Over the past few years, we’ve been producing a lot of garlic and experimenting with a number of natural growing techniques. As a result, we ended up accidentally comparing 4 slightly different growing conditions, all at the same time:
1. Fresh hay mulch covering natural topsoil
2. Old spoiled hay mulch covering natural topsoil
3. Fresh hay mulch covering composted-amended topsoil
4. Old spoiled hay mulch covering composted-amended topsoil
In this video, we discuss the surprising results.
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I really enjoy your posts. What part of Ontario is your farm?
Thanks
amazing video mate! loved it. very informative
Interesting and direct to the point ☺️
Beautiful graphics. Appreciate the effort
Fungal : Bacterial ratio
Higher Fungal concentration may be introduced to soil microbiome which may explain increased productivity?
Which way does the water drain on the last graph?
Compost and mulch should not be looked at as a nutrient additive like synthetic fertilizers. All they are are plant-based material that provides the organic substrate to create the necessary ecosystem for microbes to thrive.
An older batch of hay would have a much larger diversity of bacteria and fungi, the maturation would increase the fungi to bacterial balance that may be lacking in the compost.
A larger quantity of microbes in the soil allows for the bioavailability of the necessary nutrients locked in the soil.
Hence why you got the results you did.
You are going to have some seriously amazing soil next year.
I have heard aged mulch is best for the garden. New mulch will actually "feed" on the available nitrogen while it's breaking down. So I'm not surprised that aged mulch performed better than new mulch. Aged vs new compost is kind of similar. The process of breaking down is volatile and might fry your garden. Aged is always best. 🙂
the new hay is probably inhibiting nutrient absorption
I think it's because of the nitrogen from The Mulch that was decaying Quaker
Because garlic and onions really love nitrogen
Wow great findings
Great video, but I do love to see the data/differences in weights. For future experiments if there's a chance you can weigh them out that would be super helpful to measure the overall difference. Thanks and God bless!
Here in tropics we use compost only for fertilizer in hot summer when the soil is dry quickly and become depleted. and also for bacteria starter to making new compost. So we just apply handful or two of compost per plant depend of the plant size. too much compost just not good for soil because it is making the soil full of bugs (I don't know the name) that will eating your seeds and roots. Never succeed to germinating any seeds in full of compost. Only tomato and pepper. They germinate when I don't need them, growing from scrap I threw in the compost heap.
Here in tropics where the weather is warm and humid all year round, the bugs in the soil will thrive and never go dormant. I found that using the carbon rich mulch is the better option than using the compost, like rice husk or just dry leaves. They are also make a home of worms. So worm will do the fertilize job.
The soil that I build with dried leaves after a year it looks like black sponge, soft and porous and have huuuuuuge worms in it.
Great video. The One Straw Revolution book also confirms your findings. He uses little or no compost
My theory, old hay used less nitrogen to break down while the new hay robbed the soil of nitrogen.
Fascinating! Please continue to share thy intentional and unintentional experimentations!
your final results are what I would have expected. Old hay is partly broken down and will work much like a compost mix. I grew up with livestock, I know how hay and straw breaks down. Im playing the waiting game on straw in my raised beds this year because I put NEW straw in last year. Only the bottom inch is starting to look broken, the waiting game commences. lol
Best channel ever.
looks funky and love the Teal colors you should totally experitment having a tree house farm. In other words have stuff being grown in the trees
The cloves planted also play a role, bigger cloves have more energy to start up like how bigger seeds start growing faster than small seeds, but that's also a less likely factor
Did you do the more structured experiment and add the Slovakian's thought that garlic prefers poorer soil?
mycorrhizal fungi in old mulch is the factor you did not consider, 50% more growth.
It's as much about soil structure as fertility most of the time. Soil takes at least 6 months – 1 year to recover after being dug. I would have expected the first one to win because it both contained a lot of organic matter and it had time to settle and for little critters, previous crop roots and fungi to create a good structure that roots could easily colonise. Add more broken down stuff to the surface to feed that life and you have a really good growing medium. The second one that was just mulched may have had a decent amount of organic matter in it naturally and if it wasn't dug then it probably had good structure. By feeding soil life from the surface you were really able to boost it up a bit too. The less composted mulch will not have fed from the surface at all, just retained water and supressed weeds, so if the soil was also recently disturbed then it would certainly be less ideal.
i don't know if you answer specific questions. here goes I'm having big problems with Squash Bugs near my Ruth Stout beds have you grown squash in Ruth Stout beds or adjacent to one. davidmosteller@live.com
Talking personally i don't think old mulch or new mulch really makes a huge difference.
Yes im not denying it's difference, it will breakdown quicker creating more soil.
Hoe i personally breakdown my mulch quickly by tossing nitrogeneous waste in between whether it be veggie scraps, fresh weed and also i have earthworms which boost the work
Love your videos! Subbed
What're your thoughts on fermenter
We in Pakistan build a large cemented tank at start of our farm put water in it and then put fung in it and rooted fruits and leave it for sometime and then let in run through water stream to fields
That's clever