Fertilizing 170 Fruit Trees Without Breaking the Bank!

[@nonyadamnbusiness9887]

Glad to see this. I'm doing a similar thing with my fruit and nut trees in Florida. My outer ring is charcoal and horse manure. I have plenty of both available close at hand.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Great addition with the charcoal. We've had several folks suggest adding biochar to those rings, so glad to hear it's something that's working. Love the YT handle by the way!

[@sureshots98]

If I was loaded I would invest in a farm like this in a second. All you need is an oasis in the desert sales pitch and a well paced short but detailed delivery.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

I imagine this property is worth quite a bit more than it was when we started. Hopefully that sales pitch is a few generations away on this one though!

[@pilsplease7561]

When my land was purchased in the 70's it was really cheap practically giving it away. Now with the house and the vineyard and orchard and improvements its worth in the millions return on invest is crazy if we sold it. My grandparents are planing to leave it to me. @@EdgeofNowhereFarm

[@Boboggins74]

Bummed about not seeing a little more of the pecans. I have been looking forward to seeing those.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Brandon, we owe everyone an update on those pecans. We need to get that in the vlog here soon!

[@Theesavagegarden]

Guavas!! ❤️ looking good over there!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

We're keeping our fingers crossed on those. Summer should be good, but once we start seeing those 20 degree nights again I'm not so confident!

[@diversitylove5460]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Are you in the desert? Where is your water harvesting system? Where is excavated and lineed a swale with berms to harvest water, silt, microbiome. Why do you flatten dirt around trees, does the rain run off? Please where a sun hat because I love you 💕

[@diversitylove5460]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJfNYaKbrrd4m68 kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYm9XpSEoZ6emZI kzbin.info/www/bejne/f321hIeNnM2iq9k So I just heard you say separate videos on watering. I am looking at above techniques because of desertification problems traditional farming has caused. Also the cost of buying water is insane and water has chemicals added that impact growth. Gong to watch you other video now. Please have you wife drench you inzinc oxide sunblock because I love u 😘

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@diversitylove5460 Great questions/suggestions and we're actually working on all of those. We have passive catchment from our rooftops that is directed into the growing areas (grapevines and berry areas). The grapevines facing the house actually have a small swale/berm system (covered in woodchips) running in front of them to capture the rain. Each tree is designed with a swale and berm system that captures rain and keeps the soil biology growing. We haven't done large scale excavations yet, but that will be part of our design on the back 40. We do wear hats, but not before 10am. These days we're usually heading into the house by that time, but we also try to get these videos filmed without the hats on, so you can see our faces when we're talking. Oh and we love you too!!!! :)

[@SouthernLatitudesFL]

My first time on your channel. What a contrast to FL. Never seen land that has no grass! Lol. Happy gardening.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey guys, glad you found us! Funny you should mention the contrast, we were catching up with a few of the homesteading channels we follow last night and were commenting how much green they were "contending with" on their farms. Then we look outside to the brown dirt with patches of green!

[@SouthernLatitudesFL]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Even though our world's are completely different, I can appreciate all the hard work you put into your fruit trees and berries. I lost count but I think I'm around a few dozen trees and couple dozen berry bushes. Plus, we have 20 pineapples out if 45 plants. What zone are you? We are 9b.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@SouthernLatitudesFL ooh, what we would give to be able to grow pineapples and a few other tropical trees that struggle in our winters. We're the same zone as you guys. The biggest difference for us is that really dry weather and of course our super high temps (we easily get to 120+ in June out here). That really stresses plants in the middle of what is peak growing season for most of the country.

[@SouthernLatitudesFL]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I'm on the subtropical line, so we garden reverse from the rest of the country. I grow Oct to late May. But, yes, lots of permaculture that goes year-round. So fascinating. I loved how you are building soil, similar to us. I have a sand mix. A bit better than yours. Lol. Thanks for the chat.

[@73elperro]

Very very well made video,edited,explained and shown,easy to understand,thank you for sharing your knowledge!! 😀😃😄🤠😎🥸🤓

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Glad you enjoyed this one and found it useful. We try to put engaging content out there that is also informative, so thank you for the feedback.

[@fruitloverfarm3338]

You are great desert farmer really...

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Thank you. Not sure about great, but we're starting to get the hang of it!

[@danielfisch655]

The farm is looking amazing, thank God we finished this round of fertilizing on Friday, and you for sharing.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Glad you got that fertilizing in Daniel. This one and September are usually the ones we would try and skip if we felt we could get away with it. Fortunately we're not seeing those 120 degree days we were this time of year just a few years back.

[@carolleenkelmann4751]

a very interesting informative video. Thankyou.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Glad you found this one useful Carolle. We try to show what we're doing as much as we can to pull back the curtain on successfully growing fruit trees out here.

[@gardenofthegeeks8277]

Man it is looking really good i love to see that growth! interested to see how you guava's fair though you winter up there!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey guys! We're wondering the same with the guava. They did ok this winter, but it was unseasonably warm this time around. I'm not expecting them to survive those 20 degree winters we will eventually see.

[@diferentization]

And the water for irrigation?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

We're on a private well, so the cost is part of our electric bill. Our average bill is around $200/month. Assuming that's what you were asking. We have several videos on how we run our irrigation that you can find on our irrigation playlist that I'll link for you here; kzbin.info/aero/PLnT_wyDSIC9jOwEr_CetZQY-R6RQT_uIJ

[@chetnash5991]

The drone footage give a great perspective of your accomplishments.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Chet! Yeah, we're both kicking ourselves for not ponying up to get the drone earlier. Still a lot to fill in, but seeing a time lapse from the beginning would sure be cool to see!

[@chetnash5991]

It sure would. Never too late to start. I’m a bit concerned about the chicken pasture but then growing grass in a desert isn’t easy

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@chetnash5991 oh, yeah the chicken pasture is dormant for the summer. We won't plant summer grass in that area, because our only option is really bermuda grass which we don't want on the property as it's too hard to keep from taking over the surrounding areas. Plus, I really don't want to be out there cutting grass in the summer!!

[@chetnash5991]

That’s what the chickens are for. Tell them to eat or be eaten. Lol

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@chetnash5991 very true, they just seem to do whatever they want out there. Dang chickens...

[@kcmorgan8439]

Been watching you guys since planting our fruit/citrus trees earlier this year up in Vegas. Rough first summer for our trees. We designed our orchard to be enclosed with a high top covered with bird nets. Our 12 chickens utilize this as their run as well. It’s heavily wood chipped, which the chickens LOVE, and also helps protect my berm and swirl from their scratching. My question is how you might recommending we fertilize with chickens right there. I haven’t been able to find much information at all in reference to safe fruit tree fertilizers where chickens could eat any granules. I assume it has to be something liquid at this point. Any recommendations?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

First off, congrats on those trees! Vegas has very similar growing conditions, so you should do well with many different types of fruit trees. As for fertilizing, we use compost for our trees and that would be just fine for your chickens to rummage through. BioFlora crumbles are another option as it is made from chicken manure, so it shouldn't be a problem. You can also consider excluding your chickens for a few weeks to allow for the fertilizers to break down a bit before they are scratching it right back up. You can also do liquid, jus realize you'll be fertilizing much more often with this type of fertilizer. Hopefully this gives you some ideas!

[@ushaswarnasunkari9270]

Namastey brother...small suggestion from me..pls introduce some nitrogen fixing trees ,,ground cover in the middle of trees and around the trees...they will help in evoporation loss and also their biomass can be used as mulch ...tnq 🙏

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Excellent suggestions and we do have plans to incorporate some of that as we move forward!

[@dertythegrower]

Subscribed. Cheers, thanks for the content with Paragraphic.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Glad to see you here Sir Derty. The guys at Paragraphic are the best. They're as legit as their content IRL.

[@ryanrasmussen4866]

question about your worms. Where did you get them when you started your farm? TIA. I envy your farm.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Believe it or not, we really don't know for sure. Most of these came from the old farm inside potted trees that we brought with us, but we have found them in several areas of the farm that have never come in contact with those original pots.

[@unionse7en]

seems like dosing fertilizer into the water supply would be possible, especially if zoned.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

You are absolutely correct. In fact, we considered it when installing our irrigation which is all separated by zone, but wanted to be able to utilize all of our animal waste that we knew would be produced. That being said, it wouldn't be hard to install a "fertigation" system and use other beneficial liquid amendments.

[@jessicakapostins]

Hello 👋 what are you using for chicken bedding?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Jessica. Are you referring to the brooder, or what we use in the coop/run? For the brooder we use pine shavings, but we don't use anything in the chicken run/coop. That we rake out a few times a week. For us here in AZ, chicken manure is very dry with our weather, so we don't have any need for bedding in the coop or run.

[@tjoslin53]

Amazing, you have a beautiful farm. I'm looking to start a similar project and had one question for you. Are you using a well, septic, and your own power or are you on city?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey there! Glad you like the farm and how exciting to be starting a project of your very own. We know just how you feel! We did a detail on how we access and manage our water, so I'll link that for you here. Short answer is we have a well, are on septic and grid power. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3WQppZ-i7Omm6c

[@kezzatries]

Hey Guys, going strong I see, keep at it. And for your future selves Wear a Hat! Both of you!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Kezza! It's funny you should mention hats. We had someone else ask if we wear hats as well and we definitely do. We just usually wait until around 10am to put them on and these days we are usually heading into the house around that time if not earlier. Plus it's hard to see our faces on camera with a hat on, so even when we are wearing them doing projects we take them off for the camera.

[@kezzatries]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm . Ha ha good one 😉, you two are so brown, you would get lost in the shadows. Keep up the good work.

[@SlackerU]

I think these YT channels should be selling calendars with video-links on certain dates for beginners to check their maintenance. There could also be calendars with the data of the past few years like last-frost, fertilizer applications, harvest dates... IDK what would sell but we are getting sanctions so food prices are going up, education is all we'll have the next few years.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Excellent suggestion Bob. I agree, it's becoming all the more critical we educate ourselves on these skills that are being lost in recent generations.

[@ttss1234]

Super cool video! Can you tell me how much of the fertizona 15 15 15 you used on your loquat? I'm using the same stuff and my trees are about the same size. Instructions refer to citrus trees, but I'm thinking 1 to 2 cups x3 a year for a "small" tree? That's almost a pound per application? Just wondering how much you use.. Thank you!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey J D, great question. That stuff is really potent, so we only use about 1/2 cup around the inside ring of the small trees, including those loquats. The key there is placement, so make sure you're adding it around that dripline which is still pretty close to the tree for these little ones.

[@dertythegrower]

I highly recommend you all get the Jacks321 recipe.. pennies per gal cost, full spectrum plants nutrient. I grow the herbs, commercially

[@dertythegrower]

and that rabbit manure is the beezneez! Add in some natural bacillus blends (bacillus amylolquefaciens works wonders for roots and yield of many types of cuttings and small plants, and mycorrhizae, youre set.)

[@matthewfarrell317]

The problem I have seen is people tend to go to an extreme side and then miss the benefits of other practices, for example, hardcore no-dig, or organic only. We have come up with some really good manmade fertilisers, so use them. They won't build soil, but won't destroy it either, balanced with good organic material (wood chips, manures etc) gives the most amazing results far better than just using one or the other. But that's been my experience when growing, others will have different results.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Couldn't agree more there Matthew. Striking a balance and using the best tool for the job is always a good plan. Moderation is not in most folks' vocabulary these days and everyone likes to see things in black and white. The truth is usually somewhere in that gray middle.

[@malikal-harthi4373]

hi... i am new to the channel and i have been learning a lot so far.. I had a question thus regarding the timming of fertilizer... how does one come up with a schedule... i am from waayy east in oman and it very hot here ... we get very little rain ... our summers are above 40 degrees celcius and winters around 20 degrees..

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hello Malik! Glad you found us and are finding the content useful. It sounds like your weather is similar to ours, but a bit more temperate in the winter. The easiest way to figure this out is to watch your deciduous trees and see when they break dormancy. You are pretty warm in the winter, so your trees may not lose their leaves completely (or at all in some instances). Either way, you'll want to fertilizer as soon as the trees start pushing new growth in the winter/spring. You'll also want to fertilize about 2 months before the trees start either losing their leaves or stop putting on new growth. Once you have those 2 figured out, you'll want to add one additional fertilizing time right in the middle of those 2 months. So for us, we begin seeing growth around February and stop seeing growth in November. So we fertilize in February, May and September. Hopefully this will help!

[@timjones1583]

I'm interested to know what is your water source? How reliable is it?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

I'll post a video for you here where we discuss that. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3WQppZ-i7Omm6c

[@DaBuDaSak]

Just subscribed! Do you use any granular fertilizer when you plan to trees or do you just use the little bit of fish emulsion and super thrive?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Glad you found us! We have used both in the past, so you can do either.

[@AlAnGi]

Suchs a nice work Nice channel too!! Have you ever think to use Biochar for better water holding ; I have heavy clay and i used biochar for nutrition It worked For aeration still there is not improvement

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Great suggestion there Nio. We have had other viewers suggest the same, but we haven't started using it, at least not yet. We would want to create it here on the farm given the number of trees we would need to supplement and haven't had the time to dedicate to creating it. Are you purchasing yours or making it on site?

[@AlAnGi]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I am making it I am from Crete in Greece ,so I make it from olive prunings You don't so much for a good begining Also I became I subscriber Your projects are interesting at least

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@AlAnGi oh wow, Greece. That must be quite the place to call home with so much rich history. Glad to have you here as a subscriber. Hopefully you'll find the content useful and thank you for the suggestion on the Biochar!

[@threeriversforge1997]

Funny that I ran across this vid today as I was just thinking about how great Vetiver grass would be as a "bay" to hold compost and other bulk materials like you do. I've seen a lot of folks use old pallets and/or cinder blocks like you've done to enclose the chicken manure, but in your specific application I wonder if the Vetiver grass would be even better since it helps with water infiltration, soil building, temperature mediation, and biomass accumulation. A hedge of Vetiver would be every bit as impenetrable as the cinder blocks while also sinking roots deep into the ground and creating mulch by the ton. Honestly, though, I'm just curious to see how long it'd take for a clump of the Vetiver to break through your hardpan layer.... or if it even could. Would Vetiver survive in your semi-permanent "drought"? I think it would if you planted it near your tree rings so they could benefit from the regular watering and help the trees grow at the same time. Out by itself, though, like you have around the manure and compost piles? It's supposed to be drought tolerant, but I don't think they meant Edge of Nowhere droughts! 🤣

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Funny you should bring this up. We had a consultation over the weekend and the owner gifted us with a few cuttings of her vetiver bushes. If we can get them to take we're going to test them out and see just how drought tolerant it can be!

[@threeriversforge1997]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Oh, that's exciting! To my mind, the best bet is the one that maximizes the chances and the benefits. Planting them where you're already irrigating for other things would give the Vetiver a fighting chance in that kind of dry region while not increasing your workload since you're already irrigating. If you put one plant with each tree in the orchard, on the outside ring opposite of your water inlet, there should be enough residual moisture in the soil to keep the Vetiver going until it really establishes itself and can draw from underground sources. And in return, the trees get the benefit of all that the Vetiver does above and below the ground. No extra work for you, but lots of potential upsides. And we'll see how the grass really does under such austere conditions.

[@jean-jacquessmith9885]

Where do you get your water from?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hi Jean! We are on a well here in Wittmann.

[@markhellner5916]

If anyone is looking for chicken poop fertilizer, stop by Hickman’s store off Jackrabbit road. They offer a quality bucket of dehydrated chicken poop fertilizer.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Great suggestion there Mark. Chicken manure is magical in the garden!

[@glumGlumm]

What is you water bill a month cost? Just curious if ever i wanted to plant trees.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Great question Julian. We're on a well here, so we don't have a water bill directly as it's part of our electric bill. However, it's not too much in addition to the normal electricity we use. Then again, the well itself was not exactly inexpensive!

[@glumGlumm]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm wow nice. Lucky! Do you have a video where you talk about water systems in your property?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@glumGlumm we have an irrigation playlist here on the channel that may help. We add to it as we do additional irrigation projects here on the farm. kzbin.info/aero/PLnT_wyDSIC9jOwEr_CetZQY-R6RQT_uIJ

[@RichBurris2]

Pig Poo appears to be a real worm favorite.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

We've found that to really be the case. That was the reason for our switch to it on the old property and that place is now teeming with worm activity.

[@fenrirgg]

I live in the Chihuahuan desert and here mulberry trees can live without any fertilizer and minimal watering, they are extremely strong after the first couple of years, they are here because the shade is priceless, but it's a shame it's not a native tree.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Wow, that's great to hear they are doing well without irrigation. The roots are very aggressive, so they must be able to tap into ground water for you somehow. Hopefully we'll see something similar with these here!

[@theorangetreehomestead6660]

I've got a lot of aged but not fully composted chicken manure. Can I use this on my 1 year old stone fruit trees?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

As long as you're mixing it into a nice thick layer of mulch at and beyond the dripline of the tree you should be just fine. That gives the manure something to mix with and really compost down and also give more of a time release on the nutrients. And a little goes a long way. We learned that the hard way with a citrus tree that we used to rinse the "chicken pools" off onto and it burned the roots badly enough to kill the tree. It's potent stuff when it's still "hot".

[@theorangetreehomestead6660]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Wow. I will be super careful then. Its already mixed in with hemp shavings from the henhouse so it should be safer.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@theorangetreehomestead6660 that definitely helps. That combination of green and brown settles the manure down quite a bit.

[@theorangetreehomestead6660]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I decided to hold off on using it for the stone fruit trees. Just now put some on the established citrus, the young mulberry bush and the pineapple guava. Will see how it goes.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@theorangetreehomestead6660 those are solid choices and you should see good results for those trees.

[@estheralcala-hao9472]

Hi ..i cant help noticing that you don't have weeds ..how you manage without weeds...do you have a separate video regarding..getting rid of weeds

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Esther. We included that in one of our vlogs a couple months back, but most of the year we don't have any weed problems due to a lack of moisture. However, this year we spent almost every weekend with our mowers and string trimmers cutting the weeds back. We do all of that manually when needed.

[@estheralcala-hao9472]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm im jealous of your farm very systematic...i would like to visit it someday or you guys come over here and visit our mini farm. I will send you pictures when its ready. We just bought the land ..just waiting for the documents to be done...hopefully next month. Are you guys using solar power. We just installed one on our property....its been a great help to us. Keep up the good vlogs...stay healthy and strong...hows Rosie your pet 🐐

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@estheralcala-hao9472 congrats on that new property! Where are you guys located? We usually do a couple of farm tours a year that we promote through our website and customer email list. With everything we have going on we try to limit it to just those 2 days. Rosie is doing really good. We plan on breeding here and her sisters here this Fall for the first time.

[@thebibleboyz]

What do you think about mixing rabbit poop mixed with Chicken poop around the outer rings?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

I think that would be an EXCELLENT mix for fertilizing fruit trees. The chicken manure is our go-to for our evergreen trees as it has a tendency to be a bit higher in nitrogen than other manures. Rabbit manure is all around good for just about anything from garden beds to potted plants!

[@pilsplease7561]

I have found that with my soil which tends to bleed nutrients rapidly because it has a very low CEC so it doesnt hold anything That using conventional fertilizer frequently 2x a month is better than using organic as my soil wont break down organic fast or at all. It just doesnt have organic matter and its acidic and compost is not going to save it. I am mostly using Yara 15-15-15 in my vineyard and for all of my orchard. I have lemon trees, lime trees, orange trees, Apple Trees, Persimmon Trees, Peaches, And I have Fig trees, My figs were actually from cuttings off trees that were planted originally over 100 years ago by my 3x great grandfather the trees are now gone and the trees I have are the only ones left. I have been trying to give cuttings to people to spread it so that it doesnt die out.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

It sounds like you're finding the "secret sauce" for your soil. We try to encourage folks to find the best practices for their own property. What we do here doesn't necessarily translate perfectly to somebody else's piece of land. I love the fact that you're taking care of that legacy from your great grandparents. I can only hope that somewhere down the road we have someone doing the same for this farm!

[@pilsplease7561]

I try my best but it has been costly, fertilizer prices have gone nuts, When I was doing organic kelp meal was killing my wallet went to buy some went up like 20$ in the last year alone yeah no thanks when conventional is cheaper and works better. Im not knocking organic just saying if you have sandy soil dont bother you wont be able to increase your organic matter much at all 3-5% total on a good day is lucky and with that low your not gonna have enough biological life in the soil to convert organic fertilizers. If organic was cheaper and prices werent becoming scalper prices due to the fad that is organic fertilizer. Its a fad, its not better, what is better is using what works for your specific soil conditions a little bit of both if you can but saying that organic is just better and parroting it and lying to other people about it online because you feel like you are doing something to save the planet is unnecessary and dangerous.@@EdgeofNowhereFarm

[@coolskool1.061]

You could easily put Solar panels on your roof tops ... you have the ideal climate

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Great suggestion. We had them on the old farm and we found the expense was still a bit high to realize a return on the investment. However, those were installed in 2014 and things have changed a bit since then. Either way, that is definitely something we plan on using in the future. In fact, the outbuilding rooftop would be ideal for both the home and that building.

[@faramarzmokri9136]

Would be nice to declare your location at the introduction. Thanks

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Great suggestion Faramarz. Need to remember to do that on these epidodes. We're about an hour away from downtown Phoenix, AZ.

[@rahiarman123]

how much rainfall happens here

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Rahi. We actually get less than 10in. of rain a year here!

[@GHumpty1965]

Dwayne, I was wondering if you can sell me an airlayer of your ever bearing mulberry? I have been buying starts online and they fail because they are not from this area. I am having a hard time getting them to survive the first summer here.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Kelly. If you haven't done so already, head over to our website and sign up for our customer email list. That's the only way we market things we have available and this is one we're working towards. I agree with you on the need to have acclimatized starts for fruit trees. It's why we buy almost exclusively from Reid at RSI Growers.

[@DieselRamcharger]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Good tip right there.

[@breakingburque2200]

170 fruit trees... sounds like a dream.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

It's been a dream of ours also up until this last year. Lots of saving and planning can get you there as well!

[@breakingburque2200]

I know, I’ve been trying to make my dream a realization too. Have a couple acres in the country, hopefully someday, it is definitely not easy.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@breakingburque2200 you can do a lot with a couple of acres. Right now we're working about 2.5 acres and still have tons of space left empty. Finding that time is the tough part.

[@tolotonga69]

Have you tried foiliar feeding the trees ? They work wonders an works 3x faster then throwing slow release fertiliser on the ground, if doing both that's even better

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey there Tolo, great question/suggestion. We've only done it on a very limited basis to control pests. Time is a very limited resource on a farm like this, so we focus on building soil that can constantly feed the trees with less time commitment from us. I suppose we're a bit lazy in that respect!

[@robertkat]

I hope you are not taking water away from the golf courses.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

I assume you're joking with these comments, but I agree. Heaven forbid our snowbirds don't have lush, green golf courses to roam on in between breakfast and dinner.

[@BaliFoodTreePlanter]

Let me know if you would like some improvements for your very sweet desert farm. We invented Vermicomposting after our breakthrough1978-81, so that we can scale up.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey there Ratih. We have not tried vermicomposting as a separate process, but we have worms finding a happy home on many areas of the farm. What are you using as your base for your worm bins?

[@BaliFoodTreePlanter]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm give me your email so we can discuss privately. I have a breakthrough from 1981 that has never been public.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@BaliFoodTreePlanter We don't put our email in the comment section as it winds up causing a lot of Spam, but you can find our email address on the About tab here on KZbin.

[@BaliFoodTreePlanter]

Ok

[@Adnancorner]

I dont know but have you thought of nitrogen fixing bushes to be planted around the trees its too exposed...There are many plants that grow 2 or 3 feet high and produce pods... and you can chop and drop... I am in Dubai... so i know the climate of Arizona. I have successfully converted saline sand into soil. and please just a suggestion if you have any fish market you can get the fish waste (innards and scales and heads) that can be used to feed the soil as it will be full of minerals. but i believe you REALLY need cover...like really. Just search this name below Caesalpinia Pulcherrima - 'Peacock flower' you can keep it upto 1 feet for shade.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

These are great suggestions Adnan. We do plan on incorporating more in the irrigation rings around the trees as they continue to grow. These trees are still very young and we are continuing to expand the irrigation rings as they get older. At some point having additional crops that are in with the irrigation definitely makes sense. I don't know of a fish monger here in the Phoenix area, but that definitely would be an EXCELLENT source of fertilization. I had to search Caesalpinia Pulcherrima, but I believe I have seen these around town. It would be nice to look out and see some color in this otherwise barren landscape. Dubai is very similar to our weather here, so I imagine you've been down this road before!

[@zerotoeverything4348]

i guess the best thingabout planting in dessert is not having pest weeds?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

That is definitely a big advantage. Not much in the way of fungal or bacterial diseases either thanks to the extremely dry air.

[@robertkat]

Make sure you spray the trees with pesticides every 2 weeks.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

We never use pesticides on the trees and have had no issues (at least for the 12 years we've been doing this). Our hot, dry weather makes for very few insect problems.

[@marschlosser4540]

OK, class. Everyone say _Hi Duane!_ Hey, everybody, there's Lori! Hi, Lori! Don't mind me. I was playing in a heap of rotting sod used as mulch fertilizer. Wow, the mold! No wind this morning so all the dust settled on me. How fortunate my sinuses are great at filtering it. OK, business. the tangerine leaves all curled up along the length of the leaf. All I can figure is, too much calcium plus the heat and wind. it gets soaked 2 plus times a week (very porous adobe loam) Other plants in the bed look fine, but for one new lavender that kicked the bucket (bought that at Lowes swamp). Other lavender, asparagus, a small Kashmir pomegranate, a variety of weeds (Indian Rush peas) are thriving. Fertilizer on the tangerine, one bucket of bat guano tea, the sod, half a cup of pelleted chem fertilizer, and so on. Each time, beginning in late April, something different was used. Everything else freaked out growing with only a little chem and a lot of mulch. I added some sulfur to the mulch and watered it in. Last year and the year before, the tangerine grew well. Now? Ah right, I took up enough of your time. It was fun watching you kids work! Hasta!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Martin. It's hard to say for sure on that Mandarin. Is there any bug activity on them at all? And is there any discoloration on the leaves? Might be worth shooting a pic of the tree and surrounding area over and maybe we can figure this out, but it sounds a bit stressed one way or another.

[@marschlosser4540]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm I do not want to be a pest, but can take some pix. No bugs, no discoloration. It gets half the wind of the kumquat, which is in pretty good shape. Much thanks. I just watched the water vid. Wow, you kids look good! I wish Uncle Wilbur were still kicking. Even when he was almost 100, he could talk orchard. Hasta!

[@ravashhoodfar4084]

You guys are amazing. Living the dream. I wish Elon Musk would invest in things that you guys are doing instead of colonizing Mars. All a side I have a question. What , how, when and how much do you fertilize your citruses with for maximum yield? Would appreciate your thoughts. Thank you. God speed.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey there Ravash. I agree completely on the comment about Musk. That goes for all of the wealthy folks making investments in one thing or another. Unless we can regenerate and sustain the planet there literally is no future! We did a video earlier this year on our process for fertilizing that I'll link for you here; kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKWYqnWqpcyLn6c While we use aged chicken manure for our citrus, any solid fruit tree fertilizer that you can find at one of the nurseries will work just fine. There are even some citrus specific blends that would be ideal.

[@gm2407]

I would hope that you stick to one approach when fertilizing trees. Soil in its life and structure is important to this process. Long term chemical fertilizer use may hinder your progress and you have been making great strides in your soil. Of course you are more experienced than I so yours is the final judgement. I would say that pelat fertilizer may not encourage deep root growth and a network of deep roots is what you need for water filtration and breaking up the ground.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

I agree with you there G M. The chemical fertilizers are only a short term boost for these young trees until we can get soil building further away from the new planting. We're seeing that consistently with the more established trees which is why the majority of the trees have manure based compost as fertilizer for this round. By the time we hit September, we probably won't use any chemical based fertilizer except on any new plantings.

[@gm2407]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Thats good to hear. The chemical ones affect soil microbial life so you might see a tree grow well abovr ground but bad bellow the soil there. Hopefully your fertilisation next time will counter act that and help it further establish bellow ground.

[@thomasa5619]

It baffles my mind that you can be surrounded with so much earth as hard as concrete But you put down wood chips or manure and compost worms find it Surely they don’t come from the pigs or the bore water

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Thomas! The key is the moisture and some type of rotting material to give them something to eat. We did bring some from the old farm with the potted trees we moved over. We let those sit on top of woodchips that first winter and infiltrate into the soil that was being created under those pots. Since then we have been finding worms in most of the watering rings over time. So, some came from us and the others found us.

[@giuliobaecker5476]

We have chickens so I’m gonna do better with composting the manure.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

That stuff is golden for fertilizer. The biggest thing there is composting it if you can or do something similar to what we do. When it's applied (lightly) to woody mulch, it mitigates some of the issues you would normally have with a "hot" fertilizer.

[@heidigib01]

My fruit guy said loquats don’t like heat so much. You don’t shade the young trees?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

He's right, they don't like the heat, but we don't cover our trees here on the farm. I'm a little concerned for these because they're so young (once they're established they do ok), but we're all about tough love here with our trees, so we'll see how they do!

[@FlylightD]

What are you protecting your plants from in the middle of the desert??

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Great question Dustin. You name it and we've had it trying to eat our trees/plants. For the trees we have to protect from cottontail rabbits, jackrabbits, javelina and ground squirrels. Both will eat the leaves, new shoots and also the bark from the trees (the squirrels and javelina will also eat the roots). We lost 3 trees last year when they were newly planted to rabbits and ground squirrels. The garden beds need protection from those as well, but also from mice, rats and quail (we have several large coveys that call the farm home). All of which will completely decimate your veggie garden as soon as the seeds sprout. That's one of the biggest challenges we face in the desert, because when it comes to food for animals to eat we're the only game in town, especially during the dry summer months. Same goes for anyone in town trying to grow a garden of fruit tree.

[@FlylightD]

That’s super interesting. How long has the land been desert? Did it experience desertification because of mismanagement 100yrs ago?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@FlylightD the area we're in has always been desert. The only exception is the designation of open range for cattle which have been run in the surrounding area for the last 50+ years. Until we started building our home a shovel had never touched the ground you're seeing. So while most folks doing this are regenerating land that has been mis-managed, we're actually generating soil where there has never been any prior.

[@FlylightD]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm that’s remarkable! I’m following! Can’t wait to see how this goes in the long run. Beautiful oasis, I’m sure.

[@Mrromperz]

I could have sworn its June hahaha jk

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Boy is it really starting to feel like summer right now. I'm just grateful we're not seeing those 120 degree days we were this time 3 years ago!

[@Mrromperz]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm i know right! I'm excited to see how your guava loquat trees do in the heat this year.

[@1voluntaryist]

I am distracted by the unusual "earthen" structures in the background. Adobe? Rammed earth? Am I seeing bare earth? Why? Wood chips + water = soil. Conventional gardening/farming is unsustainable, a mistake, money wise and health wise. I came to that conclusion 65 years ago and all my experience/research has verified that no till, no chemical, no interference with natural processes is all that works, despite temporary appearances.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Don. I'm not sure if you're seeing our massive woodchip pile or the neighbors property. We're in the middle of getting most of the land we own covered by either wood chip mulch (hence that large pile of wood chips), trees, shrubs or some combination of all of those. We're 2 years in and the first order of business was just that. Cash flow to fund the remainder of the project. Hence what you see here.

[@chifylube]

You guys never wear hats. I hope you at least have sunblock.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Funny you should mention hats. While you don't often see them in our videos, we do wear large brimmed hats on the farm. However, we don't put them on until later in the morning. By 10am we have them on, but these days we try not to stay out that late. In this episode we wrapped filming by about 10am and had hats on the rest of the day.