Making Good Garden Soil (Q&A)

[@brianseybert192]

The leaf mold you described is the utmost seed starter, soooooo much better than peat, also awesome in potting mixes and a cover for direct sowing.

[@ralphditchburn1456]

Because of you I got great harvest, carrots, lettuces, tomatoes, peppers, so much more, and your wonderful relaxed tone brings Mr out of the busy world. Many thanks

[@brianseybert192]

Planted a mix of daikon radish, buckwheat, hairy fetch plus some other seeds as a cover crop in my potato bed. Keeping the soil alive 12 months out of the year, best way to improve your soil.

[@brianseybert192]

Missed todays live stream, just a quick comment. All the amendments to my soils for the last couple years come from what I produce, worm castings hot compost, bakashi, comfrey chop and drop and tea plus my glorious leaf mold. I do this because I can, and because I picked up some bad manure with persistent herbicides several years ago. I pretty much cycle everything though my garden., plus the awesome power of cover cropping. Hope to be there next week! Stay Well!!!!

[@brianseybert192]

Potato beetles are in the environment, they will overwinter in the soil. Their are specific nematodes that attack them.

[@laurabehenna7950]

Great information, I've bookmarked this one for future reference.

[@tennesseenana4838]

I have a compost tumbler with a container under it to catch the water that drips down from it. We have a lot of rain in the winter and spring months in Tennessee, so I have compost tea from that and store it in milk bottles. I also have a couple of 18-gal totes and some buckets I throw garden scraps into for more tea that I store. Figure if there is anything 'unwanted' in the plant, it'll drown. In addition to adding the compost I make in the fall, I'll use the tea to water my plants during the hot and dry summer months. There's so much to learn. THANK YOU for teaching us! P S In the US, Tractor Supply sells large bags of alafalfa pellets for horse feed. I'll also use it in my yard and garden.

[@brianseybert192]

The main reason I garden is to keep me sain. the nature, the neighbors, the sanctuary the garden gives to me, it makes me able to do my most important work for my family, without it! I just do not know.

[@brianseybert192]

God Bless Gardener Scott!! Stay Well!!!

[@bobdunn8500]

Really enjoyed this on soil. Thank you

[@brianseybert192]

Awesome garden, It's all good, puppy looks content in it's bed, love it!!!!!

[@brianseybert192]

Salts come from not only manures but from inorganic fertilizers. Soil microbes are very sensitive to salts, and copper fungicides. A lot of people use processed foods in their worm bins, I do not, mainly because of salts and fats, just me.

[@brianseybert192]

Chicken manure is a very hot material, definitely compost it 1st

[@sciencesaves]

Hi Scott, thank you for your videos. I wrote a comment in the live chat but I guess it was off topic so it didn’t go to you. In your last video you mentioned I should plant a potted apple tree in the fall instead of bareroot. So I ordered a North Pole columnar tree immediately and it came on Sunday. When I received the tree it was planted all the way to the scion and was substantially rooted. The tree now has thee main leaders of equal height instead of a single whip. I cut off all of the scion roots and planted it properly with the cut scion roots about 2” above the soil so they won’t root again. Do you think this tree will survive? If it does, will the 3 leaders be a problem? Thank you so much for your help!

[@GardenerScott]

It should survive as long as there are substantial roots in the ground. I've had that problem before and the exposed roots will just dry and die. The three leaders do make future pruning more complicated. You can leave all three or prune to a single leader. I have the same issue with one of mine and I'm waiting until it is dormant this winter to choose which to prune off.

[@sciencesaves]

@@GardenerScott thank you so much for your help! :) I am thinking of leaving the 3 leaders and keeping it as a short 5ft 3-column tree instead of a 8ft tall 1-column tree. Do you think that is wise?

[@GardenerScott]

That should work.

[@kirstypollock6811]

I have actually not noticed and difference in moth caterpillars or earwigs whether I'm immaculate in cleaning up all fallen fruit in my orchards, half-assed, or don't bother at all. In any case there are loads. I mostly juice or puree the fruit so it's not a huge issue. But it's only been 4 years of data and it's 2 orchards of 50-100 yrs old.

[@ralphditchburn1456]

My kajabi melon. Stolen. Racoon? Do I need vermiculite/ perlite for next year, soil is good but all perlitte looks gone?

[@GardenerScott]

You can add perlite if you have a drainage problem but organic matter is usually enough.

[@brianseybert192]

The important thing to a bed is dirt, if you are gardening organically, you need dirt.

[@michelemarble6799]

Gardeners Scott I usually like to use grass clippings as a mulch by putting it on lightly. But at the end of the year, the leftover grass clippings are definitely dead. Are these dead grass clippings considered a brown or a green? The same goes for all my leftovers in my garden of flowers. By the time I get to them most of them are brown and dead. I put them in my compost pile, but are they considered a brown or green? If they were still healthy, they would be green, but if they are dead, do they become a Brown?

[@GardenerScott]

The dead grass is a brown. Most dead and dry organic material is. If they are recently cut, there is more nitrogen and they are a green.

[@brianseybert192]

Worm castings are full of viable seeds, I do not care, it's a mulch, or at least a root.

[@brianseybert192]

Soil samples only give you the available nutrients to the plants, microbes do most of the work

[@brianseybert192]

Tilling into the soil destroys soil structure