactured fertilizers.
Hey! I just wanted to let you know I did a slight experiment and I believe the cloudy are the potassium solution the more potassium is in your soil. I did the same experiment with nitrogen and ironically it states that my nitrogen fertilizer that is 30-0-0 has absolutely no nitrogen in it LMAO so I'm just going to assume that none of those tests work
food for thought* - you want to know how you might increase the availability of nutrients in your soil without having to purchase organic nutrients. My answer is that you study up on compost teas, bacterial vs. fungal recipes, and the NPK's of raw materials such as banana peels, cantaloupe rinds, and spinach as base ingredients for brewing your own nutrient solutions. i brew my own quite frequently and find that the raw materials i mentioned are robust sources of nutrients. the thing about brewing a tea is, when a large quantity of fresh greens are fed to the microbes within the brewing process that the entire solution will become ammonia rich. i know the occurrence as a stage in the brewing process but have found no advice on the topic of brewing nutrient solutions. What i do is simply bottle the concentrated nutrient rich solution in 1 gallon jugs and store them for 1+ years. Doing so seems to finish the process by allowing the solution to go anaerobic because a halt is brought to creating ammonia. Smell tests and container burping indicate that the solution is being rid of the ammonia and i know things are getting good when i can smell the solution beginning to become slightly rancid (which does not last for long). Somewhat of a nutrient rich fragrance begins to develop as the rancid odor disappears. My nutrients smell good (for what their odor is worth) and are highly concentrated. Thickness or PPM of the solution is increased whenever i brew manure. Fresh manure like goat, rabbit, or deer (pellet type feces) is okay for this process (others may be too) but only when beneficial micro-organisms are introduced to the brew in abundance to get things going. In all actuality i would begin amending your soil with manures and get a jump start on brewing some compost tea (bacterial recipe), as the microbe rich liquid compost will inoculate your soil and begin to break micro and macro nutrients down into soluble nutrients ready for uptake. There may be plenty of P and K in your soil already which may need to be unlocked so that your soil test readings give you a more accurate result of what's in the soil. Anyhow, that's basically where i go first to enrich my soil. Farming in the woods, you have everything that you need to enrich your soil and you can easily culture your own lacto bacilli for your compost teas around the base of any tree by digging a hole and placing in it a wide flat container with dry rice and some water and then covering the top with a towel, or rather something like a towel and then topping it with very fine soil (1/4 - 1/2 inch) that was dug to make the hole. the objective is to keep the towel tight so that it doesnt sag into the water and rice due to the weight of the soil. the mold that grows on the rice is the pro-biotic/beneficial micro-organism/lacto bacilli which is also found in your intestinal tract to aid in breaking solids into uptakable forms of nutrients just like our plants need. =) good luck and enjoy
it looks like mostly sand and sand will leach out nutrients fast. biochar and compost or horse dung worked into the soil will help but it takes alot of it. if your sand is like mine is there's alot of calicum carbonate it dosent leach out and makes it really hard to grow anything that likes a more acidic soil like blueberries.
WELL MADE compost is your best investment of time it is well rounded and improves soil tilth. Buy a compost thermometer (Reo temp is a good one) and put 60%green 40% brown evenly mixed. EVERY day temp the mid of the pile and turn it when the temp reach 150ish. Oxygen is the most important part. Make sure the pile is moist but not streaming when you squeeze some in your hand. Partially cover pile to protect it from rain or cold but remember air exchange very important do not air seal it off. If it is below 70 outside doing this in a barn is your best bet or making sure your pile is very big as the center gets hotter as the bigger the pile is.5×5 is a good size. When you turn your pile and it stays at ambient temp it's done. Remember those test are for soluble nutrients and nature does not waste anything she locks it up in the form of microorganisms or biomass in general. take care of your micro organisms for their your bank. it is no mistake that you have large trees behind you and they didn't get that big with no nutrients. Using compost you can speed up nutrient cycling and make available when you want nutrients to your plants, as the microbes break down the biomass. Check out dr. Elaine Ingham on you tube
Thanks for being honest, I would take your soil and have it tested at a local extension office. They will give a you test that is more detailed, with more things like calcium and magnesium. Those store bought tests are good though to let you know that you have work ahead.
Chin up, champ! I wouldn't put a whole lot of weight behind those tests. Get a soil test done in a real lab from your County extension office. Over here there's a 3 day turn around and 7 dollar fee. You are doing the right things to repair the soil, in my opinion. Don't worry about the wood chips sucking out N as long as you don't turn them under into the dirt. You are composting, too, right? Keep adding poop! Get a good pine compost pile going to add some acidity. Buy some worm castings to work into the soil around each planting. Most importantly, don't let this steal the joy out of your garden! I'm telling you, it's going to be a great year for J&J Acres !
Thanks Alabama Organic Gardening. I have not been composting. Tsk tsk on me. Been putting that off until I had the chickens so I could use them to turn up and process the kitchen scraps and such. Oops.
When I started composting last year, I literally just threw up a piece of chicken wire and started piling stuff in. Grass clippings, food scraps, leaves... you name it, it went in. Now I have a fast bin and a slow bin. The fast bin contains what you normally see everyone composting. The slow bin is full of large, woody, organic material. It's basically sticks that I have broken down into small pieces, raw leaves, coffee grounds from Starbucks (yum!), and trimmings from my azaleas and other shrubs. I also steal.... uh, borrow... some of my neighbors organic material that she sets on the road to be picked up by the city. All that to say, just start a pile, my friend!
I see at a high level how these soil testing chemical test work but i dont see the connection between this video and the ratios per 100 sqft of N P K "(N) Nitrogen: .64 (P) Potassium: .13 (K) Phosphorus: .28" . Obviously if you got those numbers by simple division of the numbers you get the ratio of approximately 5 :1:2 and your logic of using the closest to those ratios in fertilizer you can find such as 7-1-2 seem sound. However how the heck did you get N P K "(N) Nitrogen: .64 (P) Potassium: .13 (K) Phosphorus: .28" from your test ...? And even if you got a 5-1-2 fertilizer exact how much would you uses over how much sqft area is still difficult to figure out for me?
i have to purchase fertilizers for my own experience. This could be considered a learning curve to organic, organic seems natural so the thought process is it should be easy, well I don't think it is. Continue to establish your organic resources while supplementing with store bought ( I think manufactured not organic store bought is cheaper). It's important to realize some success through production. As far as the test's maybe you can test a few more times, maybe before and after supplements and when you feel comfortable with your results send the same samples into MSU or whoever you might send samples for some results to compare to. Great video, Whit
Thank you Whitshobbyhomestead. We did end up using some store bought organic fertilizer. We will see how that helps things out for now while I work on my patience :-)
I think potassium was medium to high on this test? Generally the research says that there is enough P and K in North American soils and nitrogen is the major defficiency. Careful if P was medium/high because both K and P can accumulate in the soil over time when fertilizing. Nitrogen tends to wash through. If you have low N you will see yellow leaves that are often smaller, shoots will be weaker and shorter than other specimens of the same tree/plant in your area. If you have trees that are actinorizal like Alders or Iron woods look for root nodules. If these trees are doing better than other trees and there are a lot of nodules you know you have low N. If you dont have these trees plant them. This will enrich the N in the soil over time with no need to add fertiliser. They can take N directly from the air and add it to the soil in their root dieback and leaf drop. Careful if adding P, too much can inhibit Fe and Mn uptake in plants causing chlorosis. It is not good for the mycorhiza either so can slow root development which stunts overall growth. It looks like the right hand squares on your K test are to be covered and compared to the left hand squares. Looks medium to high(?). Your P looks low but not bad. The K test looks to be a measure of clarity or turbidity. The reagents most probably bind potassium and keep this opaque K-complex in suspension. More K = more suspended solids = cloudy/opaque solution which correlates to the visibility of the black square(?) P is difficult and messy to add organically and alot is harvested from rock. Organic phosphorous (P) though can be added using dead animals, blood and bone/fish emulsions/composted banana and coffee grounds etc... Careful if adding a lot of phosphorus as excessive runoff can cause toxicity problems in aquatic organisms (generally more severe than N or K issues).
You just want a top dressing,not a soil mixture, now compost, that you can till into. Also look into adding trace minerals.rock dust is great for this.
Home nutrient testing kits are relatively useless. Also most soils high in organics test low in nutrients, because they are tied up until the plants need them!
Don't be disheartened, atleast you can now plan things Use manure and then add a layer of leave mulch over it. before u add manure just fill it in a drum. take water add little blood of any animal u butchered for eating and add it to manure and let it remain for a day or two and then spread the manure on the area and let it dry and decompose. All the Best.
also look in to integrating chickens to the land adding compost and wood chips to plots you want to farm on this will increase the micronutrients. Doing so will reduce or eliminate cost of feeding the chicken with store bought feed. this is also in line with permaculture.
OneYardRevolution J&J Acres I just read this article about a mustard green that is also a nitrogen fixer and kills bad bugs in the soil. www.takepart.com/article/2014/01/16/prep-your-garden-spring-mustard?cmpid=foodinc-fb I found seeds on Amazon and a few other vendors.
just look @ your video it was very informative & i thank you. i will look at your other films after i send this, but here is something that worked for me & it's all homemade. take u'r compost material put it in a barrel or container with an output. then run water through it catch the output then dilute it 1/3 to 2/3 water. hope i gave you some helpful ideas. the mixture is called texas tea if i'm right B.E.F. ENTERPRISES
I think that if you used "Reaganite71" Drunken composting formula you might be able to change the available N P K in as little as two weeks or so. I would watch one of his videos on drunken composting to get the formula, but what ever you do do not add any more carbon to your garden.
Jared, buddy… don't despair, man. People have been growing food and plants in Mississippi forever. You're gonna be fine. You're just looking too close at all these numbers and figures. Back up and look at it big picture. You've got dozens of pooping animals- that's good for your soil. You've got a million trees dropping, essentially, all of the ingredients they used to make leaves (leaves like lettuce and spinach- mmm). Use that stuff. Pile it on and don't navel gaze and gnaw at your nails thinking, "Is it too hot? Am I gonna kill my plants?" Your soil needs organic nutrients and the best place to get them is from the waste all over your land. Get some of that horse manure from across the way and start a compost pile. Drop 20 bucks on some red wigglers off the Internet and feed them your kitchen scraps or even old newspaper. Every little bit helps. It takes some elbow grease and people might look at you askance when you roam the neighborhood taking the leaves they left out for the county to collect, but you'll be giving back to the Earth you rely on to support you. Also, weeds are nutrient accumulators, let them develop, hack them down and leave them to decay beside your plants. Good luck, thanks for the updates down there. Sorry if I come off as a know-it-all, I'm not, just offering advice based on experience. PS: +Leesville Aquaponics Homestead is right about the chips sucking the N out. Trade off for fast humus.
Thanks Ian Corey, I appreciate the motivation. I certainly have tons of leaves that I could collect and either apply directly or mulch up and apply, or even mulch up and compost. I do have 1 neighbor with a horse and 1 with a small cattle herd, so those are certainly options. Help me understand please: Why are the wood chips so evil but applying leaves is not? Aren't they both decaying carbon matter that will suck out N? I really just don't "get it". Guess it is time to haul out the composter. Bought a fancy one years ago and never put it to use. Time to reverse that I reckon.
J&J Acres You should find out what your neighbors want (if it isn't the favor of hauling their animal waste away) in exchange for that stinky, black gold. From what I've heard from multiple sources, as carbonic materials decay, they "lock up" available nitrogen from the soil. The N doesn't go away, it's just being occupied by the breakdown process and is unavailable to the plants. I can't say why scientifically that happens, but I trust the sources. A single chip of wood- say, a half inch square- would be around in a fairly recognizable form for two seasons likely. That's two seasons where it would be decaying and "locking up" your available nitrogen. A leaf will be dirt in month or two given proper moisture and soil microbes. I wouldn't let let this deter you from using chips the way you are currently- BTE is tried and true. Don't start over, observe and adapt. You don't need any fancy, store-bought composter. Make a big heap of poo, leaves, straw, chips, kitchen scraps, paper shred, etc. and turn it every week or so. You'll have good compost before you can even get sunburnt. And right in time for your plants to crave it. As always, we love the videos and good luck down there!
Ian Corey Thank you again Sir. Since I already have a fancy store bought composter that has been collecting more dust than compost for 3 years, I might as well put it to use I recon. We have a lot of mixed woods, so there are plenty of deciduous and conifer leaves to add to a pile. Could even through them through the mulcher. I appreciate the reassurance.
Jared, dont sweat the small stuff, your tast results were predictable. Nitrogen (as tested ) is water soluable, and once in solution breaks down at the rate of 50% every 24 hours- the weakness of ALL water soluable commercial fertilizers. As you told us in a previous video, this ground was scraped clean of topsoil, exposing the subsoil underneath. You have used the back to eden method for 1 year, a process thar takes 5-6 years to achieve results..patience my man. Useing your readily available organics under all of those trees on your property, along with sheet composting, will improve your soil the fastest. To maximise your results , or to shorten the timeline for desirable results , you may have to abandon the no till method, and roto-till your organics into the soil for the first couple of years in order to build deeper soil. I know it soulds like a lot of work, and it is, but in the end the results will be worth it.
We have wild ones, but aren't currently keeping any. However, I do agree with you, in fact I have a video of us using the rabbit manure for planting. Thanks for watching!
Tough call, chickens is a great way to do it. You could off course cheat and buy some horse manure from around. But then you will have to work the soil. I personally stay away from store-bought fertilizers.
:( This is why I never have tested my soil - because I know one day it will be good - but at the start of my BTE no dig, deeply mulched beds - it's going to be low - and I know that one day it will be awesome :)
This test is confusing, what are you testing for for elements in their pure forms? good luck with that as most don’t exist in pure state and as soon as they do they are bound to another element of consumed by an organic molecules and transformed into something that a test like this won’t even show unless testing indirectly. Most of the elements you are testing are present in the soil in the enough amounts else the soil would be completely dead. These elements occur in microorganisms, or compounds and plants and the exchange happens as soon the element becomes available, as in a microorganism consumes say a compound that is a phosphate that was left by a dead organism, following that microorganism can pass on that phosphorous containing molecule to plant in a form that is consumable by plants. Nothing really lies around in soil without something using it so those test would tell you nothing besides the concentration of elements in their purest state almost non existent that is, but be 100% sure that those elements are present and will be available for your plants when microorganisms barter and exchange with plants as in negotiate the flow of micronutrients between wanting parties, as in - “Hi plant I have phosphorous would you like some in exchange for say your sugar from your roots and plants say yes, yes, yes” but not so fast. Often you need a very important third party responsible for making the exchange happen, FUNGI, mushrooms and such are the exchange enablers of elements between plants and microorganism. So before you run out to buy yourself a a shake of fertilizer containing said elements do ask yourself who is doing the exchange in my soil and who the exchange happens between and for what. Build your soil to facilitate that symbiotic market place full of happy citizens ready to work for you and give them what they need to be healthy not just abundant in raw ingredients that will make everyone lazy and fat and ending up with diseases and making your beautiful garden a hot bed of really unwanted behaviour that can’t support healthy growth on a long run and it will be raw nutrients dependant. Think of it for a sec if you were to dump a crap load or raw elements even slow releasing ones that is less organic and no one in your soil to consume it, and very little fungi exist to make exchange happen and it lays around coz plans can’t get at it, so it lays there attracting somethin’ that you don’t really want. Even simple yeast brews given to your soil regularly will begin to generate a healthy metropolises that your are looking to create. Later add some forest soil and let it do its thing for a bit. As far as I got it so far fungi LOvES sugar and they are a neglected and under-appreciated bros of the soil and plants and everyone really, they are one of the first inhabitants of the planet, let them just let them they know what to do.
It depends upon whether the property you are on is organic,veganic or not !!!! I know that a vegan wants to marry me so in my case a truck load of chicken manure from a local poultry farm would be out of the question, organic fertilizers such as blood & bone would be out of the question as that's not veganic. I may have to do what my late grandfather did on his banana farm,either buy in citrus fertilizer or bags of urea ,phosphate & potash to create my own custom mix, he used chemical fertilizer on his old banana crop & fed his personal papaya plants with it as well,the banana plantations were actually a business. That's because I won't move onto an established property meaning things such as a compost heap will have to be started from scratch,it is in a rural residential estate which is on what used to be farmed for beef cattle. I'd have to find out how worm castings are made so I can make my own manure out of compost,I also have to kick start it by ordering a truckload of mulch to keep the trees root systems moist throughout the summer time,particularly with the avocado trees. I should plant some moringa trees as I'll get plenty of mulch off them as they grow like crazy.
You have a great deal to learn of science.... to a plant, Nitrogen is Nitrogen. The decision of a gardener is how fast the delivery to the plant is needed as some sources are soluble while others listed as insoluble break down over time. As to the "Worm Castings" .... it's worm shit! LOL As the worms feed, their "leavings" enrich the soil by releasing micro nutrients which are then directly available to the plants root system. BTW if you want near perfect manure - ask someone who has horses - less smell and far more balanced and also never a worry of burning the plants which bird droppings are often guilty of doing. GL... and I MEAN that - most "vegans" have no real knowledge of chemistry - they are lemmings following the BS of those getting the most advertising or publicity as "celebrities". Just remember, every chemical element is singular to itself and no one EVER turned lead into gold - and plants can't change what they need and they can only use their roots and leaves to get it! GL
As long as the nitrogen isn't the by product of animal cruelty or exploitation then a vegan won't get upset. It's like my future wife probably won't get onto my sister whose business evolves around horses,I use the available horse manure on that property,the horses don't get a wage from her. Once I'm married to a vegan,I don't think I would be able to use that manure as that comes from the byproduct of her business which is on a non vegan property. I'm going to find out why a vegan woman likes me & what the difference is when I'm living with her. The other sources of nitrogen come from composted plant material & even the rain which falls out of the sky !!!!
Thanks. We are doing an IOT experiment and this could be taken into account. Tell me the chemicals you used for testing and if any other resource you have. We will add your video as credit (If used this scheme) email me at hassaan@petsaaltech.com Thanks in advance.
You're test is very cheap. Not even worth your time or effort. Due to contamination I might suggest that you use gloves. There are many more effective ways to accomplish getting a accurate test. Even in some States you can send your soil off and they will test it for free.
This is the 21st century - surely there must be some simple electronic device that one can stick into a sample of soil and gain an accurate reading of NPK. What are they doing in China? Surely they could make one of these and sell it for $50! :-)
I had a very similar result with my test that I did a while back....very inconsistent results as well. I'm honestly not very confident that these are very accurate. I'm not good with amendments...yet, but I'm watching and listening to what you're doing. It's something I need to learn, thank's for doing this video Jared!
I have watched your soil test kit review video as well *****. We shall see where it goes from here!
Nice video, I think you should plant in the existing soil, and put mulch around your plants so that whenever water hits it the plants will get naturally fertilized by the mulch.
Did you test the soil that was under the wood chips?
I know Paul's soil was terrible and hard as a rock and he just put the wood chip mulch around his plants and that fed them.
The only thing I think we are missing, which is critical, is the quality of compost that Paul uses.
People are so focused on npk but it is the trace minerals and beneficial fungi that allow the npk to be take up by the plants. Look into endo and ecto inoculants. Go to the smiling gardeners website for info about that. He explains everything nicely. If You have a pond with fish you can make your own wonderful fishfert. You blend a whole fish bones and all,however it can be strong, and needs diluted if it is going directly to plants. If it is just going to soil with no plants I'm sure it'd be fine. Again, back to Eden film and the smiling gardeners website are two good organic resources.
G'day Jared, yep organic materials added to the soil, just mulch with what ever you have even dried grass clippings and water it with your duck pond water, it will be as good as bought stuff, you can dilute it if you want to make it go further, and apply your rabbit dung as it becomes available.
Thanks for the support Daniel Boulton
My recommendation:
1. Realize that your test results are better than you seem to understand in your vid.
2. Assuming your test results are: pH=~6.8-7, N=0, P=low, K=med
Then all you need to do is increase your N, P, & K (a little bit)
3. For this growing season, do the following:
a. add finished manure compost (6-12 months old) to your garden.
b. add urine to your garden. (0.76 fluid oz. of urine applied to 1 sf (square foot) of soil provides 10 ppm of N). Note: The amount of urine will depend on how much finished manure compost you add to your soil, how much nutrient is already in your soil, & how much each of your plants requires (e.g. Total N needs for: beans=~20 ppm, tomatoes=30 ppm, corn=60 ppm, potatoes=105 ppm). Note: large Total N amounts are often added in 2 applications (e.g.: 2/3 at pre-plant/plant/transplant and 1/3 after the plant flowers).
Here's a manure application guide that should be helpful to you: learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/A3392.pdf
You may have to search the internet for data on the specific types of manure that you have available, but basically that guide will provide you with other information that you will find essential.
*Make sure* to pay attention to *available* nutrient levels that are provided by applied manure. Nutrients that are *available* are those that can be easily dissolved & therefore uptakeable by plants. Nutrients that are locked-up in organic matter take time to dissolve & are therefore not immediately available to plant roots for plant nutrition. Urine contains urea. Urea is quickly available for plant nutrient uptake, but it only lasts for 4 to 6 weeks (which is ok, because it is free, easily obtained, & easy to apply).
4. Start composting now & through the fall & winter.
I suggest you make a pile big enough so that you have at least 4 inches of finished compost for your next spring garden. Here's an excellent guide: deepgreenpermaculture.com/diy-instructions/hot-compost-composting-in-18-days/
I also suggest you start worm composting for: worm tea (excellent liquid foilar fertilizer), worm manure (excellent soil fertilizer), & worms (excellent to add to your garden in the fall, winter, & spring)
5. Cover your finished garden with wood mulch.
If you have shredded wood mulch or chips, you could make a 4"-6" deep layer over your garden after this seasons garden is done & then remove the wood before planting your next spring garden. Wood chips provide excellent decomposition products for your soil, excellent ground cover for moisture retention, & excellent space for soil bugs/worms to flourish.
6. Repeat the above process year after year & you'll have outstanding garden soil!
Thank you for the in-depth and thoughtful reply. I hope others come into the comments and read it and take away the info I did. Thanks.
J&J Acres are you sure your potassium isn't high in that last reading?
Great video!!! How many % is the clearence of that test???
Hi there J&J Acres. Could you tell me where you are located? I am in south UK but have family in CT. Now i feel that it might be worth while composting for your household. I do that here at home. Last year my wife and me produced about 500 kilos of waste foods, shredded paper and burnt ground coffee suds in about 9 months. This has produced wonderful nutrient rich compost which i add to the soil. I have not tested the NPK as yet, but its in the pipeline once our winter / and rain season passes. I know you have a heck more land there than us, but you could ask neighbours to put their waste to one side for you to increase yield. And share any crops you have with them. The chickens waste will definitely help with breaking down your waste matter, as well as anything you can get from local farmers such as cow or horse manure. Its a good way of putting back into the land what we take out. And your plants will be happier, produce more flower and greater yields. Once you have created your own compost, then test it... I bet you your results will be different, then you can water down the compost and mix it into your land. Hope this is of help
We are on the East side of Mississippi, roughly 1,000 miles, as the crow flies, Southwest of CT.
Coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells, fish scraps, wood ash, bananas, powdered milk. All everyday items that can instantly improve your NPK. Should I keep going?
I'm wondering how accurate these tests really are. My broken down wood chip soil tested very high in phosphorus and potassium. I did a video on it several months back. I had sent my soil to my local agricultural center.
I wonder as well. I picked up a few boxes from the extension office yesterday. Never got a chance to fill them up, but hope to later today.
What exactly is in each testing tabs?????
Yeah Jared I would take it to the extension office...I wouldn't rely on just that test. And to me...if my stuff grows...it stays alive...and it tastes good then my soil is just fine...I have seen your other videos and I believe your soil is just fine to me...but that's from what I just seen from you...I am not the one standing there each day trying to grow it.So I am not sure if you are having issues "behind the scenes" kind of deal. So I wouldn't worry to much about the results...your a great farmer. Just do what you do...is what I say Jared.
I called them. $8 per test with a 2 week turn around. I know I still should do it, but that is just sooo much time. lol
Please tell some on spot methods using lemon and common veg to analyse the soil
I just saw your precious video and saw that you got the soil from under the woodchips
Leesville Aquaponics Homestead that is false, I have sandy soil and it works great in my garden. Gardening has a lot less to do with nutrients than most people think,
Plus the wood chips are broken down primarily by fungus not using other nutrients
Whatever the mechanics of it all are, you might enjoy james prigioni channel, Leesville Aquaponics Homestead. He has a very lush garden established on permaculture design. Whatever the case is, and whatever may be happening that is not being considered, it is working for him.
First off buddy, I will say this was a great video. You did not do anything wrong, and from what I could see in your soil, before you even tested it, I could see what its ph roughly was, and the NPK levels of it. I will also say that those soil tests are completely broken for nitrogen. The reason you can ignore it, is because those test packets test for water soluble nitrogen. That is the nitrogen that us organic gardens don't like. If you added compost and manure to your garden, you have enough organic matter that will be turned into nitrogen.
ALSO, to fix the potash simply add wood ash. this will boost up your levels. However, you will need to add a decent amount of sulfur to the soil to balance the pH.
Hmmm, interesting. I certainly did not know that about the nitrogen test. Thanks for the tips ***** :-)
J&J Acres I almost had a biology minor, and i am a master gardener. I also worked 3 years as the soil amendments salesman. I did thousands of soil tests..
***** You are a stronger man than I! That was painful to go through that 1 set of tests! (Not because of the results, because of the "1 Tb of this and 1/4 tsp of that and a pinch of this and a dash of that" I thought I was filming some creepy cooking show for a minute there! ;-)
What say you about the wood chips? Rip them off and just compost or cover with leave mulch instead of wood chips?
J&J Acres they are great, but you need real good soil underneath, otherwise it makes it really hard to amend. since it takes about 2 years for the mulch to break down, you can't mix it into the soil or it will rob nitrogen. so having great soil will allow you to mulch, and you can last 2 years without turning the soil to add new compost or anything.
***** So wood chips are not evil, but my soil is not where it needs to be in order for me to add the wood chips yet. I need to get the soil up to par and then I can cover it. Did I get that right? Thanks for all the help!
Plant a bunch of snow peas/clover etc AND allow your chickens free range grazing for this coming winter. As far as immediate boosts; plant a good variety of legumes around your crops which are heavy feeders (tomatoes etc) and brew large amounts of compost tea.
Sound advice Frank, thank you.
Here are the disheartening results: Soil Test - Ph and NPK Nitrogen Phosphorus and Potassium
Im no expert but I think I remember reading that leaves, and I would think wood chips also, will bring down your ph because it needs it to rot. I started my 8x16 raised bed with about 1/2 box store topsoil and 1/2 my own. Then I added a good 1" of chicken/rabbit manure then my wood chips. I pour a little manure tea over it every once in a while to speed up the decomp process and to add more ph to help break down the wood chips. Not sure if its correct, but it feels right so thats what Im doing. Good luck friend!
Thank you *****
I think you'll be fine continuing what you are doing and adding nitrogen fixing cover crops to the mix.
Definitely going to be doing that. Thank you OneYardRevolution
Hello there!
For immediate help pull wood chips back add composted rabbit manure.
If you purchase some comfrey online ... It's inexpensive... Plant them... It grows fast ...and do the chop and drop method of the leaves and stems.
Research comfrey used as fertilizer online.... I started my garden for all the same reasons as you did !
I add lots of fall leaves and grass clippings too... It helps also..just keep layering ... Wishing you luck!
I need this test kit
What is the expected result for N, P & K for a good compost? Do they need to have "high' reading for all N,P & K?
why soluble potassium is used to determine the level of K in soil
When you are mulching your branches make sure they have leaves on them they increase the nitrogen and make the mulch break down faster. You could also use grass clipping I think they increase nitrogen.
Are you a soil scientist?
Just thought of something. If for some reason, God forbid, it doesnt work out, a small test could be done instead of going for broke. Use small containers and plant the same plant in them. Corn seems to take a lot out of the soil so it would be a good visible test subject. Prepare your soil in different containers in different ways and plant a corn seed in it. May take awhile but you could cover more soil prep/repair ideas at one time. Heck I may even try it!
sir NPK useing solutions for distilled water this
One last comment is though the soil chemical tester seems sketchy for the N P K values/readings i do say you got good ph or the ph soil test part is pretty decent with this kit to get the ph where you want it.
Lol thanks for your honest. I was about to ask how high is high?
Grow plantain and comfrey as a cover crop, cut before seeding or flowering occurs, add to compost and plough the standing stalks under. Let animals graze, let chooks rake over, enjoy watching nature do the hard yards.
Compost. Lots of compost. However that is slow release.i would plant nitrogen cover crops overwinter and then maybe for the first season bring in organic fert. After that you will need to add less and less compost each year as you see that your site condition improves. Go watch back to Eden film it's free on the website.just go a google search you may learn a lot from it. Best of luck brother.
Not really knowing what you have for resources on your farm, I am going to go along with most of what has been said about the compost and manure. If you have a pond on your property, that contains plant growth in it, you may try harvesting some of the green plant growth and adding that in. I do this every year. It breaks down quickly and will help to amend your soil quickly. If you have dried leaves in the area and old mulch hay and the bedding from your birds, collect them and run them over with a lawn mower. These too will help things along. Try to stay organic with your additives. If you need to build your soil, try Kelp meal, Cottonseed meal, Bat Guano, and Crustacean meal, along with some Gaia Glacial Green rock dust. Can be a bit expensive, but much better than manufactured fertilizers.
Thank you Diana Reiss
Hey! I just wanted to let you know I did a slight experiment and I believe the cloudy are the potassium solution the more potassium is in your soil. I did the same experiment with nitrogen and ironically it states that my nitrogen fertilizer that is 30-0-0 has absolutely no nitrogen in it LMAO so I'm just going to assume that none of those tests work
food for thought* - you want to know how you might increase the availability of nutrients in your soil without having to purchase organic nutrients.
My answer is that you study up on compost teas, bacterial vs. fungal recipes, and the NPK's of raw materials such as banana peels, cantaloupe rinds, and spinach as base ingredients for brewing your own nutrient solutions. i brew my own quite frequently and find that the raw materials i mentioned are robust sources of nutrients. the thing about brewing a tea is, when a large quantity of fresh greens are fed to the microbes within the brewing process that the entire solution will become ammonia rich. i know the occurrence as a stage in the brewing process but have found no advice on the topic of brewing nutrient solutions. What i do is simply bottle the concentrated nutrient rich solution in 1 gallon jugs and store them for 1+ years. Doing so seems to finish the process by allowing the solution to go anaerobic because a halt is brought to creating ammonia. Smell tests and container burping indicate that the solution is being rid of the ammonia and i know things are getting good when i can smell the solution beginning to become slightly rancid (which does not last for long). Somewhat of a nutrient rich fragrance begins to develop as the rancid odor disappears. My nutrients smell good (for what their odor is worth) and are highly concentrated. Thickness or PPM of the solution is increased whenever i brew manure. Fresh manure like goat, rabbit, or deer (pellet type feces) is okay for this process (others may be too) but only when beneficial micro-organisms are introduced to the brew in abundance to get things going.
In all actuality i would begin amending your soil with manures and get a jump start on brewing some compost tea (bacterial recipe), as the microbe rich liquid compost will inoculate your soil and begin to break micro and macro nutrients down into soluble nutrients ready for uptake. There may be plenty of P and K in your soil already which may need to be unlocked so that your soil test readings give you a more accurate result of what's in the soil. Anyhow, that's basically where i go first to enrich my soil. Farming in the woods, you have everything that you need to enrich your soil and you can easily culture your own lacto bacilli for your compost teas around the base of any tree by digging a hole and placing in it a wide flat container with dry rice and some water and then covering the top with a towel, or rather something like a towel and then topping it with very fine soil (1/4 - 1/2 inch) that was dug to make the hole. the objective is to keep the towel tight so that it doesnt sag into the water and rice due to the weight of the soil. the mold that grows on the rice is the pro-biotic/beneficial micro-organism/lacto bacilli which is also found in your intestinal tract to aid in breaking solids into uptakable forms of nutrients just like our plants need. =)
good luck and enjoy
HI J&j, may you please tell me what the chemical names of those testing tablets are?
I'm sorry but I have no clue whatsoever, I just purchased a commercially available kit.
it looks like mostly sand and sand will leach out nutrients fast. biochar and compost or horse dung worked into the soil will help but it takes alot of it. if your sand is like mine is there's alot of calicum carbonate it dosent leach out and makes it really hard to grow anything that likes a more acidic soil like blueberries.
WELL MADE compost is your best investment of time it is well rounded and improves soil tilth. Buy a compost thermometer (Reo temp is a good one) and put 60%green 40% brown evenly mixed. EVERY day temp the mid of the pile and turn it when the temp reach 150ish. Oxygen is the most important part. Make sure the pile is moist but not streaming when you squeeze some in your hand. Partially cover pile to protect it from rain or cold but remember air exchange very important do not air seal it off. If it is below 70 outside doing this in a barn is your best bet or making sure your pile is very big as the center gets hotter as the bigger the pile is.5×5 is a good size. When you turn your pile and it stays at ambient temp it's done.
Remember those test are for soluble nutrients and nature does not waste anything she locks it up in the form of microorganisms or biomass in general. take care of your micro organisms for their your bank. it is no mistake that you have large trees behind you and they didn't get that big with no nutrients. Using compost you can speed up nutrient cycling and make available when you want nutrients to your plants, as the microbes break down the biomass.
Check out dr. Elaine Ingham on you tube
Thanks
Thanks for being honest, I would take your soil and have it tested at a local extension office. They will give a you test that is more detailed, with more things like calcium and magnesium. Those store bought tests are good though to let you know that you have work ahead.
Agreed Wes. Thanks for watching :-)
Chin up, champ! I wouldn't put a whole lot of weight behind those tests. Get a soil test done in a real lab from your County extension office. Over here there's a 3 day turn around and 7 dollar fee.
You are doing the right things to repair the soil, in my opinion. Don't worry about the wood chips sucking out N as long as you don't turn them under into the dirt. You are composting, too, right? Keep adding poop! Get a good pine compost pile going to add some acidity. Buy some worm castings to work into the soil around each planting.
Most importantly, don't let this steal the joy out of your garden! I'm telling you, it's going to be a great year for J&J Acres !
Thanks Alabama Organic Gardening. I have not been composting. Tsk tsk on me. Been putting that off until I had the chickens so I could use them to turn up and process the kitchen scraps and such. Oops.
When I started composting last year, I literally just threw up a piece of chicken wire and started piling stuff in. Grass clippings, food scraps, leaves... you name it, it went in. Now I have a fast bin and a slow bin. The fast bin contains what you normally see everyone composting. The slow bin is full of large, woody, organic material. It's basically sticks that I have broken down into small pieces, raw leaves, coffee grounds from Starbucks (yum!), and trimmings from my azaleas and other shrubs. I also steal.... uh, borrow... some of my neighbors organic material that she sets on the road to be picked up by the city.
All that to say, just start a pile, my friend!
Alabama Organic Gardening Good info!
I see at a high level how these soil testing chemical test work but i dont see the connection between this video and the ratios per 100 sqft of N P K "(N) Nitrogen: .64 (P) Potassium: .13 (K) Phosphorus: .28" . Obviously if you got those numbers by simple division of the numbers you get the ratio of approximately 5 :1:2 and your logic of using the closest to those ratios in fertilizer you can find such as 7-1-2 seem sound. However how the heck did you get N P K "(N) Nitrogen: .64 (P) Potassium: .13 (K) Phosphorus: .28" from your test ...? And even if you got a 5-1-2 fertilizer exact how much would you uses over how much sqft area is still difficult to figure out for me?
i have to purchase fertilizers for my own experience. This could be considered a learning curve to organic, organic seems natural so the thought process is it should be easy, well I don't think it is. Continue to establish your organic resources while supplementing with store bought ( I think manufactured not organic store bought is cheaper). It's important to realize some success through production. As far as the test's maybe you can test a few more times, maybe before and after supplements and when you feel comfortable with your results send the same samples into MSU or whoever you might send samples for some results to compare to.
Great video,
Whit
Thank you Whitshobbyhomestead. We did end up using some store bought organic fertilizer. We will see how that helps things out for now while I work on my patience :-)
I think potassium was medium to high on this test? Generally the research says that there is enough P and K in North American soils and nitrogen is the major defficiency. Careful if P was medium/high because both K and P can accumulate in the soil over time when fertilizing. Nitrogen tends to wash through. If you have low N you will see yellow leaves that are often smaller, shoots will be weaker and shorter than other specimens of the same tree/plant in your area. If you have trees that are actinorizal like Alders or Iron woods look for root nodules. If these trees are doing better than other trees and there are a lot of nodules you know you have low N. If you dont have these trees plant them. This will enrich the N in the soil over time with no need to add fertiliser. They can take N directly from the air and add it to the soil in their root dieback and leaf drop. Careful if adding P, too much can inhibit Fe and Mn uptake in plants causing chlorosis. It is not good for the mycorhiza either so can slow root development which stunts overall growth. It looks like the right hand squares on your K test are to be covered and compared to the left hand squares. Looks medium to high(?). Your P looks low but not bad. The K test looks to be a measure of clarity or turbidity. The reagents most probably bind potassium and keep this opaque K-complex in suspension. More K = more suspended solids = cloudy/opaque solution which correlates to the visibility of the black square(?) P is difficult and messy to add organically and alot is harvested from rock. Organic phosphorous (P) though can be added using dead animals, blood and bone/fish emulsions/composted banana and coffee grounds etc... Careful if adding a lot of phosphorus as excessive runoff can cause toxicity problems in aquatic organisms (generally more severe than N or K issues).
You just want a top dressing,not a soil mixture, now compost, that you can till into. Also look into adding trace minerals.rock dust is great for this.
Appreciate and admire your efforts.
It looked like the only thing that was low was the nitrogen
In person the N, P and K all looked low.
Home nutrient testing kits are relatively useless. Also most soils high in organics test low in nutrients, because they are tied up until the plants need them!
Don't be disheartened, atleast you can now plan things
Use manure and then add a layer of leave mulch over it. before u add manure just fill it in a drum. take water add little blood of any animal u butchered for eating and add it to manure and let it remain for a day or two and then spread the manure on the area and let it dry and decompose.
All the Best.
Thank you Rohinton Irani
Please prepare bio enzyme. And add it to water to which 1:100 parts of bio enzyme has been mixed. Then see the results
also look in to integrating chickens to the land adding compost and wood chips to plots you want to farm on this will increase the micronutrients. Doing so will reduce or eliminate cost of feeding the chicken with store bought feed. this is also in line with permaculture.
Did anyone else hear the mountain lion scream at 1:45 ?
You're hearing my kids in the back yard playing - unless you are talking about the rooster.
Great job...the soil lools bad, result is perfect match. Thanks
He compared colors wrong way. You can see potassium on 3:25 is high. Phosphorus on 2:55 is not extremely bad. Also 6.8 is very good pH.
OneYardRevolution J&J Acres I just read this article about a mustard green that is also a nitrogen fixer and kills bad bugs in the soil. www.takepart.com/article/2014/01/16/prep-your-garden-spring-mustard?cmpid=foodinc-fb I found seeds on Amazon and a few other vendors.
I read about these mustard greens a while back and forgot about them. Thanks for the link!
Thanks for sharing *****
Potash. Or compost if you have it. Just make compost out of food scraps that will bring it up
And if you mulch with wood chips whatever you do DONT till it into the soil. You will tie up all your nutrients in to the wood
just look @ your video it was very informative & i thank you. i will look at your other films after i send this, but here is something that worked for me & it's all homemade. take u'r compost material put it in a barrel or container with an output. then run water through it catch the output then dilute it 1/3 to 2/3 water. hope i gave you some helpful ideas. the mixture is called texas tea if i'm right B.E.F. ENTERPRISES
I think that if you used "Reaganite71" Drunken composting formula you might be able to change the available N P K in as little as two weeks or so. I would watch one of his videos on drunken composting to get the formula, but what ever you do do not add any more carbon to your garden.
I will check it out. Thanks.
Where do I get these tablets ...rply me as fast as possible ...I tried searching these tablets but im not getting them...plz
Jared, buddy… don't despair, man. People have been growing food and plants in Mississippi forever. You're gonna be fine. You're just looking too close at all these numbers and figures. Back up and look at it big picture. You've got dozens of pooping animals- that's good for your soil. You've got a million trees dropping, essentially, all of the ingredients they used to make leaves (leaves like lettuce and spinach- mmm). Use that stuff. Pile it on and don't navel gaze and gnaw at your nails thinking, "Is it too hot? Am I gonna kill my plants?" Your soil needs organic nutrients and the best place to get them is from the waste all over your land. Get some of that horse manure from across the way and start a compost pile. Drop 20 bucks on some red wigglers off the Internet and feed them your kitchen scraps or even old newspaper. Every little bit helps. It takes some elbow grease and people might look at you askance when you roam the neighborhood taking the leaves they left out for the county to collect, but you'll be giving back to the Earth you rely on to support you. Also, weeds are nutrient accumulators, let them develop, hack them down and leave them to decay beside your plants.
Good luck, thanks for the updates down there. Sorry if I come off as a know-it-all, I'm not, just offering advice based on experience.
PS: +Leesville Aquaponics Homestead is right about the chips sucking the N out. Trade off for fast humus.
Thanks Ian Corey, I appreciate the motivation. I certainly have tons of leaves that I could collect and either apply directly or mulch up and apply, or even mulch up and compost. I do have 1 neighbor with a horse and 1 with a small cattle herd, so those are certainly options.
Help me understand please: Why are the wood chips so evil but applying leaves is not? Aren't they both decaying carbon matter that will suck out N? I really just don't "get it".
Guess it is time to haul out the composter. Bought a fancy one years ago and never put it to use. Time to reverse that I reckon.
J&J Acres You should find out what your neighbors want (if it isn't the favor of hauling their animal waste away) in exchange for that stinky, black gold.
From what I've heard from multiple sources, as carbonic materials decay, they "lock up" available nitrogen from the soil. The N doesn't go away, it's just being occupied by the breakdown process and is unavailable to the plants. I can't say why scientifically that happens, but I trust the sources. A single chip of wood- say, a half inch square- would be around in a fairly recognizable form for two seasons likely. That's two seasons where it would be decaying and "locking up" your available nitrogen. A leaf will be dirt in month or two given proper moisture and soil microbes. I wouldn't let let this deter you from using chips the way you are currently- BTE is tried and true. Don't start over, observe and adapt.
You don't need any fancy, store-bought composter. Make a big heap of poo, leaves, straw, chips, kitchen scraps, paper shred, etc. and turn it every week or so. You'll have good compost before you can even get sunburnt. And right in time for your plants to crave it.
As always, we love the videos and good luck down there!
Ian Corey Thank you again Sir. Since I already have a fancy store bought composter that has been collecting more dust than compost for 3 years, I might as well put it to use I recon.
We have a lot of mixed woods, so there are plenty of deciduous and conifer leaves to add to a pile. Could even through them through the mulcher.
I appreciate the reassurance.
Jared, dont sweat the small stuff, your tast results were predictable. Nitrogen (as tested ) is water soluable, and once in solution breaks down at the rate of 50% every 24 hours- the weakness of ALL water soluable commercial fertilizers. As you told us in a previous video, this ground was scraped clean of topsoil, exposing the subsoil underneath. You have used the back to eden method for 1 year, a process thar takes 5-6 years to achieve results..patience my man. Useing your readily available organics under all of those trees on your property, along with sheet composting, will improve your soil the fastest. To maximise your results , or to shorten the timeline for desirable results , you may have to abandon the no till method, and roto-till your organics into the soil for the first couple of years in order to build deeper soil. I know it soulds like a lot of work, and it is, but in the end the results will be worth it.
Thank you dale brown.
Rabbit poop.........those little golden nuggets are probably the best fertilizer if you do indeed have rabbits on the property.
We have wild ones, but aren't currently keeping any. However, I do agree with you, in fact I have a video of us using the rabbit manure for planting. Thanks for watching!
Tough call, chickens is a great way to do it. You could off course cheat and buy some horse manure from around. But then you will have to work the soil. I personally stay away from store-bought fertilizers.
Yeah, we cannot wait for the chickens to be old enough to be useful in that way.
thanks for posting this video :)
You are Welcome, Thank you for watching it :-)
J&J Acres look forward to watching more
thanks
:( This is why I never have tested my soil - because I know one day it will be good - but at the start of my BTE no dig, deeply mulched beds - it's going to be low - and I know that one day it will be awesome :)
We just need to add a lot more compost material, like Paul does.
Those meters suck, inaccurate and worthless. Send your soil to a lab people, it's accurate and only $10.
This test is confusing, what are you testing for for elements in their pure forms? good luck with that as most don’t exist in pure state and as soon as they do they are bound to another element of consumed by an organic molecules and transformed into something that a test like this won’t even show unless testing indirectly. Most of the elements you are testing are present in the soil in the enough amounts else the soil would be completely dead. These elements occur in microorganisms, or compounds and plants and the exchange happens as soon the element becomes available, as in a microorganism consumes say a compound that is a phosphate that was left by a dead organism, following that microorganism can pass on that phosphorous containing molecule to plant in a form that is consumable by plants. Nothing really lies around in soil without something using it so those test would tell you nothing besides the concentration of elements in their purest state almost non existent that is, but be 100% sure that those elements are present and will be available for your plants when microorganisms barter and exchange with plants as in negotiate the flow of micronutrients between wanting parties, as in - “Hi plant I have phosphorous would you like some in exchange for say your sugar from your roots and plants say yes, yes, yes” but not so fast. Often you need a very important third party responsible for making the exchange happen, FUNGI, mushrooms and such are the exchange enablers of elements between plants and microorganism. So before you run out to buy yourself a a shake of fertilizer containing said elements do ask yourself who is doing the exchange in my soil and who the exchange happens between and for what. Build your soil to facilitate that symbiotic market place full of happy citizens ready to work for you and give them what they need to be healthy not just abundant in raw ingredients that will make everyone lazy and fat and ending up with diseases and making your beautiful garden a hot bed of really unwanted behaviour that can’t support healthy growth on a long run and it will be raw nutrients dependant. Think of it for a sec if you were to dump a crap load or raw elements even slow releasing ones that is less organic and no one in your soil to consume it, and very little fungi exist to make exchange happen and it lays around coz plans can’t get at it, so it lays there attracting somethin’ that you don’t really want. Even simple yeast brews given to your soil regularly will begin to generate a healthy metropolises that your are looking to create. Later add some forest soil and let it do its thing for a bit. As far as I got it so far fungi LOvES sugar and they are a neglected and under-appreciated bros of the soil and plants and everyone really, they are one of the first inhabitants of the planet, let them just let them they know what to do.
nice
It depends upon whether the property you are on is organic,veganic or not !!!!
I know that a vegan wants to marry me so in my case a truck load of chicken manure from a local poultry farm would be out of the question, organic fertilizers such as blood & bone would be out of the question as that's not veganic.
I may have to do what my late grandfather did on his banana farm,either buy in citrus fertilizer or bags of urea ,phosphate & potash to create my own custom mix, he used chemical fertilizer on his old banana crop & fed his personal papaya plants with it as well,the banana plantations were actually a business.
That's because I won't move onto an established property meaning things such as a compost heap will have to be started from scratch,it is in a rural residential estate which is on what used to be farmed for beef cattle.
I'd have to find out how worm castings are made so I can make my own manure out of compost,I also have to kick start it by ordering a truckload of mulch to keep the trees root systems moist throughout the summer time,particularly with the avocado trees.
I should plant some moringa trees as I'll get plenty of mulch off them as they grow like crazy.
You have a great deal to learn of science.... to a plant, Nitrogen is Nitrogen. The decision of a gardener is how fast the delivery to the plant is needed as some sources are soluble while others listed as insoluble break down over time.
As to the "Worm Castings" .... it's worm shit! LOL As the worms feed, their "leavings" enrich the soil by releasing micro nutrients which are then directly available to the plants root system. BTW if you want near perfect manure - ask someone who has horses - less smell and far more balanced and also never a worry of burning the plants which bird droppings are often guilty of doing. GL... and I MEAN that - most "vegans" have no real knowledge of chemistry - they are lemmings following the BS of those getting the most advertising or publicity as "celebrities". Just remember, every chemical element is singular to itself and no one EVER turned lead into gold - and plants can't change what they need and they can only use their roots and leaves to get it! GL
As long as the nitrogen isn't the by product of animal cruelty or exploitation then a vegan won't get upset.
It's like my future wife probably won't get onto my sister whose business evolves around horses,I use the available horse manure on that property,the horses don't get a wage from her.
Once I'm married to a vegan,I don't think I would be able to use that manure as that comes from the byproduct of her business which is on a non vegan property.
I'm going to find out why a vegan woman likes me & what the difference is when I'm living with her.
The other sources of nitrogen come from composted plant material & even the rain which falls out of the sky !!!!
Plant a bunch of peas. Or pick another nitrogen fixing crop from bountifulgardens dot org. www.bountifulgardens.org/Bulk-Compost-Crops/products/276/
Thanks. We are doing an IOT experiment and this could be taken into account. Tell me the chemicals you used for testing and if any other resource you have. We will add your video as credit (If used this scheme)
email me at hassaan@petsaaltech.com
Thanks in advance.
did you find those ??
Use the urine you guys flush down the toilet, save water and money.. check the web for info. Peece 😉
We've used urine in our compost, for sure.
look in to Hugelkultur and a man by the name of Sepp Holzer. this is inline with permaculture. should be a good start.
You're test is very cheap. Not even worth your time or effort. Due to contamination I might suggest that you use gloves. There are many more effective ways to accomplish getting a accurate test. Even in some States you can send your soil off and they will test it for free.
This is the 21st century - surely there must be some simple electronic device that one can stick into a sample of soil and gain an accurate reading of NPK. What are they doing in China? Surely they could make one of these and sell it for $50! :-)