Free Soil Testing for Your Garden, Back to Eden Method with wood chips for building healthy Soil

[@BurtWhitten]

been watching elaine ingham for a couple years, have really enjoyed david bryant and Gabe Brown equally as well and of course Ray Archuletta, buti want to thank you for being so thorough and using your land as an experiment and putting it all together for us laymens and backyard garden enthusiasts

[@iamorganicgardening]

Thank You we all learn from each other..

[@mayb2395]

people say there is no evidence for elaine's work - BUT HERE IT IS? WHY ARE PEOPLE SO BLIND?

[@davidaltemus529]

Great simple test that does not cost anything thank you

[@iamorganicgardening]

Thank you!

[@nancyfahey7518]

I have no questions. You are very thorough. I completely understand. If I didn't then I couldn't waste my time watching. Thank you.

[@TShirtAndReeboks]

Late to finding this series, but I really like it. Wishing you and your family well!

[@iamorganicgardening]

Thank you! You too!

[@vinc8ntl8r]

Thank you for all your videos! This is my first year gardening and I’m grateful to have people like you! Happy gardening

[@iamorganicgardening]

And i am very grateful that you found my channel . Enjoy and ask a question you wish.

[@kanaaleilanden]

I like how you compare and give examples. Very effective

[@MrBucidart]

Thank you very much for sharing all of the information that you have worked so diligently on to learn and try to perfect.

[@iamorganicgardening]

THANK YOU, FOR YOUR KIND WORDS...

[@nickslingerland4155]

You cease to amaze me brother. Spreading the word 👍

[@LondonWorms]

Fantastic experiment. Simple. Clear. Easy. Thank you so much for sharing 😊👍

[@iamorganicgardening]

Gald to hear in was helpful. THANK YOU for watching...

[@KaleidoscopeJunkie]

Excellent, thorough yet simple explanation. You hit the nail on the head again !

[@iamorganicgardening]

The Price is Right..too. THANK YOU.

[@friendlyfoodforest8033]

This video just answered some questions and confirmed some ideas for next year in our back to eden food forest. Thanks

[@iamorganicgardening]

So very glad to hear... THANK YOU.

[@billiamc1969]

Well explained...thanks for taking time to make this video!!!

[@iamorganicgardening]

THANK YOU..

[@plantmeddoterra2850]

I have seen all the videos up til this one. Thank yo so much for sharing your experiments. I am new to gardening. My small area I put boxes in because my soil is clay clay clay...my cover crop is poison ivy, and its as tall as me. no exaggeration.. I've been pulling up all those roots like crazy and have been breaking up the soil. I have composted straw that I put down in the boxes and then the leaves that I crushed and watered, then new loose straw on top. I planted garlic and hope it grows... I love this series and want to continue to follow and learn from your experience. I love the way you explain it with props and that makes it also entertaining for my young daughters who also want to learn with me. 3, 8, 11. Keep it coming!!! Thank you!!!

[@iamorganicgardening]

THANK YOU for watching. I do not know what state you live in. But if you can add clover seed to the bare soil that will triple your soil health and intake of water and air..to will keep it loose.

[@iamorganicgardening]

Please watch this video of mine. Might be helpful. Click this link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i5iwh4p6r7ikjac .

[@floriebrown2089]

Hi Mark although I live next door to a vet I do not give my chicken antibiotic I feed them fermented grains and that has taken away the occasional illness. They are some time free range because I have predators and I go to work so I have to keep them safe.

[@maricruzjaimesb9301]

My property it's surrounded by big trees, everywhere you dig you will find roots,from the big trees, plus my soil it's very sandy.that's the reason I grow my vegetables in containers.

[@iamorganicgardening]

Thanks for sharing..

[@brandiisbell7746]

I really appreciate your work and the way you explained this episode. I live and garden in the woods in southwest Mississippi actually on a gravel vane. Great drainage. This winter I have exploded the woods for the biggest pine trees where I raked and gather as much mycorrhazale soil as I could get. Please tell me the best way to incorporate it in to my garden soil. I have already spread 2 trailer loads. Light raked it in and covered with shredded leaves around my plants. Am I on the right track? Another month and I'll be planting summer garden and I want to be ready. Thank you.

[@beaut9790]

Woooooooow… Looks like I have to subscribe now

[@catfunksfabulousfinds]

I'm putting down composted steer manure then putting wood chips on top. The back to Eden method has 28+ years of decomposed wood chips. I believe the first couple years crops wont do as well as it will later. Plant lots of nitrogen fixing crops.

[@lenamccown5442]

Thank you. Easily understood info. Have a great day.

[@iamorganicgardening]

Thanks for watching and writing..

[@TomPalissade]

Thank you, I understood lots of things before making mistakes

[@iamorganicgardening]

We have all done that.. Always a pleasure to share with you. THANKS.

[@YouPlantTube]

Fascinating..!

[@iamorganicgardening]

THANK YOU...

[@PermaPen]

I had no idea! Off to test my soil.....

[@Smedley60]

Excellent. I especially liked how you showed the water penetrating the soil without breaking it apart. Recently I listened to a talk by Elaine Ingham who recommended a perennial cover crop to help with the fungal / bacterial balance. She said that deep rooted perennials keep the soil at its healthiest. Any recommendations for a low growing mixture for a neighbor in PA? I'm guessing clover will be a part of it. But I don't want anything too tall (or that can't be cut back). Thanks for a great video.

[@iamorganicgardening]

She is 100% correct. But there is nothing short with deep roots. DEEP roots = tall cover crops. The shortest one I know is alfalfa that is 18 inch tall with 4 foot root.. THANKS. I will keep looking for you. You can always do what I do, is plant strawberries. Perennial root/ short/ plus food. Root one foot deep and no cutting.

[@Smedley60]

Thank you. I think strawberries are a great idea, especially for the areas where I plant larger vegetables. Perhaps I can try something that I can cut back for things like carrots, radishes, and beets whose seedlings I think would get lost under the strawberry leaves. Thanks again..

[@april4432]

I think Elaine was talking about mowing the rye grass to keep them short.

[@iamorganicgardening]

I think so too..THANKS

[@redddbaron]

I believe purslane has a deep taproot but a low growing profile.

[@kevinliveez4192]

great lesson. Thanks again.

[@iamorganicgardening]

THANKS. Just simple start..

[@dougminnis192]

Mark, I know that you said we need tree roots. Please explain the Midwest plains with the great amounts of top soil with no trees. Good stuff. Thanks

[@iamorganicgardening]

We need ANY and all kinds of living roots in the ground 24/7... 365 days a year to build/grow soil. Is there a spot that I said tree roots only? THANK YOU in advance.

[@royculpepper692]

Great videos. Don't see any sort of hoses at all. Do you irrigate at all? How?

[@hudson8865]

Thank you.

[@tinahart1712]

Another excellent video! Lots of people are buying the mychrorizal fungi in powder here in the UK it is like the latest craze. (It is really expensive too). They are putting it in with their seed trays or seed potatoes and cant work out why it is not working. This is really good video explaining why you need those existing roots. Also people think that when they see the white threads of fungus in the woodchip they get all excited and think that is mychorizal fungi too but it is not. Cant wait to try my own experiments with clods of earth, thank you for teaching us so much! Going back to your other experiments: Woodchips versus Leaves, my thinking is that you are erring on the side of Fall leaves being the best so far?

[@iamorganicgardening]

THANK YOU. Still keeping an open mind on both. Never just one answer solves all problems..Just got done making a video on that white fungi.. Good timing I guess..

[@JohnSmith-mb7ii]

I've been experimenting for several years using clover as a companion plant. Or, I should say, I'm using plants as companions to my clover. I got started on these experiments because of weeds. I noticed in my pasture where I have clover, very few weeds manage to get through. Coupled with my understanding of the benefits of clover, I started small plots/strips of planting in a section of clover. For planting corn, I would mow the clover at a height of 2" to 3". You don't want to mow it to low. Weeds will break through. Using Boone County White, I spaced the seeds 1' apart on 3' rows about 40'. The trick is to mow the clover when needed before and during the corn germination.( Carefully set mowing height. Mow the clover. Not the corn) Once the corn gets to a height the mowing stops except between rows. Carefully mow (low RPMs) blowing the the clippings toward the corn plants. Be careful not create piles of clippings on the corn. It'll heat up and burn or choke the plant. Take any excess and move it to the compost. This year I planted onion bulbs before the clover got started. By the time the onions were rooted in the clover was taking off and I just let it go. It's the best onions I ever grew. Here's another problem I solved with clover. I've been a landscaper for nearly 40yrs and from my experience, grass clippings are the worst composting material you can use. Especially "BERMUDA GRASS". It will make you a slave, not if, but when it gets in your garden. My solution is a clover lawn. What king decided we can only use a bladed grass lawn?

[@iamorganicgardening]

YOU ARE SO CORRECT...JOHN SMITH. WHO said it has to be grass.. THANK YOU so very much for sharing, FANTASTIC information.

[@JohnSmith-mb7ii]

Your welcome, Organic. I really can't take credit for these ideas. It's people like you that encourage others to "connect with nature" and listen to what nature tells us. The lions share of the credit mainly comes from 4 books. 1The Bible 2. Carrots Love Tomatoes. 3. A Practical Book For Practical People, published late 1800s 4. Lippincott's Farm Manuals. Published early 1900s.

[@pauljjalix7400]

So perhaps my infestation of Bermuda grass throughout the west side of my garden which grew straight through several inches of wood chips on the south side of this Eastern section and also through several inches of hay on the north side of this Eastern section is actually a beneficial infestation.I'm wondering because the Bermuda grass has a very persistent heavy root structure which not only grows easily through the wood chips but also seems to dig deep into the clay underneath. Perhaps if I can keep the Bermuda grass from taking over by constantly picking the green that emerges above and leaving the roots down below I'll drowned out its ability to photosynthesize yet I'll still have the benefit of its root structure decaying through the wood chips, hay and clay. What are your thoughts about this Bermuda grass situation? It seems like it gave me a natural ground cover where I wasn't educated enough to supply my own ground cover. Its roots are so powerful that they penetrate the clay.

[@JeffHoganSimEdTech]

I'm learning from you and I appreciate that. I had biden take over. is that something that has a good root for fixing the soil? i removed most of it from the root.

[@iamorganicgardening]

THANK YOU.. Does it have a long tap root..??? Do you have hard soil? Does it flower ? and for how long? This will help me explain my answer to you..

[@JeffHoganSimEdTech]

long root, it flowers; but, i have sand for soil. about 68% tavares and 28% milhopper

[@iamorganicgardening]

Sorry for the delay.. YES it is good for building soil. All plants that use endo and ecto Mycorrhizal fungi are good due to they that carbon out of the air and store it in the soil. Just wish to double check a few things. #1 Biden is close/part of the chrysanthemum family. So it uses Endo Mycorr.. #2 fine a legume that grow nicely in your area and grow that with the biden. #3 that you can maybe plant Okra or corn at the right planting time and all will grow and help each other with no soil/sand showing..

[@speaklifegardenhomesteadpe8783]

Thank you so much!!

[@MarkBiernat]

I live in Florida. The soil is sand. I am adding compost to develop the soil. I have wood chip spread in another large garden plot, but not using this field as it will take a few years for the ground to be fertile enough to plant. My question/thinking is: in the areas that I have improved the soil to a reasonable level, my main method could be to use cover crops that are inoculated intensively? And rotate my areas. I have examined the of spectrum of organic methods and it seems cover cropping that is inoculated, is one of the best ways to build soil because it has a living root and will bring nitrogen to the soil.

[@iamorganicgardening]

FANTASTIC. Thanks for sharing. You should do a video of it so people can see your results. I would enjoy seeing. Please keep in touch THANK YOU..

[@MarkBiernat]

Thank you! Do you think to focus on inoculated cover crops as a primary was to remediate/transform of soil is the right approach? Of course with compost added, but as my main focus to develop the soil with rhizobacteria, this is what I am learning from your videos?

[@iamorganicgardening]

Cover crops is OK by themselves. And after 1 or 2 years you not not have to inoculate. It should be there by then. Compost is good, but you can stop in a year or two also.. THANKS

[@juneshannon5941]

Your videos are brilliant thank you. I have learnt so much. By the way, I fount plenty of fungi,(white frail roots) from half way down in a pile of woodchips. How should I have added these to my B2Eden garden? Waiting for your reply with baited breath

[@iamorganicgardening]

Just Place on the wood chips in your garden already. if it dies, it will make new spores and regrow again...THANKS

[@JoshuaSmithHomesteader]

Excellent, Cheers!!

[@iamorganicgardening]

THANK YOU...

[@Youngonce01]

It will take the soil under the wood chip mulch longer to grow than under the leaf mold which will take longer than grasses. Your soil/clay is much better than some of the samples Ray Archuleta tested from conventional fields, even the sample on the right.

[@iamorganicgardening]

THANKS for the Help..

[@Youngonce01]

You are welcome (I guess). Just complimenting you and Thank you for your timely response. Have a Blessed day.

[@NedenaBeerFarm]

very helpful, Thanks!

[@iamorganicgardening]

THANK YOU, for your kind words & watching...

[@craiganderson3952]

Awesome!!

[@iamorganicgardening]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@joykaluf2629]

Is it better to take a soil sample in the summer? It's December in Indiana and although we've had a few freezes, the ground isn't frozen yet. Could this still work now? Thanks again for all the info!

[@iamorganicgardening]

YES, now is the best time. THANKS..

[@TheCarpentersApprentice]

Bad ass brother!

[@iamorganicgardening]

THANK YOU. have a great week

[@plantbasedlargefamily8724]

interesting. i'm going to do this from different areas in the garden. when i was digging potatoes near an apple tree, i saw a lot of white 'webbing' in the woodchips and assumed that was micorhizal fungi. i guess it wasn't if u can only see it w/a microscope.

[@iamorganicgardening]

I will explain what that is in my next video in a few days...THANKS. Sorry no, it is probably not mycorrhizal fungi.

[@redddbaron]

Probably a different type of fungi. Most likely saprotrophic fungi. Certain bacteria can also form web like mats. All of these are important parts of the processes of decay and beneficial, but different than AMF (arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi) I have actually in VERY rare cases seen pictures of enough AMF matted together to be visable, but you are more likely to see that around a rock or mineral that the plant has signaled the AMF it needs. This process is called biological weathering, and it is how AMF helps the plant obtain the minerals it needs when those minerals are lacking in the soil.

[@plantbasedlargefamily8724]

Red Baron Farm thx for the info :)

[@plantbasedlargefamily8724]

cookinmom thx. that sounds familiar :)

[@msmarygardner]

Sorry Plant Based Large Family...my reply seems to of been deleted!

[@ohhowhappygardener]

You mention that the soil has to have a "living root" for the mycorrhizal fungi to stay alive in the soil. So what do you do between growing seasons when the garden is cleared of plants? Are the roots still alive or viable enough to support the fungi until new plants are in the ground?

[@iamorganicgardening]

Winter Rye , clover, vetch etc.. cover crops. Perennials like comfrey. Trees, apples etc,, Thanks for asking

[@juneshannon5941]

Sorry about another PS. The fungi that I was referring to were the two types. The one that adhears to the wood chips and the other a fine white root system. Hope you can help. Would like to make tomato sauce this year. 🇦🇺

[@iamorganicgardening]

Just add that group of wood chips as a top layer to your soil as mulch.. It will spread on it own. Nothing bad comes from it. The white fungi breaks down the wood chips and will release nutrients into the soil..THANKS

[@JeffreyIsbell]

How can I improve the soil around the roots of a poorly performing young plum tree?

[@iamorganicgardening]

Add a bag of worm castings which you can buy online. Work into the soil and cover with wood chips on top.

[@joe4324]

I said it before, Your bucket isn't scratched up enough. Its too pretty! Scuff that puppy up! :) Get it to proper-farmer-look ;)

[@iamorganicgardening]

It is a NEW BUCKET. If you go to this video in April you will see the old broken one on the right hand side. It worn down to thin to even weld... LINKkzbin.info/www/bejne/kJm0eoeEfrNkr7c at the 6:20 mark. THANK YOU, OH, I like my new bucket

[@joe4324]

Good for you!!! :) The only thing I like more than New Tools, is Tools I've nearly worn out ;)

[@iamorganicgardening]

I AGREE, there is a kind of honor that goes with that... THANK YOU.

[@yoso585]

And this is where the sunflowers, mustard, etc. come in .?

[@iamorganicgardening]

YES, will be planting several different samples to see what works best and doing a video of it soon..THANKS FOR ASKING.

[@chevy6299]

Looking forward to that video then. But how long will it take for clay to be turned to useful soil?

[@iamorganicgardening]

I really wish I and a good answer for that.. BUT the good NEWS is what I plant now will only help. And the perennial winter rye will grow for the next 8-9 months. Got to help.. THANKS..

[@kitsurubami]

cool!

[@iamorganicgardening]

THANK YOU very much...

[@tappet1000]

A little confused. It look to me the two samples came from the same spadeful, yet when you put them in the jars you called one BTE and the other my garden. What am I missibg?

[@iamorganicgardening]

Hello, let me help. I have 5 gardens 2 acres each on my farm.Dirt Sample that feel apart is from the BTE garden which shows you that I have no mycorrhizal fungi growing in the soil to hold if together. The other sample does and is from my other garden which stayed together in the water. Hope I answer your question if not PLEASE write back. THANK YOU.

[@tappet1000]

Thanks for your quick response. You provide a great service.

[@supernova5898]

How do you spell it? Glowmanine?

[@iamorganicgardening]

Glomalin. it is truly amazing. THANKS

[@supernova5898]

I AM ORGANIC GARDENING Wow - that was prompt....thank you. I am glad you showed up in me feed. Have watched several videos since. Needing to build organic matter but zero access to leaves and limited access to wood chips. Looking into cover crops.

[@iamorganicgardening]

Can you get Coffee grounds..

[@supernova5898]

I AM ORGANIC GARDENING Am in the process of working on that. There are coffee farms around

[@lastniceguy1]

Another interesting test that people can do is to add you soil to a jar of water and shake well. Let it sit for a few hours and it will form layers of clay, sand and silt. That will tell you your ratios and what you soil is like.

[@iamorganicgardening]

Correct..the next step is to fine what grows well in your area to keep a living root in the ground that can feed the soil food web.. THANK YOU.