Why growers need to have vibrant soil microbial communities | Regenerative Agriculture | John Kempf

[@TheFarmacySeedsNetwork]

John you truly amazing at describing soil plant and biology interactions in a descriptive model that really collates all the pieces together and builds a picture in a person's mind of how it's supposed to work. Thank you so much for all you do as always!

[@CaptainMattsWorms]

Great Video! Have you considered starting a worm farm? They create the BEST organic fertilizer in the world! I raise millions of worms for fertilizer for my garden and to teach others how to care for them :) So much microbial life in the castings!

[@andidelta9]

Only 5 mins in, I already learned something stunning. Thanks John!!!

[@woodlyz]

John is so good at Q&A. That would be a useful KZbin/Podcast approach. Ask John and just fire questions at him for 30 minutes.

[@R1chiesART]

Absolutely, well explained for the novice. I've just acquired an allotment here in the U.K, abandoned 5 years with lots of heavy weeds like nettles, cleaver and bindweed, its about 100x40 foot. Its very wet here with 6/7 months of rain, snow etc with standing water for about 5 months. Raised beds have worked but our plot is below the rest of the area which results in this standing water turning everything into a bog. We have no land drains, whether they'd be affective I don't know?, we have a no grow period of about 4 months. In Summer, it is the complete opposite with 3 months of drying everything out, baked, cracking soil and the need for lots of watering!. We have now 3 compost bins but it is very slow progress filling them. The compact layer is about 4/5 inches down with standing water over 2/3's of the plot. Should we buy more soil and raise the levels or build land drains which will impact someone else's plot?. Cheers.

[@audreybarnes6527]

A beautiful presentation - it truly vibrates the passion and goodness of John's intentions 💚

[@AdvancingEcoAgriculture]

We're so glad you enjoyed it, Audrey Barnes! - The AEA Team

[@PerfectGardensTV]

Great talk, we see eye to eye on this

[@smiley-ej9ve]

wow no comments? This is one of our favorite topics. to cut to the chase long story short, 20 p Ca, 8 P, 2 Mg, K and S, 0.4 NO3 and NH4, 5% C, and the Traces. All learned from Phil Wheeler, Arden Andersen, Phil Callahan (TUNING INTO NATURE), and of course ACRES,USA. ALMA COLLEGE BIOLOGICAL STATION VESTABURG, MICHIGAN. Aloha Mahalo

[@JDBrown4peace]

Thanks, John. Pushing the knowledge base deeper and deeper! I will pass this on.

[@AdvancingEcoAgriculture]

Thank you, John D Brown, for watching and sharing. We love sharing our knowledge and helping others! - The AEA Team

[@timshirk6261]

I think the #1 problem is there is not near enough soil surface residue anywhere which does so many things. Reason there is not enough residue is not because it is grown as even chemical farmers grow good carbon but the problem lies in that most residue that is grown gets burned back up into the atmosphere thru oxidation. Animals on the land used the sharp hooves to punch residue into soil so microbes can access it instead of losing it thru oxidation.

[@timshirk6261]

Soils are so depleted In carbon that residue from grain harvest crops is not near enough by a long shot to properly cover soil for next growing season and so the process of over heating soils will repeat itself every year. Climate change is real but not because of excess fossil fuels but because of Ag and oxidizing carbon from soil into atmosphere over last few hundred years. The only way I know to fix this would be to grow cover crops for several years putting it all back in soil to get organic matter increased. Carbon oxidation is the real problem!!

[@timshirk6261]

I know I am a small farmer but my 300 acres get regular biomass blankets of urine & manure soaked sawdust to protect soil from sun while providing a home and food for soil biology. Regarding nitrogen yes most of what is needed can be fixed from atmosphere by microbes and the only reason to apply more would be if additional CO2 is needed as by adding nitrogen that would speed up the break down process of the sawdust blanket creating CO2 from microbial respiration. When I think about crop food I think about feeding soil biology and the goal is to keep bacteria and fungi food at about a 1-1 ratio for my diverse grass fields.

[@mikebunetta7420]

Please see Sri Lanka 🤔 they need you John

[@marlan5470]

Sri Lanka needs a miracle.

[@jima3372]

Hi John -Thanks For the videos I grow no till pumpkins and have been adding microbial life to the soil with the Korean national farming [KNF] and have a lot of disease on the leaves caused by too much nitrogen, My question is will microbes make more N available to the plants and perhaps too much N?

[@richardruss7481]

I believe that compost and mulch are good fertilizers.

[@gtavtheavengergunnerlegend3340]

I want to know more about inhaling and exhaling and the peak time

[@mikeymike3440]

Good job

[@tinkeringinthailand8147]

Nature has had millions of years of practice, development and correction to come to what we see in nature today, so why do humans think they can do better in the blink of an eye? (rhetorical).

[@iwenive3390]

What if you made the tires wider and ran at lower pressure.

[@christopherburman3340]

I have a compacted layer about 12 inches down on an existing pomegranate orchard. Also very prone to water logging. In the market garden talk during a BFA conference John talks about shallow tiling to improve drainage. Does anyone have a link to more info about this technique?

[@jacoblandis4535]

Look up Mark Shepherd and his books, "Water for and Farm" and "Restoration Agriculture." Both have sections that talk about strategic ripping of compaction layers, and he's in a tree crop setting.

[@projectmalus]

From the video, it seems the thickness of the layer is important and decides the technique to fix it, at that depth.

[@matthewkheyfets1309]

I'm currently growing tomatoes in pots. The soil mixture is half vermiculite and half sand. The top 3 or 4 inches is mixture of worm castings, compost, and sand. I've been foliar spraying with nutralive package but recently found that one of my tomatoes has gotten blossom end rot on about 3 tomatoes. My question is since the foliar spray has Calcium in it, does that rule out calcium as the reason and means watering is the culprit? Or does the calcium not move from where it's absorbed on the plant, so the fruit may not be getting the proper calcium it needs from the foliar?

[@yoursoulmatters9600]

Calcium is moved by water in the plant foliar might help but is not the answer you need it in the root zone.

[@matthewkheyfets1309]

@@yoursoulmatters9600 unfortunately I don't have Gypsum right now. I thought the compost would have enough but evidently maybe not.

[@AdvancingEcoAgriculture]

This would be a great question to send to [e-mail] Matthew Kheyfets! The AEA Customer Care Team will be able to shed more light on this. - The AEA Team

[@matthewkheyfets1309]

@@AdvancingEcoAgriculture so according to quick Google search, it appears that Calcium when already in the leaf, so let's say applied as a foliar spray, is immobile from where it is absorbed. So for new growth tips getting calcium, a foliar application to my best guess would actually work to avoid any abnormalities and ensure the cell walls all have the calcium needed. However, since fruits don't absorb calcium from a foliar spray, that means the only way to get calcium into a tomato fruit is via the plant stems and trusses. Therefore, my guess would be to ensure calcium gets the the tomato fruit, applying calcium as a soil drench or in the form of gypsum would be the only way to really do it. Also, I think my blossom end rot problem may have really been a watering issue since I found out that my plants might have just been getting way too much water since my neighbor was watering them during the night without me knowing lol. So much plant information to absorb, pun fully intended 😀

[@dbesler]

As much as I don't trust the government, they seem to be on the right track to want to end the use of nitrogen fertilizers. They (government) don't seem to have the solution to the problem. They (government/farmers) need to see this video.

[@christopherburman3340]

Am in South Africa if that is relevant

[@ceciliadixon3767]

👏 p̳r̳o̳m̳o̳s̳m̳