TRANSCRIPT: http://backtoreality.org/2020/06/22/faq-deep-mulch-vegetable-gardening-ruth-stout-method/
In this video I’d like to answer some of your most frequently asked questions about the Ruth Stout method, and about growing no-dig vegetables under mulch.
Questions:
1. (1:00) Where are you located?
2. (1:34) When you say “hay”, do you actually mean “straw”?
3. (4:02) What do you mean by “spoiled hay”?
4. (5:29) Does deep mulch eliminate ALL weeding?
5. (6:40) What about weed seeds that come IN the hay?
6. (7:41) How much water?
7. (8:18) What about “unwanted visitors”?
8. (9:19) Are the potatoes less nutritious or less flavourful?
9. (10:05) Can you grow other vegetables like this?
10. (11:27) Make sure your natural mulch is ACTUALLY natural
Previous videos:
Plant Hardiness Zone, Rainfall, and Other Important Information
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrAJbE0ZTA8
Where We Get FREE Garden Mulch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww34XwhdeZ4
Our Deep-Mulch Vegetable Garden After TWO MONTHS of Complete Neglect
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT1TJwbxr6E
Companion Planting Asparagus and Strawberries (No-till, Ruth Stout)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc92S7UQD5k
Spring Prep in our “No-Work” Garden, and an EASIER way to Spread Mulch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkJtNJqKM34
Preparing our Hugelkultur Garden for Winter: Chop and Drop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VIpTac1NiA
The Ruth Stout Method of Permaculture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfi-n0Oq38E
337 lbs of Potatoes! NO digging, NO watering, and VERY LITTLE work!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlratwBT5OI
Planting Potatoes in a Ruth Stout Permaculture Garden (QUICK and EASY)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dexx9kKVWeo
Results from our NO DIG and NO WATER potato experiment (Ruth Stout Method)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf0Q2YlQOUU
Companion Planting Carrots, Radishes and Onions in a Ruth Stout (HAY-ONLY) Garden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMkn5b0jHhE
Results and Lessons Learned from our Carrot, Onion, and Radish Experiment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO2tNfgW8Ug
Winter Ruth Stout Permaculture Update and HAY vs STRAW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-A1gNNjen0
Love the info you present and how you show us diagrams and explain things. Have you had anyone give info on what to do to prep garden for winter after having squash bugs invade winter squash with cardboard covering ground?We have straw covering beds next to the sqush. My plan was to cover the squash bed with straw once I clean up the dead vines. Concerned I will give the bugs a nice place to overwinter.
how do i know when the hay or mulch is ready to use for planting?
Thanks for the explanation. Subscribed
I vote for more Q & A videos. They are informative, well done, and I like them. Thanks for sharing.
Found that hay here in Texas is full of herbicides. Here wheat straw is preferred because it contains no herbicides.
Great, informative vid. Question:. Once the plant, no matter what veg, begins shooting through the mulch, should we pull away some of the mulch around? With every veg? Thanks. I love listening to you. Hope you are well in Canada.
Absolutely some of the best, most researched videos on YT! Production quality is wonderful, such a pleasure to watch! I use card board between the rows & use different mediums for different crops. I use leaves, hay, woodchips & cardboard. Commercial mulch is a no-no as 90% of it has been treated.
I do compost the leaves & woodchips for awhile as well. It has been such a pleasure learning about the Ruth Stout method!
Very helpful…..Thanks
great video, thanks for sharing
Using either straw or hay will yield an absolutely incredible amount of weed seeds. I found this out the hard way. Now I put down cardboard first and put homemade compost on top of that, about 6 in before planting. I am sure Ruth Stout method has worked for others, but I just don't see how unless you can find a source free of seeds.
Dry Corn leaves body parts Good For mulching..
Straw works great in cob or Adobe homes.
you should mention that if the hay does have seeds you can simple smother them out with more hay on top and that reapplying the mulch annually or even during the season may be helpful or necessary. otherwise good information.
You guys are doing some great work. It’s also nice to see videos from my area (5b Eastern Ontario). Keep up the good work.
"Expiry date….. Yesterday" HAHAHA love your sense of humour! thank you for the video, much appreciated XO
Hay on my garden, got moldy and smelled terrible, I had to take it off and get it out of my yard
Do you need to rotate Ruth Stout gardens?
Hay is better the plants need to enrich the soil agree that anything is better
Thank you for your very well-researched and informative videos. I just found your channel when searching for information about the Ruth Stout method. Her method and Paul Gautschi's method sound like they would work very well for me. I just need to find a good source of straw and/or wood chips near me. (I will check out your linked videos.) I will continue to watch your videos to learn more. I really appreciate what you are both doing and for sharing such great information. (I am in Indiana, by the way.)
I am so glad you explained the difference between straw and hay. Thank you
Straw seeds. my daughters like to sift through the straw bales to find the big seed shafts. They collect them and plant them as cat grass for our cats. lol
What are the right questions to ask about hay/straw and what are the right answers? We did straw bale gardening and the first year it was great. got an organic fertilizer and things grew wonderfully without weeds. The next year, we couldnt find …or remember the name of the fertilizer that we uses and the bales seemed to be wound differently. Needless to say, we did not have good growth results.
over time the hay will break down and become the soil so any weed seeds there will be exposed to that soil. is that correct? I love the no-dig potatoes and am going to try this method even though Im super allergic to hay & straw. Im more "allergic" to weeding and hoeing lol!
Hello from Baltimore Ontario! So excited I discovered your channel today! I now know what to do with last seasons left over hay. Thanks for the great content.
Some problems I've encountered with R.S. method is that it makes a wonderful winter home for small rodents; upon planting in spring I find an infestation of rodents and their trails beneath the hay…and it's not just in certain years. I do get the cloud of spores in the dry hay, and weird black mushrooms grow in the wet hay. It is an easier way to garden but I am concerned about the black mold spores getting on my growing vegetables; will they still be healthy to eat or will I be consuming black mold spores?
In Southern Ontario: In regard to your strawberries, I would also suspect they were either not viable or too weak. Last fall I decided to attempt to smother the strawberries that were growing around my blueberry bushes by burying them under 8 inches of wood chip. The berries were old and riddled with bind weed and smothering seemed like the best option for starting over. I did not lay down cardboard because the mulch was very thick. This spring much to my surprise, both the strawberries and the bindweed had no trouble finding their way through all that wood chip. And if old strawberries can do that, then hay should not have been a problem. This year is my first time using hay on some of my no dig raised beds. I am amazed that the beds have needed so little water in spite of several early heat waves of 30 degrees C. There have been some slugs and I also have lots of toads! I am using it for tomatoes, peppers and melons, so we'll see how it goes. Love your videos!
I love your animations. Very cute.
Love your videos. Your a great teacher and speaker. Than you!