Creating Your Own Fertility | Successes and Challenges at Assawaga Farm

In continuation of our Summer Farm Tour series we are stopping off for a few videos at one of my all time favorite farms, Assawaga Farm in Connecticut.
In this video they discuss: Soil food web courses, making compost on a small scale, moving away from deep composting, no till, making compost teas, protozoa, and more!
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[@AssawagaFarm]

Hey everyone, thanks for checking out our videos that No Till Growers put together! Scanning through the comments, there are a few consistent questions that we figured we'd answer here and maybe this comment can get pinned so everyone can see it. First off, an update. Shortly after filming this we upgraded our compost tea brewer to one with a 35 gallon capacity! We have been brewing one or two 25-30 gallon batches a week this summer and have covered the entire farm twice over. We also started offering compost tea for sale at our weekly Saturday morning farmstand. What has been really amazing is the feedback we've gotten from some of our customers who have been using it in their gardens! Because our soil is very healthy to begin with, we don't notice drastic changes from tea applications, but some of our customers have reported very noticeable changes even after one application. Still anecdotal evidence, but very cool to hear about nonetheless! Next, there's a lot of questions about our cucumber beetle management and some confusion about the protozoa tea as a control. A few years back, the cucumber beetle pressure (and thus the bacterial wilt) on our farm was so heavy that we were unable to grow cucumbers at all. That was obviously unacceptable, so we changed some things that have allowed us to have an amazing cucumber season this year! The first thing we did was cover the cucumber seedlings with insect netting after transplanting and keep them covered until the very last second (as in they were pushing up against the netting and needing to be trellised). We've found that seems to evade the initial spring wave of cucumber beetles. After the cover comes off and the trellis goes up, we spend about 10 minutes every morning using a cordless vacuum (modified with a small piece of tubing for precise suction) to suck up any beetles we find. The beetles are typically very slow moving in the cool mornings and they tend to congregate in the growing tips and flowers. Some people may think that sounds ridiculous, but a 10 minute investment everyday makes thousands of dollars difference in sales, so the math makes it a no brainier for us. We've also noticed a precipitous drop in the cucumber beetle population 2 years after planting our perennial hedgerows. Again with the anecdotes, but it does make sense that the hedgerows would provide habitat for predatory insects and birds, so perhaps there's a connection. Of course we also spray the cucumber plants regularly with compost tea which helps to alleviate disease such as powdery mildew or angular leaf spot. In the video, these are the diseases that we're referencing when talking about the protozoa-heavy tea being very effective in mitigating. When it comes to bacterial wilt, the only way to beat it is to go after the beetles since it's carried in their guts. Now that said, theoretically it should be possible to influence the gut biome of the beetles by using compost tea. By loading the plant surfaces with beneficial microbes, it seems feasible that the beetles would be ingesting all that good biology and it might have an influence on the prevalence of the wilt-causing bacteria they carry. Just a thought... Lastly, we learned about making compost, using a microscope, and identifying soil microbiology by taking Dr. Elaine Ingham's Soil Food Web foundation course. It's an investment for sure, but one that made a huge difference for our farm. Any compound microscope with 40x-1000x capability should be fine, ours is an OMAX trinocular which allows you to use a camera with it. 400x magnification is the most we ever use for our purposes.

[@albertgarchitorena4637]

Sir thank you for sharing

[@NewEnglandLogger860]

Was watching videos to learn more about expanding my own family farm with my young son whos taken a big interest in farming/gardening and saw your local and got excited! Thanks for sharing!

[@Rattlerjake1]

Where do these farms buy their bulk seed and how do they store unused seed.

[@PaulBengtsson]

You have a very nice farm.

[@Potawatomi_woman]

Great info (miigwetth) thank you

[@myurbangarden7695]

I am so grateful for farmers who share their stories. You will see me on the vlog in 2027. Can't wait.

[@mickeygallz5483]

I wish you the the best of luck! I'm hoping to be on that journey as well ! Have a good one !

[@TheBrianCloud]

Best wishes on your journey (s)!!

[@inigomontoya8943]

Composting is one of the funnest parts of growing for me no matter how bad a crop might fail It just gets processed right back into gold for next time.

[@karenmccleary7616]

TONS of great information here. I’ll be rewatching this one over and over. Thanks!

[@joshuachristian1173]

Same this is number 4 for me now lol

[@gnargnar1992]

The most profound part of this video is the red flag of big profit maximizing compost producers. There are brands with reputable quality and process and some others that are just criminal. Organic Certifications mean jack. I think vetting a compost supplier is a must these days. That mulch is genius! It would be interesting to test a batch for mineral content kind of like you would kelp meal.

[@rickthelian2215]

I enjoyed the challenges they faced and addressed with composting 😀🇦🇺

[@sightline4004]

Any chance you could interview someone who's had success with shallow soil depth, high winds, and extreme heat? I know that sounds ridiculous, but if they exist I'd like to see how they did it.

[@ronaldaguilar3832]

Oh you from Colorado? You forgot the grasshoppers!

[@joanies6778]

​​@@ronaldaguilar3832 🦗🦗🦗Colorado!🦗🦗🦗 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@jamesR1990]

We're not on a scale yet to be worth interviewing 😆 and we're still learning but we're having pretty good success in our 3rd year in Southern New Mexico. Extremely high winds, high altitude with high heat, very little rainfall, poor initial soil quality. We share knowledge with two other farms in the region so there's pretty good communal knowledge.

[@Justbetru]

I’m from Colorado and My advise is to go with sunken beds. Everyone always wants to go with raised beds. It’s more work digging holes in the ground but it makes a huge difference. Throwing wood in those holes works well, a sort of hugelkulture. And always mulch, mulch, mulch! Planting perennial bushes might help with blocking some of the wind.

[@neophytebutterfly]

Columbia Gorge area!

[@aileensmith3062]

As "expected" another great video in this series. The more we watch the more we realize that we have to learn. THANK YOU and EVERYONE involved for these super informational and interesting and FUN videos!

[@mslorischoolsocialworker]

Great video, Jackson. It was so helpful to learn about their compost and compost tea processes. Loving these farm tours. Thanks for what you do!

[@garthwunsch]

Don't forget the compost extracts... IV for the SoilFoodWeb

[@that_auntceleste5848]

Amazing. Never considered a microscope as a tool for this. Cucumber beetles were bad in my area this year and I had to rip up plants due to BW for the first time ever. To think you can spray protozoa-rich compost tea on them and save the plant!! Wow.

[@ashleighnelson512]

Indeed, the bacteria/protazoa tea discussion was fascinating! I could watch an hour long video on that aspect alone 😅💚

[@richardrbrynerjr.7912]

Or spray clay on the leaves

[@wannabelikegzus]

That's really cool that they're able to support a whole acre's farming with such a small amount of compost. I've just got a 400 sq ft garden, and I compost my lawn clippings. It'd be cool to get to this level of compost management one day.

[@stevengraff8687]

I have a similar situation, just be hyper-vigilant about what you put on your lawn as you can end up in a similar situation as you would with hay/manure and unintended consequences.

[@harunrabbani]

Loving these insights into how other farmers make their farms work. Thank you. ❤

[@christinebottaro9017]

For us (large home garden), finding enough brown material to keep up with our garden pruning green material for the compost bin is the biggest challenge.

[@alextodd5487]

This has been a fantastic series. Really enjoy learning about different farms.

[@AJWGBFX]

Fascinating. I’d love you to revisit, specifically to explore the microscopy they are into. You could include footage of what they are seeing down the microscope.

[@user-wv5fq8di2m]

That would be very interesting indeed. I'd love to see some videos - explaining the mircoscope's role in not-till, compost focused, organic gardening. It seems that there's so much opportunity to use natural biology to effect some common garden problems.

[@jend3457]

Really enjoyed this tour. Thank you for turning what can become very complex topics like soil biology and identification into sometime accessible to geek out on, even as a beginner. Love what you are doing on this farm ❤

[@davec1117]

Great video, thank you! I'm a small lot city gardener with a similar sized single compost bin set up and no room to repile move the contents around. Last two year i've been using a 6" diameter post hole auger to mix the bins contents in place. One person job and can get finished compost in relatively short order.

[@GeorgeLeite]

Great information. I spend time in Putnam CT many times a year. Awesome to find out about a local organic farm.

[@manolopapas]

Nerd farmer Jesse, you are awesome

[@pamelag.4417]

What a great farm, love it. This is a True Green Project that honors Life and Community! 🦋Great job, Well Done!🤗 Thanks Jesse for making this good news available. It’s also therapeutic to open our minds to what is right in front of our eyes. 😃 🎉

[@SivaranjiniRajasekar]

I started to do the tea compost last year and also did the migration on the worms like the one you mentioned from a village project I learned 25 years ago to create composting at home. I have a dog so prefer this way of compost and it helped me to use that for all my plants to have a disease-free season. There was an abundance of tomatoes that sprouted from the rich compost pile and really love the no-till method. Thank you for sharing.

[@johndoh5182]

These farm videos are really good. I enjoy the little tidbits you get from different sources. It's really allowing me to see so many aspects to approaching even the beginnings of the the work I'll be doing. I think in tropical areas if you want to focus on creating a row farming system and have some extra land, generating the green and brown material could be pretty easy because there are a few fast growing plants that should allow you to grow a bit of your materials to compost. Or, that's what I'm thinking. I'll be lucky in that many land owners where we'll be are organic out of necessity. So getting materials for composting should be easier but I know there are still issues that come up because of raising animals and if they've been given doses of antibiotics. But I'm getting a much better feel for how I want to start now.

[@RePetesBees]

Been using Neptunes harvest for years. Even the fish one has low odor and works AMAZING! I use it on my indoor plants and its totally bearable in smell and works just like the stuff I make for my outdoor plants! Highly recommended.

[@SuperCidermonkey]

I love experimenting with compost. A couple of things I've found with leaves/compost is to firstly run any compost made through my worm bins, secondly I add spoiled milk/dairy which drives there microbes wild and in turn the worms produce there fluffiest, best compost I've ever seen, incredible! There needs to be a refinement of this process, but the soil produced is amazing.

[@r.perkins2103]

Growing a ton of carrots on a 12 acre farm is easy - not so easy on one row. You are amazing. There is never enough compost! - maybe straw bales and cow slurry is an answer?.... or farm rabbits.

[@TheEmbrio]

Great experience. I also love they are careful’ahout the scientific claims they are making. Farm looks great !

[@philipthomas4135]

I always enjoy your content, that I get the time to see. Been a gardener my whole life and been fairly successful at each place I’ve lived. I just moved to 5,000 ft elevation in Long Barn Ca and would loved to hear other people’s thoughts on gardening in such conditions.

[@dandan8333]

Love and appreciate you sharing your experiences! Thank

[@erikadelgadohernandez6777]

Love these videos! Thank you for making this info available

[@hanks_backyard]

Is there any world in which you don't just like smart people - these guys are great. Thanks for the video.

[@tjinnes]

Great video. What an amazing garden. Its like a polished jewel!

[@gregmartz5235]

Great job to all. Thank you!

[@josephvenezia3481]

Watched it three times. Can't get enough

[@WheelerRanch]

I sooo appreciate all of the info you put out, especially with all these likeminded souls. I bought your book.great stuff , all of it. I’m in deep with my closed loop compost making, powerful doings. Cheers y’all 🎉❤

[@8oclocktomatotalk]

I’m preparing to embark on my second annual Great Leaf Assemblage-I get so amped up utilizing any materials I can to improve our soil quality. Thanks for this video of encouragement!

[@lauragillespie189]

Love this video, very informative!

[@patriciahogg5763]

Impressive!! Small farm success!!!

[@itswhiskeytime8538]

Very impressive Assawaga Farms!

[@bambigrage8464]

LOVED this one. Great size farm. Would love to see the AC actual whole composting process. How do they flip it? Do they take the screen apart?

[@kirstenclemente7033]

I had the same questions. I noticed that they had hardware mesh over the pallets, and it looked like they use bungees to keep the fence/cylinders together. Do they put down tarps and just take off the bungees, remix the contents and fork it back in?

[@esben181]

It might be more of a static compost like a Johnson-Su bioreactor

[@davec1117]

The bungee's holding the tarp. He explains how he takes apart the pile and mixes back together.

[@garthwunsch]

@@kirstenclemente7033 I too graduated Dr. E's course... here's a big freebie for you. I do secure my bins with two bungee cords. Undo the cords, move the bin, redo the cords. Top third of pile goes on a tarp. middle third becomes bottom of next bin, Top third from tarp goes to middle layer. Bottom third goes on top. When you repeat this process for next turn, all three layers will have been in the hot centre. When turning do your best to put what was on the outside edges into the centre of the pile. Hope this helps. Draw it out as three layers... A, B, C

[@garthwunsch]

@@esben181 No, static piles can't heat evenly,

[@RenaissancetoRomantic]

Always interesting & helpful to hear the farmers point of view.

[@deecooper1567]

Saved to come back again to refresh! Thank you 👵🏻👩‍🌾❣️

[@martinacusack9867]

Glad you visited Assawara farm, i've learned so much from these visits. Thanks❤

[@jaynemar1]

Great story! Absolutely beautiful lane! Love the historical name!

[@dougreynolds2813]

super informative, another resource for folks to learn from; listen and take notes!

[@beebob1279]

I would love to see more of their operation and the layout of their grounds. Can you do more information on the bacteria protozoa manufacturing for disease prevention?

[@wildrangeringreen]

It has been noted that farmers create most of their work... a fairly accurate observation.

[@krystellesesslar806]

Awesome ❤ Please share how you successfully controlled the cucumber and flea beetles. I’m also struggling with squash and harlequin bugs 😢

[@southernvtgrown]

Yes, would be great content. They can be a pain in the butt.. GL ✌🏼💚🙏🏻

[@Cherryparfait41]

Same here! Was it the protozoans working on the disease they can spread that worked?

[@Supr_natrl]

Ugh my cukes get hit by cucumber beetles every year. I try to have a lot of succession plants but all the cuke plants get hit eventually. I would love a information vid on management of the cuke pests.

[@mslorischoolsocialworker]

I used Jesse's suggestion to plant radishes in with my cucumbers to discourage cucumber beetles, and that seemed to help a lot. I think trying to attract more birds to the garden has helped, too. I haven't got birdhouses up around my garden yet, but I'm finding that the more t-posts I put up (for trellises) as I expand my garden, the more birds I have in the garden.

[@krystellesesslar806]

@@mslorischoolsocialworkerI have bird houses and bird baths. I have a decent population of birds but the cucumber beetles are relentless.

[@gardeningontheedge]

Love it. Thanks for the info.

[@cwallcw]

Wonderful, generous and helpful! You guys are fantastic, and have pushed me to get my microscope out!

[@greengardenideas]

Your job is great Well done brother ❤

[@adamschaafsma5839]

Thanks for the video it's encouraging to see what can be done with small scale intensive farms. Also, sick music!

[@KrisOberhauserB]

Excellent video!

[@dianakremenliff2016]

Absolutely loved this video! Will watch again and take better notes other than my scribbles on an envelope!

[@niccotton4058]

fantastic!

[@johnbell891]

Amazing!!!

[@AlisonV362]

Fantastic info! Please share how you treated the cukes to get past the flea beetles, etc!

[@talluribalaji1222]

Could the authors of this video give an indication as to how long before a small farm like about 3/4 acre practicing organic and no till growing generate a net profit to justify the efforts of two farmers?

[@BATgirl57]

This was very helpful!! Thank you!!

[@jimspringer1532]

Beautiful farm. I would love to hear your strategy with the cucumber beatles. Thanks

[@RxCalyx]

I love this farm

[@joaomarcelino5035]

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing this great knowledge.

[@carlafawcett3851]

Very cool episode : )

[@erbauungstutztaufgnade1875]

cool . thanks for the free content.

[@gailgrice8979]

Very interesting.

[@C.Hawkshaw]

I think it’s why Rudy Steiner recommended the closed loop: it’s the only way to know for sure what is in your soil.

[@JeanneKinland]

Appreciate the sharing of this knowledge. I'm learning something new all the time. We have been gardening for over 40 yrs. Not a source of income just for our personal use. Might be looking into expanding when I retire from my job as a side hustle to supplement our retirement.

[@mourlyvold64]

Way to go!

[@southernvtgrown]

Great work and beautiful land folks ✌🏼💚 from Vermont 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 #foliarsprayeveryday

[@cjcoolroms3324]

wow! so interesting! Thanks for the content👍

[@duhaimap1]

I'm looking forward to seeing this new video.

[@mauricebrown9094]

Loved this video so much. Would love to have your book as well. Cost of sending to New Zealand would be helpful though,??

[@FilAmRecipes-mj5qo]

Great sharing my friend

[@NathanHarrison7]

Awesome. Thank you.

[@cynthialouw2970]

Very very interesting

[@nattofirstofthefermented]

I had a similar experience with trash being dropped off and the company's owner coming by to assure me that trash was just normal and all my previous deliveries from other companies were probably just as bad.

[@ElisabethDonati]

Us too outside of Santa Barbara many years ago before we moved to Montana. One year there was so much cheat grass that we literally started losing the garden. We sold the property to a guy who was going to cover the entire area until it died. It was awful.

[@Quest4TruthUSA]

This is great info!!! I wish u could do a video of flipping compost pile.

[@Justbetru]

Thanks!

[@notillgrowers]

Amazing! Thank you

[@markrisch3923]

Great video, props to the gentleman for the aNaLoGmAn t-shirt! I share both his passions.

[@coolbreeze8572]

Would love to know what you used for the cucumber beetles!? Love the videos thank you!

[@CliffordAllison]

Great video ! Can you share the source of your compost hand spreader that I saw in the video?

[@veronicaasantewa2532]

Thanks for sharing 👍 can guys show step by step 🚶‍♀️ how to make the conpose.

[@katehache]

The Protozoa tea part was 🤯

[@dls677]

Same exact experience with my OMRI certified compost supplier - plastic chunks, plastic bag pieces, and glass. It's that way every time. What an absolute joke. From now on, we will be depending on cover crops to build the soil.

[@ninemoonplanet]

Ugh, that's almost a written guarantee for problems for years to come. I don't have a farm or market garden but after seeing what persistent herbicides did, I went to vermiculture and know exactly what has benn through it. My worm farm is in my kitchen. No, it doesn't smell bad, it actually smell like rich spring earth. I use extracts (water without chlorine, chlorinates) poured through the castings in a fine sieve.

[@giancolabird]

@@ninemoonplanet make a video about your kitchen worms! People will watch!

[@deltab115]

@@ninemoonplanetSeriously, I would benefit from some advice about how to have a worm bin that doesn’t smell bad and that I could keep in the kitchen. Mine has been through several versions and right now I am struggling a lot with flies of various kinds (fruit, fungus and some other type), and maggots. I have to keep a screen over the top.

[@keelanbanks6171]

I'm also a small market garden using Elaine's methodology and adapting it to small scale market farming. I'm also using knf methods and jadam sprays.

[@mohamadazam2545]

Today in the morning i'm wacthing this video make me feel relex😁👍

[@johnthomas5806]

glad to see others using the "Johnson-Su method of compost making..

[@Not_So_Weird_in_Austin]

Thanks i use your methods on my backyard raised beds, wicking tubs, and self made compost made from prunning my own yard and garden waste that i can get to 160 degrees to cook and cure

[@dianakremenliff2016]

Appreciate clarification: in the making of the “tea,” are they using the worm castings or compost?

[@davidakerlund6296]

I wish i could avoid bringing in compost but the former owners of my place stripped the topsoil clean off so im on subsoil as my top soil

[@johnthomas5806]

finding that using the green waste from garden to make compost that I then add back to the row where I will plant that same crop as I think that the nutrients needed by that crop is re-introduced into that row from the waste plants...

[@mobypicks2435]

I'm surprised more smaller growers aren't using the Johnson -Su method. Fungal dominant, static pile is the way to go. It has so many great attributes and is proven to work in lab & in field. It also makes sense since he uses the same process that nature does. In my decent soil it only takes one seed treatment pre planting and I'm done.

[@titosrevenger]

Yeah I was disappointed to see that they're just doing the Berkeley method of composting when the Johnson-Su method is so much less work and creates a much higher diversity of microbiology. I guess they couldn't wait a year to use their compost.

[@curiousbystander9193]

interesting..... does another treatment during veg make for even better production....

[@mobypicks2435]

@@curiousbystander9193 probably the first few seasons, but I'm breeding landraces so idl to baby them. If you are planting commercial seeds then likely you'd be better with 2 applications.

[@curiousbystander9193]

thanks...so fungal charging of your no till soil is done just once a year? How deep is your soil?.....seems to me, if many farms want to do no-till with johnson-su, the best thing they could do at the beginning is go deep till their soils, driving top soil deep, then get into fungal leachates which would thrive to greater depths? Thoughts? How do larger scale no till folks, whether sythetic or johnson su feeding, deal with weeds without desiccation with a herbicide prior to planting, as is a common practice now? Is johnson-su a remedy for sterile fields? SHoudl it be used as a kind of soil pro-biotic on even synthetic fed fields?@@mobypicks2435

[@Mary-had-a-lil-farm]

What course do they keep referring to I didn’t catch the name and I watch the video a couple times. Thank you.

[@GrandmaSandy]

Hi dear friend thanks so much for another great video full of Grace the tips and impression always doing great channel is hugs and kisses from grandma, Sandy and Debbie

[@sydneygardener540]

I love it, The Matthew McConaughey of humour or humus on serious matters

[@feralkevin]

Wow, wish I could get that kind of mulch!

[@mrstoneybrew]

I would love to know the cucumber beetle success plan. Been struggling for years with my Japanese cucs

[@tommyblom9035]

to create wood compost start a willow or a fast grown bush patch and make your own wood ships

[@curiousbystander9193]

leaf mold compost is A+.... find clean leaf sources, grind them and turn them.... gold

[@BearWomanWisdom]

My beds got decimated this year from some sort of root-eating termite looking insect after bringing in bags of soil conditioner and now I don’t know how to move forward with these beds if I should dig out the soil and toss or if there’s something else I can do. Even with our heat waves the soil didn’t get hot enough to kill them, maybe hot composting all over again could?

[@jonathanscott563]

I didn’t think about the horse manure containing antibiotics.. I’m small / very small grow bag farmer of tomatoes/ peppers .. any hope of hearing it longer or something else that would come and help “ clean “ my compost .. I did 2 (5) gallons of chicken &horse and about 30 gallons of cow manure split into 2piles that I’m adding oak leaves and grass clippings . I also add this years bag mix when season is done