Perhaps you can contact an arborist to get you wood chips as mulch. I heard that's free. I just don't know how to go about depositing it in the desert as I doubt they'll dump their material way out there.
Try cutting sleeves into cardboard so it looks like the cut on a "do not disturb" sign for a hotel door, then put it around the base of the Agave (weigh down with rocks)to block the sun from hitting the ground and evaporating moisture whenever you water them.
If you are looking for perennials, look at milkweed plants. There are lots of desert species that put down very deep roots. They also attract lots of native pollinators.
Pruning and mulching. That's how you make the soil and the plants better. I once mulched a garden bed entirely out of tree sticks. But it was a success.
God it must be so frustrating. Every week I expect at some point to see rain for crying out loud and finally get a chance to see those plants get some water and the dam actually hold back some water for God sake. But it's the desert and of course week after week, after week, after week, after week dust.................Hence the name I suppose. You have the patience of Job.
If only Geoff Lawton could see the absolute beauty and poetry in motion of your very own "chop and drop". I would not be so concerned with eliminating the seed pods, as much as we know now that sorghum grass is a powerful and vigorous biomass producer. Way to go Shaun ....you are a major success.
I think it would be more helpful for the plants to trim the ends of all of the plants rather than select one leader and cut the rest down to the stem. doing this will get you tall but thinner trees and bushes. I think what you want is more bushy plants that spread horizontally. a tall thin tree is more exposed to dry air and hot sun than a short bushy tree which would help to build microclimates that hold water in the air and increase shade. the thicker parts of the stem/trunk/branches will be more robust and hold more water for the plant, and the ends will be less robust, more flexible and better for mulch. I'm not telling you how to suck eggs but I think the more you can get vegetation to spread and help cover the ground and hold water, the better.
the land acreage he's working with is no where near big enough to accomplish that. You'd need 10's of square miles of coverage, not just a few hundred acres.
Shawn have you ever considered using Ollas for watering your plants? they have terracotta pots that are buried in the ground around your plants and filled with water, they will slowly let water through the pores of the pot and water the surrounding plants, they are often used in desert environments
00:06 Sea Overton konzentriert sich auf das Ökosystemmanagement, indem er Pflanzen für das Wachstum im Jahr 2024 entfernt. 02:57 Pflanzengesundheit und -wachstum im Garten ansprechen. 06:15 Anpassung der Pflanzenpflege-Strategien an extreme Hitze- und Trockenheitsbedingungen. 08:55 Kollaboratives Vegetationsclearing auf sichere und effiziente Weise. 10:45 Beschneiden und Organisieren von Pflanzenmaterial für optimales Wachstum. 14:05 Die Beschneidung von Pflanzen für ein gesundes Ökosystem Gleichgewicht. 16:49 Das Beschneiden von Bäumen zur Gesundheit führt zu temporären visuellen Rückgängen. 18:53 Das Projekt umfasst den Bau eines Damms zur besseren Hochwasserprävention.
shaun , I am from the uk. Love what you are doing hope you can be sucsefull with your ranch. Good luck dude and please keep us all updated with your progress.
Just a little tid bit that’ll help you out, if you use the hackzall for pruning, get the pruning specific blades. They work sooo much better and faster than regular wood cutting blades.
For the last two years, I've been working on creating a homestead. I have done a lot on my property (which started with nothing), but still no house. I'm feeling more and more confident in my abilities in what I've learned over the last two years, to be the one to build my own house. I started from nothing, lived in a city my whole life, I never even used a power drill until 4 years ago. I've progressed a lot since then, but I have one major progression still left. I was just telling my wife, if you can build your desert forest, with all the odds stacked against you, then I can build my own house! I'm looking forward to both of us accomplishing our dreams!
I would recommend sowing a couple of native bushes to provide cover and shade from the sun. Also you can use their leaves as mulch to improve soil health
As others on here , my son got me some workpro portable pruners as a gift , he knew i would think them a bit lame and not use them , he stood there until i cut a branch in my living room . Boy o boy how right he was , 400 cuts per charge , on branches over an inch thick . It means you can put your energy into the job and not sweating for fun ,and the cuts are surgically clean. Never going back to cheap pruners with missing return springs or parts coming loose ever again.
Make sure your folks check the base of bushes or debris piles for snakes. If someone gets bit by a rattler, do you guys have a plan? Feliz Navidad and Happy New Year.
Coming from England, it looks like a place I expect to be VERY hot, I wonder just how cold it gets in the winter. In an environment that appears to be allergic to trees, I bet the wind chill can be fierce.
Pruning is hard and often seems counterintuitive and it is a long wait to see results. Patience and faith in the process and in the advice of your experts is what is needed and I can see you are doing your best to make it work! Best wishes and I am there with you, willing things to grow! Cheers!
A thought: @12:00 when you're processing those bushes: cut all the vertical stems at maybe head height and process the top bits. then cut the remaining stems starting at the top and cutting off 6" at a time until you hit the ground. Organize at the end. you should be able to work right down a stem snip, snip, snip and not be fondling a loose stem on the ground when you cut it at the base first
Maybe look at doing an experiment in two washes? In one, manually prune the plants. In the other use that weed wacker. See what results you get. If the manual pruning doesn't show significant benefits, then you can save a bunch of time by just using the machine
Shaun, I would like to recommend that you get yourself a cordless electric garden pruner. Much more efficient & less damaging to the branches you are trimming. The saw you are currently using can possibly leave a wound easily accessible to rot, disease & insect damage. That is just my opinion. Keep up the good work. Peace ✌️
hope this helps but when you go to start cutting them off the water source completely don't do it all at once. you will likely loose a lot of them slowly introduce them to dryer and dryer conditions. iv noticed when i take care of moms plants and mine where she makes me water them every day 3 times a day as soon as it gets hot basically all will kneel over and dye. yet all of mine seem to be fine going long periods without water and i find i can help them need less water by simply introducing them to drought stress and it seems to make it where i never really have to water so it might be a good idea to do so with the plants on the Terrice if there used to getting water from irrigation. don't know why it seem to do this but iv noticed it and it might happen to you and i don't want you to lose any of them by accident
If you stick poles into the ground, you can weave these long, finger-like branches through them, creating a basket-like structure perfect for building the smaller dams on your property.
Mulch, Grow, Mulch and Mulch! It takes a long time but you are giving your Land the best starting point from now! That’s what matters! I wonder if you could organise a “Dustups” Compost Heap for Volunteers to drop off Manure/ Cuttings/ Grass etc somewhere on the Highway, on route to your place, where a massive Compost Heap could be held. I think many people would love to contribute. Especially when your Dustups is so inaccessible.
You should try planting Buffalo gourd/fox gourd, it would be very good as groundcover/living mulch and it has a deep taproot to help it get enough water
Shaun please talk more about your end goal. I've watched a number of your videos. But, I still am not clear about why your doing this and what you hope to achieve. Do you plan to build a house and live there one day? Is this just an experiment? Are you doing this to grow a UA-cam channel? There seems to be easier ways to make money. Have you actually made money with this channel? Or, have you reinvested everything back into the ranch so far? Help me understand what's going on here!
There is a video where Shaun visits an actual desert forest, complete with deer carcass. I think that transforming Dustups to that kind of landscape is the goal.
Yo seeing that dam from the air with the dozer really shows the scale of the project. Congrats on getting that pretty much done in a year with a handful of workers.
I dont know how you do it Shaun. Driving to the desert every week, being always from your family. Investing money in what looks like a bottomless pit. The desert is doing everything it can to kill everything you plant. It’s frustrating to watch. I am rooting for you though. That’s why I keep watching your videos.
@@DaDunge They already went to seed, but chopped them too early, the seeds aren't viable, I have no idea why he does that I find it odd. The reasoning doesn't make a whole lot of sense he states. Sometimes the seeds can become viable in cuttings when they are still attached to the plant material, but not sure with that type of plant.
I’m sure the mature sorghum seeds would have been useful somewhere on the ranch. Even if it just working with the local wildlife to convert the seeds into nutrient rich poop.
Hi everybody. Since you have a water source (3 miles away), why do you need the plants to be on a very low water supply when trying to germinate them? Granted it would increase the numbers of your water trips, but not the benefits outweigh the labour. This would also increase the biomass breakdown. Apologies if this has already been covered in a previous video. Happy festive season to all from soggy Birmingham, UK.
I don't know if you guys have them in America but here in Australia we have back packs called Camel Packs,. They have an insulated section with a removable water bladder and a hose that runs out over your shoulder to a tap/mouth peice. They are great for hiking, working, mountain/motor biking. They come in various sized back packs with different sized bladders. I think it would be a great idea where you are and with what you're doing.
I am a bit worried about that dam. It appears to be made of almost all sand, rock and decomposed granite. If it gets water behind it, it will quickly saturate. Once saturated it will loose all stability and quickly fail. Once it fails all that water will cause damage downstream.
Shade is as important in the dessert as is mulch id not more so. It makes a micro climate that hold moister closer to the ground. So shading those agave was a good idea. Also leaving the roots in the ground by chopping puts decaying matter under ground with no effort at all :) And Johnson grass if it's growing there will make great mulch even tho it's kind of a nuance when not wanted. Baby Trees like the shade until they can hold there own in the hot sun from what I've experienced and heard from others. Your doing great. ♥
Are there no other "more normal" and hardy trees that can survive, which you can plant so that it can start to grow and provide some shade 2 to 3 years from now? Especially closer to the dams you are busy creating? That should speed-up / start your forrest, animals etc? You have water, you have some bushes, and most probable, you can erect some partial shade screens to assist in the early phases of the trees? Maybe also plant them around your camp keeping more permanent, future buildings / developments in mind?
Is the soil moist uphill from the irrigation? I'm asking because I'm not sure is there is a point o planting that agave or anything too far from the hose.
@@dustupstexas so with more biomass you have more shading and more water retention? Because several of the plants you are growing don't seem to give a lot of shade like broadleaf trees would. Do you describe the overal goals in earlier vidoes?
@@dustupstexas You were too late then, the energy already went to the seeds lol. No energy was going to them anymore. It's an annual anyways and you are putting it to good use as a biomass for native plants.
Shaun, I'm so impressed by your ongoing journey. Your humility in your learning process in an inspiration to everyone out there that might be hesitant in getting started. Great work!
If a 100 year rain event happens, won’t the biggest impact be on the upper dam that would catch 90% of the run off? I would think the lower dam would only see impact if the upper dam collapses (which if that happened it would take it out the lower anyway from the surge from the collapse)
creating biomass is the best thing for the soil in your area. with the mulch you will be adding, incorporate some fungi in with it. that will help with water retention.
i very much doubt adding fungi at this point would be successful. It's soo dry that most commonly cultivated fungi just wouldn't survive. I would be amazed though if there weren't already fungi in the soil that are naturally adapted to the conditions. They will already be starting to proliferate and do their thing under the mulches. Maybe in a few years when there are serious thicknesses of mulch and better water retention, it might be an idea to try to add fungi that are more moisture and nutrient loving to take advantage of the new environment. But right now I'd reckon just create better soil conditions and let what's already there do what it does best
@@WhichDoctor1 since he is using drip irrigation, and is planning on using mulch, it would be the right condition for several types of fungi. he isn't looking to gather and eat the fungi, so the type that would be beneficial would help with breaking down the woody fibers in the mulch. IOW it would speed up conditioning of the soil. the faster he can do that, the faster his plan comes together.
Looking at what you're doing, it occurred to me that there might be a need for a clearer vision. I mean, to think of the entire property around a house, a villa, and everything surrounding it would be a garden, and why not, partly, a farm of some sort. Just a thought.
Once again you are focusing on peripheral activities. You need to focus exclusively on irrigation. Once there is moisture the desert will rapidly take care of itself. Then you can help nature out with such activities to further speed up the process and support making the ecosystem self sustaining. Lots of comments are circling the same topic: water!
@@dustupstexas your terraces have done fairly well with the irrigation. The soil is improving to where it will hold water longer on the terraces, plus the growth shades the ground slowing evaporation.
Have you ever watched Dr Christine Jones seminars about Regenerative Agriculture? Live plants are much more valueble than dead plant matter. I would keep them in the soil. Maybe read up about more on soil science.
He's created conditions for the sorghum but he don't want it to doinate the area with those conditions merely be there to provide shade for other species.
The sorghum seed is still immature, not yet viable. After cutting it off, as it drys out and rots, it builds up organic matter in the rocky soil. By removing the seed heads the plant will put energy into roots and shoots, instead of maturing the seed. The sorghum is prolific already, he doesn't need any more seedlings, better to let other species fill in the space.
15:00 this is confusing because I would assume that the old growth would shade the new growth in the spring? Ees, you are creating mulch, but there are all plants that look dead, they are actually dormant. So why not just let nature do it's thing?
I think you are still confused as to where you are. Anything that puts roots in the ground and grows you should leave alone and let it do it's thing. You can always cull it 10 years from Now when you have your forrest growing. I suggest you try garlic, ginger and any other type of root tuber that you can get going to break up the ground with so it will let water in. Just to be a nag.
Lol… chop and drop. Seems counterintuitive at first, but watch a bunch of Geoff Lawton’s videos where he took bare ground in Jordan and created a thriving food forest which the neighbors are all starting to initiate.
Thanks to Tecovas for sponsoring this video! Visit tecovas.yt.link/6dJ9xjp to get your new favorite pair of work boots today.
Perhaps you can contact an arborist to get you wood chips as mulch. I heard that's free. I just don't know how to go about depositing it in the desert as I doubt they'll dump their material way out there.
Try cutting sleeves into cardboard so it looks like the cut on a "do not disturb" sign for a hotel door, then put it around the base of the Agave (weigh down with rocks)to block the sun from hitting the ground and evaporating moisture whenever you water them.
I'll make it out there when I have a couple days to spare. I just don't have the time rn
We will all be excited to hear your on-site commentary for sure! Botany doesn't pay but it is engrossing.
Another great video Shaun! I'm super excited to stick with this channel long-term and see where you are 1 year from now, 5 years from now etc.!
I sure wish you would get some rain.
Good luck!
Don’t we all rain 🌧️ rain
If you are looking for perennials, look at milkweed plants. There are lots of desert species that put down very deep roots. They also attract lots of native pollinators.
Pruning and mulching. That's how you make the soil and the plants better. I once mulched a garden bed entirely out of tree sticks. But it was a success.
God it must be so frustrating. Every week I expect at some point to see rain for crying out loud and finally get a chance to see those plants get some water and the dam actually hold back some water for God sake. But it's the desert and of course week after week, after week, after week, after week dust.................Hence the name I suppose. You have the patience of Job.
ITS called Dessert for a reason😅
😂 The rain will come when it comes. Until then, onward!
the next happy rain dance will be a good one for sure !
If only Geoff Lawton could see the absolute beauty and poetry in motion of your very own "chop and drop".
I would not be so concerned with eliminating the seed pods, as much as we know now that sorghum grass is a powerful and vigorous biomass producer.
Way to go Shaun ....you are a major success.
I think it would be more helpful for the plants to trim the ends of all of the plants rather than select one leader and cut the rest down to the stem. doing this will get you tall but thinner trees and bushes. I think what you want is more bushy plants that spread horizontally. a tall thin tree is more exposed to dry air and hot sun than a short bushy tree which would help to build microclimates that hold water in the air and increase shade. the thicker parts of the stem/trunk/branches will be more robust and hold more water for the plant, and the ends will be less robust, more flexible and better for mulch. I'm not telling you how to suck eggs but I think the more you can get vegetation to spread and help cover the ground and hold water, the better.
just cut the dead stuff during an extreme drought is my 2 cents. Great work Dust ups crew.
cant wait until dust ups stores enough water to change the weather in your area
the land acreage he's working with is no where near big enough to accomplish that. You'd need 10's of square miles of coverage, not just a few hundred acres.
Love the dam. Catch all the rain you can. In every way you can. When the rain comes, none of it should seep away
Amazing work and dedication
All my respect
Shawn have you ever considered using Ollas for watering your plants? they have terracotta pots that are buried in the ground around your plants and filled with water, they will slowly let water through the pores of the pot and water the surrounding plants, they are often used in desert environments
So exciting to SEE the growth after so much work
I like down to earth videos and I got to say your Desert Dust up is about as down to Earth as you can get .
00:06 Sea Overton konzentriert sich auf das Ökosystemmanagement, indem er Pflanzen für das Wachstum im Jahr 2024 entfernt.
02:57 Pflanzengesundheit und -wachstum im Garten ansprechen.
06:15 Anpassung der Pflanzenpflege-Strategien an extreme Hitze- und Trockenheitsbedingungen.
08:55 Kollaboratives Vegetationsclearing auf sichere und effiziente Weise.
10:45 Beschneiden und Organisieren von Pflanzenmaterial für optimales Wachstum.
14:05 Die Beschneidung von Pflanzen für ein gesundes Ökosystem Gleichgewicht.
16:49 Das Beschneiden von Bäumen zur Gesundheit führt zu temporären visuellen Rückgängen.
18:53 Das Projekt umfasst den Bau eines Damms zur besseren Hochwasserprävention.
Ja, aber warum auf Deutsch?🤣
Schöne Zusammenfassung.
shaun , I am from the uk. Love what you are doing hope you can be sucsefull with your ranch. Good luck dude and please keep us all updated with your progress.
The seedhead pods sell for 50 cents apiece as food for caged birds at the pet stores .
Sorghum seed heads that is .
Just a little tid bit that’ll help you out, if you use the hackzall for pruning, get the pruning specific blades. They work sooo much better and faster than regular wood cutting blades.
Great tip
For the last two years, I've been working on creating a homestead. I have done a lot on my property (which started with nothing), but still no house. I'm feeling more and more confident in my abilities in what I've learned over the last two years, to be the one to build my own house. I started from nothing, lived in a city my whole life, I never even used a power drill until 4 years ago. I've progressed a lot since then, but I have one major progression still left.
I was just telling my wife, if you can build your desert forest, with all the odds stacked against you, then I can build my own house! I'm looking forward to both of us accomplishing our dreams!
keep chipping away mate , you will get there
I would recommend sowing a couple of native bushes to provide cover and shade from the sun. Also you can use their leaves as mulch to improve soil health
Nothing grows in a freeze
Happy Festivus!
Merry Christmas 🎄and a lot of rain ☔️ 🌝💧💦🌵🌱🌳🌲
As others on here , my son got me some workpro portable pruners as a gift , he knew i would think them a bit lame and not use them , he stood there until i cut a branch in my living room . Boy o boy how right he was , 400 cuts per charge , on branches over an inch thick . It means you can put your energy into the job and not sweating for fun ,and the cuts are surgically clean. Never going back to cheap pruners with missing return springs or parts coming loose ever again.
Make sure your folks check the base of bushes or debris piles for snakes. If someone gets bit by a rattler, do you guys have a plan?
Feliz Navidad and Happy New Year.
Coming from England, it looks like a place I expect to be VERY hot, I wonder just how cold it gets in the winter. In an environment that appears to be allergic to trees, I bet the wind chill can be fierce.
they get snow there . one extreme to the other . tough environment.
Pruning is hard and often seems counterintuitive and it is a long wait to see results. Patience and faith in the process and in the advice of your experts is what is needed and I can see you are doing your best to make it work! Best wishes and I am there with you, willing things to grow! Cheers!
A thought: @12:00 when you're processing those bushes: cut all the vertical stems at maybe head height and process the top bits. then cut the remaining stems starting at the top and cutting off 6" at a time until you hit the ground. Organize at the end. you should be able to work right down a stem snip, snip, snip and not be fondling a loose stem on the ground when you cut it at the base first
Maybe look at doing an experiment in two washes?
In one, manually prune the plants. In the other use that weed wacker. See what results you get.
If the manual pruning doesn't show significant benefits, then you can save a bunch of time by just using the machine
Merry Christmas, push on ! 🫶🏽🔥
Shaun, I would like to recommend that you get yourself a cordless electric garden pruner. Much more efficient & less damaging to the branches you are trimming. The saw you are currently using can possibly leave a wound easily accessible to rot, disease & insect damage. That is just my opinion. Keep up the good work. Peace ✌️
hope this helps but when you go to start cutting them off the water source completely don't do it all at once. you will likely loose a lot of them slowly introduce them to dryer and dryer conditions. iv noticed when i take care of moms plants and mine where she makes me water them every day 3 times a day as soon as it gets hot basically all will kneel over and dye. yet all of mine seem to be fine going long periods without water and i find i can help them need less water by simply introducing them to drought stress and it seems to make it where i never really have to water so it might be a good idea to do so with the plants on the Terrice if there used to getting water from irrigation. don't know why it seem to do this but iv noticed it and it might happen to you and i don't want you to lose any of them by accident
Man, all this preparation, and we're just waiting months and months and months for rain to see how it performs.
If you stick poles into the ground, you can weave these long, finger-like branches through them, creating a basket-like structure perfect for building the smaller dams on your property.
Ya did well this year, Who knows a few might survive to sprout again next year,
Yay first year of biomass cut!
I want some rain dammit! See what happens
Mulch, Grow, Mulch and Mulch! It takes a long time but you are giving your Land the best starting point from now! That’s what matters! I wonder if you could organise a “Dustups” Compost Heap for Volunteers to drop off Manure/ Cuttings/ Grass etc somewhere on the Highway, on route to your place, where a massive Compost Heap could be held. I think many people would love to contribute. Especially when your Dustups is so inaccessible.
that american ephedra makes for a tasty drink some say it has medicinal value
cant wait for some actual rain so we can see those damns fill up a little and add all that water to the ground water
It is going to look great a week after the first rain.
Conratrs on 200K
You should try planting Buffalo gourd/fox gourd, it would be very good as groundcover/living mulch and it has a deep taproot to help it get enough water
These green plants sure have interesting names
Shaun please talk more about your end goal. I've watched a number of your videos. But, I still am not clear about why your doing this and what you hope to achieve. Do you plan to build a house and live there one day? Is this just an experiment?
Are you doing this to grow a UA-cam channel? There seems to be easier ways to make money. Have you actually made money with this channel? Or, have you reinvested everything back into the ranch so far? Help me understand what's going on here!
It's all gone back into the ranch. Next week talks more about the big picture
There is a video where Shaun visits an actual desert forest, complete with deer carcass. I think that transforming Dustups to that kind of landscape is the goal.
The chopped sorghum will add sugar to the soil and aid in microbes, etc
Yo seeing that dam from the air with the dozer really shows the scale of the project. Congrats on getting that pretty much done in a year with a handful of workers.
You also can see it on Google Maps and Apple Maps.
When someone donates nice plants, please take them home baby them for a few weeks.
I wish there was some sort of coherent explanation of why them going to seed is an issue.
Because I don't want them to spend their energy growing seeds. I want them to spend their energy growing
(For aesthetics 😂) I would clip the very top growth point of Tina so she starts branching
look at these thick healthy stems. Its impressive how they have grown over the year. They will be good soil in trhe furutre
Yes you are Sir , thank you .
I dont know how you do it Shaun. Driving to the desert every week, being always from your family. Investing money in what looks like a bottomless pit. The desert is doing everything it can to kill everything you plant. It’s frustrating to watch. I am rooting for you though. That’s why I keep watching your videos.
Praying for rain for you. Eat them jackrabbits cookumup.
Jackrabbit guts make good fertilizer.
Its looking great 👏✌️👍 you are on the right track i hope the snow/frost brings the water for you ✌️
Knowing sorghum, they will ignore the winter and grow right back again.
use the sorgham seed around your bathtubs. they will fill in quickly. plant as many seeds so you get "yard waste" .
He cut them before the seeds were ready, they wnt germinate.
@@DaDunge They already went to seed, but chopped them too early, the seeds aren't viable, I have no idea why he does that I find it odd. The reasoning doesn't make a whole lot of sense he states. Sometimes the seeds can become viable in cuttings when they are still attached to the plant material, but not sure with that type of plant.
@@roberts663 Because he doesn't want annual plants but perennial ones to take the lead. And native indigenous plants, to begin with.
@@roberts663He wants the existing plants to grow strong roots where they are and not expend energy going into seeds.
I’m sure the mature sorghum seeds would have been useful somewhere on the ranch. Even if it just working with the local wildlife to convert the seeds into nutrient rich poop.
Hi everybody. Since you have a water source (3 miles away), why do you need the plants to be on a very low water supply when trying to germinate them? Granted it would increase the numbers of your water trips, but not the benefits outweigh the labour. This would also increase the biomass breakdown. Apologies if this has already been covered in a previous video.
Happy festive season to all from soggy Birmingham, UK.
The first beginnings of hardwood🌳
Startup🥾
I don't know if you guys have them in America but here in Australia we have back packs called Camel Packs,. They have an insulated section with a removable water bladder and a hose that runs out over your shoulder to a tap/mouth peice.
They are great for hiking, working, mountain/motor biking.
They come in various sized back packs with different sized bladders.
I think it would be a great idea where you are and with what you're doing.
Those were invented in texas yes
They've been around in the U.S. for a couple decades now. I bought my first one in 2002.
I find it easier to walk to get water than keep it on my back. I only use them for hiking
consider backing the dam up with a gabion wall, just in case you a 1000 year rain event.
I am a bit worried about that dam. It appears to be made of almost all sand, rock and decomposed granite. If it gets water behind it, it will quickly saturate. Once saturated it will loose all stability and quickly fail. Once it fails all that water will cause damage downstream.
Shade is as important in the dessert as is mulch id not more so. It makes a micro climate that hold moister closer to the ground. So shading those agave was a good idea. Also leaving the roots in the ground by chopping puts decaying matter under ground with no effort at all :) And Johnson grass if it's growing there will make great mulch even tho it's kind of a nuance when not wanted. Baby Trees like the shade until they can hold there own in the hot sun from what I've experienced and heard from others. Your doing great. ♥
Speaking of safety, y'all got a first aid kit?
Are there no other "more normal" and hardy trees that can survive, which you can plant so that it can start to grow and provide some shade 2 to 3 years from now? Especially closer to the dams you are busy creating? That should speed-up / start your forrest, animals etc? You have water, you have some bushes, and most probable, you can erect some partial shade screens to assist in the early phases of the trees? Maybe also plant them around your camp keeping more permanent, future buildings / developments in mind?
Great work . Who says you can’t grow things in the rocks 🪨 in the desert 🌵 with no rain 🌧️
You know what you need? Rain. When is the next rainy season coming?
Summer
@@dustupstexas Best wishes my friend. I will keep an eye on the skies.
Something I realised is just how eerily quiet it is. You usually hear all sorts of things, distant planes, ect... and it's just silence.
It's more profound in person
Watching a guy try to min max a desert is peak office boss. Dunning Kruger levels of confidence
Thanks for another great video
Following you out of New Zealand
Another Kiwi here enjoying this project.
@@stevecorrigan5139 Awesome Not an issue we have in NZ
Remember, the root you leave in the soil helps create the biome you want.
Is the soil moist uphill from the irrigation? I'm asking because I'm not sure is there is a point o planting that agave or anything too far from the hose.
The Agave is too far away at the moment to get the irrigation water. We give it little drinks and hopefully we'll have a nurse crop up next year
So the idea behind pruning is to make the plant put energy in growing and its root system rather than seeding, right?
Correct!
@@dustupstexas so with more biomass you have more shading and more water retention? Because several of the plants you are growing don't seem to give a lot of shade like broadleaf trees would. Do you describe the overal goals in earlier vidoes?
@@dustupstexas You were too late then, the energy already went to the seeds lol. No energy was going to them anymore. It's an annual anyways and you are putting it to good use as a biomass for native plants.
Eager to see your water retention efforts perform.
"Persephone period" by Elliot Coleman. Know your growing period.
9:00 freeze? That should create some surface moisture
New episode!
😂 Need to see a Christmas tree by next year
Texas pinyon would be a nice candidate lol
Shaun, I'm so impressed by your ongoing journey. Your humility in your learning process in an inspiration to everyone out there that might be hesitant in getting started. Great work!
Might I suggest and even denser planting out of Sorghum in future sections/seasons.
Our plan for next year is testing annuals as a nurse crop. We need much better germinations
If a 100 year rain event happens, won’t the biggest impact be on the upper dam that would catch 90% of the run off?
I would think the lower dam would only see impact if the upper dam collapses (which if that happened it would take it out the lower anyway from the surge from the collapse)
creating biomass is the best thing for the soil in your area. with the mulch you will be adding, incorporate some fungi in with it. that will help with water retention.
i very much doubt adding fungi at this point would be successful. It's soo dry that most commonly cultivated fungi just wouldn't survive. I would be amazed though if there weren't already fungi in the soil that are naturally adapted to the conditions. They will already be starting to proliferate and do their thing under the mulches. Maybe in a few years when there are serious thicknesses of mulch and better water retention, it might be an idea to try to add fungi that are more moisture and nutrient loving to take advantage of the new environment. But right now I'd reckon just create better soil conditions and let what's already there do what it does best
@@WhichDoctor1 since he is using drip irrigation, and is planning on using mulch, it would be the right condition for several types of fungi. he isn't looking to gather and eat the fungi, so the type that would be beneficial would help with breaking down the woody fibers in the mulch. IOW it would speed up conditioning of the soil. the faster he can do that, the faster his plan comes together.
You would get better soil cover and heat insulation with thinner mulch than with large pieces. Why don’t you use your shredder?
Looking at what you're doing, it occurred to me that there might be a need for a clearer vision. I mean, to think of the entire property around a house, a villa, and everything surrounding it would be a garden, and why not, partly, a farm of some sort. Just a thought.
😎👍
Still no rain? How much would Cloud Seeding cost???
No rain
Cloud seeding is chemical in my understanding, not something that is desired on the earth for a living biome.
Do you bring mulch material every time to go down to the ranch?
If I'm driving, but I often fly
Ever thought about growing hemp for biomass? In the right conditions it grows heaps, and good for regrowing quickly? 🤷♂️ Not for smoking Shaun…!
❤
Once again you are focusing on peripheral activities. You need to focus exclusively on irrigation. Once there is moisture the desert will rapidly take care of itself. Then you can help nature out with such activities to further speed up the process and support making the ecosystem self sustaining. Lots of comments are circling the same topic: water!
It doesn't matter if the water doesn't stick around. It just pours through the sand. It's so much more complex than just pouring water everywhere
i agree...what you are doing with no water is worthy of United Nations investment status
@@dustupstexas your terraces have done fairly well with the irrigation. The soil is improving to where it will hold water longer on the terraces, plus the growth shades the ground slowing evaporation.
I always think this, but your intro music sounds like "things we said today" by the beatles
Have you ever watched Dr Christine Jones seminars about Regenerative Agriculture? Live plants are much more valueble than dead plant matter. I would keep them in the soil. Maybe read up about more on soil science.
My non-expert opinion is: You're overpruning that agave at 7:45... and I don't quite understand why you cut down the sorghum before going to seed
(sorry, I guess I'm in a critique-ful mood today)
He's created conditions for the sorghum but he don't want it to doinate the area with those conditions merely be there to provide shade for other species.
The sorghum seed is still immature, not yet viable. After cutting it off, as it drys out and rots, it builds up organic matter in the rocky soil. By removing the seed heads the plant will put energy into roots and shoots, instead of maturing the seed. The sorghum is prolific already, he doesn't need any more seedlings, better to let other species fill in the space.
You'd be surprised how well they respond to pruning
@@dustupstexas Hope you'll be proven right!
Merry Christmas to all!
God Bless Everyone!
Don't cut down the desert😮
So what is the humidity out there like normally?
The average for 2024 so far is 34%
And it's ranged from 4 to 95% this year
@@dustupstexas thank you. I was wondering how arid it was.
@@dustupstexasYikes… lip splitting humidity!
The agave are not reciving any water
karl from the uk again, quick qoestion . do you home compost and add it to your terrises ?
15:00 this is confusing because I would assume that the old growth would shade the new growth in the spring? Ees, you are creating mulch, but there are all plants that look dead, they are actually dormant. So why not just let nature do it's thing?
Totally agree with You.
I think you are still confused as to where you are. Anything that puts roots in the ground and grows you should leave alone and let it do it's thing. You can always cull it 10 years from Now when you have your forrest growing. I suggest you try garlic, ginger and any other type of root tuber that you can get going to break up the ground with so it will let water in. Just to be a nag.
You need more animals out there, or at least their waste products.
Wants to grow a forest. Cuts it all down every time it grows.
Sorghum isn't a tree
Permacultural practices are rarely an a- to-b adventure. Many steps!
Trees will become established better in the protection and shade of other plants, though yes, they have to compete for water.
Lol… chop and drop. Seems counterintuitive at first, but watch a bunch of Geoff Lawton’s videos where he took bare ground in Jordan and created a thriving food forest which the neighbors are all starting to initiate.