ALFALFA PELLETS FOR ORGANIC FERTILIZER REAL TRUTH Revealed. Lets take a look on how this really works.
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What kind of alfalfa is used in the large compressed bales? I typically use it over any other form.
Great Info. I've seen a lot of talk about this and seriously questioned some of the things being said. You've presented this quite well and backed up what you are saying.
I have looked on the Canadiangardensupply web site. They have some really interesting products. I am shifting my thinking from fertilizer to bacteria and fungus, but there is so much to consider. Could you comment on some of
the market products that claim to help build the soil?
Thanks for this
Alfalfa pellets are made for animals that need the protein
I didn't want this pellet gardening fad reducing the amount of food available for animals;)
It makes great sense
How do you comfrey in the garden
I have read the book on JADAM. They take and grow there own Microorganism in water and feed with a potato this seems to me to be anaerobic bacteria and a lot of what I am reading anaerobic bacteria is not what you want. This is very confusing. There is wide spread success story's about JADAM. What is your thought on this.
Rabbit manure means canin manure? The part with the aerator sounds quiet familar to me… 😉
I been thinking about this for a a while now. I am guessing they have a heat process to dry the pellets. That is probably why the pellets had less biology. But the good news is it is still food for the biology in the soil to eat on.
Mark, do you know if the level of Triacantinol in the end product is affected by the level of nitrogen in the alfalfa?
Go ahead get robbed by down to earth, Ill save my $$
~ Wow!!!! I am soooooo thankful for finding your video, because I literally was going to purchase some of the pellets in the next couple of days! Thank you…..I'm definitely purchasing the alfalfa meal and getting some of those coffee grounds from my nearest coffee shop!!!!!
There are a few confusing things here. Alfalfa for forage is usually harvested at the bud or very early flower stage, not at the seed stage. Tissue analysis shows that the plant tissues have 3-5% nitrogen at the early bud stage. In fact almost all healthy plants have 3 or 4 % nitrogen in their leaves and tissues. You can use chop and drop and get the same level of nutrients. Comfrey leaves are high in protein and therefore high in nitrogen because protein (which are strings of amino acids) has to contain nitrogen. Growing comfrey and putting leaves on the soil will do the same thing if not better than using alfalfa meal or pellets.
Nitrogen is present in the molecules of plant tissue such as amino acids which are the building blocks of protein. When you say that the plant is mostly protein at the late stage there is nitrogen in that protein. More protein equals more nitrogen. It is also a component of chlorophyll, energy molecules such as ATP, and DNA. Nitrogen isn't floating around in the plant tissues all by itself. It is taken up as a component of other molecules.
I am not familiar with the plant myths book or where the data comes from, or how it is reported but alfalfa meal and alfalfa pellets are exactly the same thing. It is only that the company selling the meal has had the contents analyzed. The amount of N is probably lower than fresh tissue due to the drying process.
The only thing to worry about when using big bags of pellets is if the alfalfa is Roundup Ready which most commercial growers use. That means that the alfalfa will have been sprayed with Roundup and you don't want to put that on your garden. If you use alfalfa pellets be sure to get the much more expensive organic variety. Or, just grow comfrey.
Do the pellets still contain triacontanol?
Boy I wish I came across your video before I bought my 40lb $40.00 bag of organic alfalfa pellets! Still going to toss them into my new raised beds, but lesson learned. We brew espresso every day. Will be using those grounds instead in future! Thank you so much for your very informative video. You’ve won over a new subscriber here!
How much coffee ground do you need for a 4×40 garden? Thanks
ty you da man watched you for years every video
So alfalfa from a bale should be good for compost?
It may be true that alfalfa meal may contain more nitrogen than the pellets. However, the more general rule for an organic fertilizer, such as alfalfa pellets, is that the pellets will feed microbes, nematodes, etc., and those byproducts produced will provide the nitrogen, etc. Insofar as I understand organic fertilizers, they are not meant to provide immediate and direct NPK to plants, but rather provide the means to a organic process that will later produce good fertilizer.
@13:02 WOW! It looks like jam! Tasty, haha
Thank you so much for the clarification.
Thank you, very informative. My first visit to your channel and now I have to see what I've missed!
Thank you for talking about how anaerobic is unwanted. I get so concerned every time I see someone promoting making a highly stinky container of anaerobic goop – and prizing the smell as if it is proof of its goodness – and then putting that in their garden. Yikes! They're probably fortunate if they have enough good guys in the soil to knock out the toxins for their plant's health and for their own.
Can I use the meal on to my lawn?
Alfalfa for pellets and hay is harvested BEFORE going to seed. It is cut right as the plant starts to flower, preferably right before. You get multiple cuttings (approx 4) per year off a single alfalfa field, each time cutting just before it blooms. You would literally be cutting your harvest by about 75% annually if you let it go to seed before cutting. This is coming from someone whose family has put up alfalfa hay(which is what is used to make alfalfa pellets) for 50 years plus.
This video doesn't make any sense and is spreading misinformation. Protein = nitrogen macro molecule. The nitrogen doesn't magically disappear no matter what time it's harvested. Also master gardeners have been using pellets for ages, so why second guess them.
Thanks for another great vid. I really appreciate all the useful info on your channel. Letting water stand for a day does not work for me because my muni water has been treated with chloramines. I've tested most of the single-stage filters that claim to remove them. For the most part they are junk. The Boogie Blue Plus was the best at ~70% reduction when new. I've been working on this problem for several months and have cobbled together a four-stage filter that gets the residual ammonia down to less than 0.5 ppm. I'd like to be below 0.25, but that is really, really tough to do on a budget. So I treat five-gallon batches of water that have been run through my system with buffered ascorbic acid to eliminate the residual.
so are you able to use pellets in a aerated compost tea brew? Mixed in a mesh bag with some good compost, worm casting etc? thanks for the vid
I enjoyed the materially went over in this video about alfalfa meal vs. alfalfa pellets and the information on the brewing of teas using these products. Now I am from an agricultural state, and I’ve been directed towards brewing of teas using the alfalfa seeds that are abundantly discarded by farmers after they harvest due to the sheer amount of them. So does a higher ratio of nitrogen reside in the seeds after the farmers harvest the alfalfa? And if so do these seeds make for a better brewing of these teas?
Pellets still add trace elements and has a growth stimulator. Still cheaper