Regenerating the Diversity of Life in Soils - Webinar with Dr David Johnson
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- Опубліковано 4 чер 2020
- Dr David Johnson is an Adjunct Professor for the College of Agriculture at Chico State University. David is a microbiologist that, along with his wife Hui-Chun Su, has developed the Johnson-Su Bioreactor - a static aerobic composting process that produces a very high quality, biodiverse and fungal dominant compost product that is producing incredible results in the field when applied as an innoculant.
In this Quorum Sense hosted webinar, Dr Johnson gives us an overview of his research as well as practical tips for producing and applying high quality compost for commercial farm systems.
Lots more information on Dr Johnson's research plus detailed instructions for building Johnson-Su Bioreactors can be found on the Chico State website - www.csuchico.edu/regenerative...
When they killed off the wolves in Yellowstone National Park, it changed the whole environment. When they re-added wolves, the wolves got the coyotes and foxes in check, caused the deer to move around out of the low lands so willows started growing up, when there were willows, beavers started moving in with their dams and slowing plus widening and deepening the river, the extra water on the landscape grew more grasses and created habitat for river otters, fish, birds, amphibians, and multiple more plant and insect species... The beginning of the restoration was wolves.
I may be wrong but it sounds like your ultimate solution may be to get rid of people. Hmm, I hope this is not your ultimate proposition, because if it is then you must need start with yourself. You may be missing the point here. The idea is to heal the damaged soils and live in harmony with the biology on the earth and to quit killing it; which is what modern ag. has done. Yes, reintroduction of the wolf in Yellowstone has had beneficial impact on the flora and fauna, however, it was man that controlled the reintroduction and still controls the results, and it was done for mans' benefit. For example: The Yellowstone economic impact on the local economy was $647.1 million in 2018.
(yellowstoneinsider.com/2019/05/25/yellowstone-economic-impact-647-1m-annually/)
Would be great to have a link in the description to the PDF of his presentation as soon as it's available :)
it’s been 3 years, any pdf ?
I think the Walnut leaf concern is the juglone the tree uses to suppress competition around it when stressed. Leaves have less of it than roots and should decompose quickly in this system.
Wow - I’m only 8 minutes in, and my mind needs to take a break to take some of this in... I’m definitely coming back to finish this video!
He is very technical, but please come back. Research results slides start around 19:30min. They will blow your mind.
@@julieheath6335 Thanks Julie, I came back and just watched the entire video again… The importance of the principles in this presentation can not be understated!
@@julieheath6335 also, been getting into vegetable fermenting lately - all of this is incredibly symbiotic. The food we’re growing becomes part of our gut biome… and the cycle continues, fermented vegetables that are grown using the BEAM methods will also have much higher levels of beneficials to kickstart the fermentation process, and I can see this as a great way to boost gut health as we eat foods that are truly alive!
@@julieheath6335i watched the “same” presentation on different vids, so that helps to clear up some info and gain some understanding.
Gracias por los subtítulos en español!! 👍
37:12 It would be interesting if they added another row to the trial using an organic nitrogen source like liquid fish, or in furrow alfalfa pellets or slurry. Such a great presentation.
If anyone knows the "7 way" covercrop mix Johnson often refers to, please list. It may well be dependent on growing zone or grazing v ag usage which is why he doesn't list the seed components? Or have I just missed it in the presentation?
No you didn't miss it, it's dependent on what your soil needs based on soil test results and what you are trying to accomplish. You can go willy nilly with your seed selection but that is not cost effective because you will not know the end result, again with more soil testing.
I have made 7 Johnson su piles now I put in a diverse amount of materials the majority is soaked leaves and fine woods but also add chicken bedding that is mixed with wood chips and leaves leaf mold bokashi food scraps as a activator sea 90 for instant minerals for the biology and rock dust for long term minerals i add fish waste and homemade fish hydrolysate as a activator aged johnson su compost to every layer and my next pile I’m going to collect IMO indigenous microorganisms from a nearby forest to add to every layer also add bone and wood char humic acid insect frass chicken guts and feathers that i ferment in buckets with em1 but I always keep in mind that I want a fungal rich compost for lots of fungal foods
I am in Northeast Texas and practice holistic resource management. We manage for pasture using planned grazing. We strive to create high quality pasture asap. We have a lot of trouble with wooly croton. This is a nasty weed. I would call it invasive. The spring pasture is characterized by cool season annual ryegrass and clovers. They are doing very well and improving annually. We will be incorporating perennial ryegrass in our pastures next year. The warm season grasses are presently a predominant mix of bermuda and bahai. More and more higher quality warm season perennials are showing up and spreading. Our problem in summer is the wooly croton. It can dominate a pasture. We are looking for some high quality compost to use in making compost tea to spray on our pastures. We want to eventually see big bluestem growing in our summer pastures. So, we need a compost that will produce the compost tea to obtain our goals. Anyone out there who can help?
Have you tried feeding big blue stem hay with seed on it during the winter?
seems like cows can be trained to eat wooly croton, provided they have enough diversity to balance out their diets: onpasture.com/2015/12/21/can-cows-eat-woolly-croton/
however, if it's totally taking over a pasture, doesn't sound like cattle alone eating it will solve the problem as it might be too much for them.
sorry, couldn't find much else yet
Could you use the wooly crotton as an indicator plant to gain some insight into the present state of your soils, i.e. what potential imbalance does it adress?
It should give you a clue as to what direction you could try and steer your efforts in.
(I hope that phrase is at least intelligible)
which innoculate did you use. aea spevtrum? ds
It would be interesting to see if they added bio char to a row to see the production results in 2-5 years.
Great experiment. Do it!
biochar, add char to the bioreactor would probably give a very good result. the fine biochar particles can then be applied in furrow at planting … ?
after all, biochar recipe still not clear.
Is there an optimum C:N ratio of the organic materials used in the bioreactor?
David said its not that important as long as the pile has a somewhat similar particle size so that it is a consistent finished product. Free living Nitrogen fixers will balance the C:N ratio as the pile matures.
Water hemp and Palmer amaranth love high nitrogen, in our conventional farming practices that are bacterial dominated, by moving to a more fungal system can we get a reduction of these highly chemical resistant weed species?
Ecosystems are master problem solvers.
What I don't hear is how to take 1 year old compost and at what rate or amount of innoculum to spread on the land.
Are these single compost applications? Or are they being applied yearly
David told me that one application should be enough to keep the diversity going long term. But you need to keep caring for the microbes through out the years. Caring for the microbes meaning, avoid heavy tillage and strong chemical/fertilizers, keep your soil covered, grow plants throughout the year to feed the microbes, and plant diverse mixes and crop rotations. At 1-2 kg's of compost per hectare its really not that expensive to just ensure the diversity with an in furrow drip or seed inoculation. You should at least aim to reinoculate for the first 2-5 years as you develop deeper and more resilient soils and hone your microbe stewardship practices.
In another video Johnson said that application depends upon the aridity of your region. You need to apply it to every crop in dry land farming. I get 55 inches of rain a year so I don't have to worry about it.
The early trials applied in the hundreds of lb/acre. Then no further applications.
Later trials, like the corn, are dripping the compost extract into the furrows during seed planting. This uses approximately 2 lbs of compost into 20 gallons per acre. WAY less. On another video, Dr DJ said you add it every time you plant when using so little.
What is the method to determine the bacterial : fungal ratio? With microscope according to Elaine Ingham?
yes, that's it
Are you in New Zealand . Like to talk thanks Philip
David speaks of a Terry, would you what his second name is and what he grows if you have links to Terrys work would be appreciated
I guess terry mccosker from rcs, also mentioned in this interview: www.ecofarmingdaily.com/build-soil/soil-life/soil-microbes/compost-the-promise-of-microbes/
Yup google Terry McCosker RCS
What's the species of microbes that produces cellulose?
54:00 does someone know the reference made here to Crohns and what he is correlating? I am very curious
This is what I understood from other lectures:
Both in soil and the (human) gut the microbiology is responsible for healthy metabolism. (from other sources: they actually relate to each other, i.e. healthy active food feeds healthy internal human biology).
Bad agricultural practices and poor diets have caused local (or personal) extinction of large parts of both soil- and gut-microbiological diversity.
I am no medic but I understand research shows a one on one correlation between that lack of diversity and Crohn's desease.
What Johnson-Su compost can do for soils, fecal transplants can do for the gut, as a diverse and high quality biological inoculant. Apparently great (24 hour) results for Crohn's patients have been reported by actually collecting fecal matter from people with super healthy digestive systems and transplanting that matter into the patient in very small doses.
I have no knowledge of the exact procedure but I take it that it would be done anally.
I suggest you do your own research. I know I will, I find it rather fascinating...
Greetings.
@@mourlyvold7655 yeah makes a bunch of sense consider the antibacterials that end upon fruits vegetables. Thanks for your time, good luck studying out there
@@drummerboy737 Thanks. It does make sense, doesn't it?
You have yourself a good time too!
btw: I'm a drummer myself, life-long conga player (it must be a virus 😜)
Peace.
They capsulise the fecal matter. Take orally. Dont even think about it. If it works, who cares. I guess the donor would be screened first for diseases they may have. Fecal transplants can also help with obesity by using fecal matter from thin person. Tests on mice show they can make fat mice skinny and vice versa.
How would you scale the bioreactor for a home gardener. How do you keep it from freezing in the winter?
Diego Footer has done some good research on how to improve the reactor. Look at his YT channel. I don't think it matters if it freezes.
@@benthere8051 Diego has made a very practical version indeed.
Wether his version is an improvement has to be seen, let's not draw conclusions here.
In fact, can we call his method a Johnson-Su bioreactor if it is standing on the ground without aeration from the bottom?
To be able to claim improvement one would have to provide at least the same amount and quality of research and data As David and Hui have.
Diego hasn't done that, and most likely won't.
Don't get me wrong: I have a great deal of respect for the man. He's curious and pretty level headed. He dares to follow his guts, challenge rigid dogmas and experiment.
But he tends to be sloppy too, has a bit of an 'any way the wind blows' kind of an attitude at times. I'm totally fine with all of it, he's a great asset to the regenerative world.
As long as we call a spade a spade. Dr. Johnson and his wife are very particular about their method, and rightfully so. Out of respect for their amazing work, and for the sake of scientific accuracy I would practice great caution calling any (even any succesfull) composting method a Johnson-Su bioreactor if it doesn't follow their specific instructions (as they specifically ask you to). Let alone claim anyone 'improved' upon it.
They are actually inviting people to do so, but it remains a bold claim that needs back-up.
After all, we're talking Ferrari level composting here...
Diego made a great, practical composting container.
'The Footer Aerobic Composting Vessel'.
More data is needed before we call it anything else.
Peace.
@@mourlyvold7655 - Diego used the Johnson/Su guidelines of no part of the reactor being more than one foot of fresh air even though it is not on a platform.
At just after 59 minutes, she says, "Never let it freeze." She adds that freezing (mid-process) will modulate the resulting bacterial ecosystem - I assume only some will survive and thrive.
@@benthere8051 Good man,
You claimed he improved the Johnson Su bioreactor.
In what aspect did he do that?
How do the numbers of the compost in his method compare to the 'original'?
How does the biodiversity of the compost in his method compare to the 'original'?
Where's the data?
I think I have been clear and nuanced enough explaining how I see things.
With all due respect: You made a claim, back it up!
That's all, allright?
Greetings.
Why does he use red wigglers rather than earthworms? Red Wigglers do not dive deeply.
I had the same question so I finally cut a small hole in the landscape fabric in the side of my bioreactor. I was happy to see red wigglers in the small amount of material I pulled out. So it appears that the worms aren’t so much top/bottom oriented as they are wanting to be near a surface that is exposed to air. With the bioreactor design being what it is that would then include the entire contents of the bioreactor.
@@jimlyons4972 Makes sense. You have real world experience. I am just planning to set up my first operation. Have you seen this alternative to the Johnson Bioreactor?
Cheaper and bigger Bioreactor. The Huge Compost Bioreactor | MORE COMPOST, LESS WORK
ua-cam.com/video/7WuXpvOIr5s/v-deo.html
Diego Footer should be listened to. I think he is on to something.
I would appreciate your opinion. Thanks.
@@Horse237 Diego Footer has done some really good work on reactor design. He adhered to Dr. Johnson's guidelines while increasing its capacity considerably. Diego also eliminated the plastic. Agree with you entirely.
@@benthere8051 Thanks for the confirmation. I want to start an operation in the fields but I needed someone to affirm that Diego Footer's method was right. I do see why Johnson and Footer are using Red Wigglers instead of earthworms. There is no deep diving far from the surface touching the atmosphere where earthworms would be required. The whole design is there to keep the air circulating.
@@Horse237 Diego Footer's design ensured that no part of the contents of the pile was more than one foot from the atmosphere, just like Dr. Johnson's design. But Diego accomplished that in a way that greatly increased the capacity of the pile, made it easier to construct, and eliminated the plastic at the same time.
If 1 human being is made up of 10 trillion cells, how many micro organisms are made with 90 trillion cells?