No-till on the Plains 2019 Christine Jones Community Tipping Points

[@lynxacres1293]

A fascinating video. The major point I got from this is that having multiple species, having a large diversity in your crops, whether its perennial pasture or cover crops, is majorly important. Having enough diversity is a major factor in the health of your soil, plants, livestock, and ultimately you and your bank account. The reason the talk is called “tipping points” is because you have to have enough diversity before it makes a difference. Picture a teeter-totter: you’re adding weights to one end, but it isn’t doing anything. If you keep adding weights, there will be a point where you add just one more weight and it will tip the whole teeter-totter over to the other side. That’s your tipping point (and even more last that is better). But if you gave up and quit before then, you just think “diversity doesn’t actually do anything”. And you’re both right and wrong - it doesn’t do anything, if you don’t have enough. You need more, you need a lot, you need enough, and preferably more than enough. What’s enough? You may have to find that out yourself where you are. But whatever is enough, once you get that, go past it, have more. The benefits will be that much better. A few specific points: starting at 13:20 she talks about the Burleigh County Soil Conservation District cover crop trial in 2006. It was done in North Dakota, and that year they had 1 inch of rain between seeding in late May and harvest in late July. They used 8 different cover crops, and 1 acre plots with monocultures of the 8 cover crops, plus plots of 3, 4, 5 & 8 way mixes. That year due to the drought, they had most of the plots fail, including all the monoculture plots, but also the 3, 4, & 5 way mixes failed too. It was only when they got up to 7 or 8 way mix, that they amazingly thrived. So if you’re facing droughts, you need to keep this in mind - diversity means healthier soil biology, which can keep your plants alive and watered when they would otherwise die. At 17:45 she talks about the Jena experiment done in Germany. They did plots with 1,2,4,8 and 16 plant species mixes, also with 0, 100lbs, or 200 lbs nitrogen/acre/year. And they found that when you do an 8 or 16 way mix with 0 nitrogen you have more biomass than on the 1 or 2 way mix with 200 lbs nitrogen/acre/year applied. At 20:30 some really good information about feed/pasture. It’s the story of a New Zealand farmer who changed his feed for his dairy cows from annuals with lots of fertilizer to a multi-mix of perennials with none, and the huge difference it made. Cheers! Watch the video!!

[@CuteeStauffer]

Lynx Acres thanks for the summation!

[@donnabrown1518]

My experience as a gardener has shown me that what she is saying is true. My garden produced awesome top soil through diverse crops in a single bed and keeping the ground covered. So much more to learn!

[@jimbledsoe9083]

as of 4//16/2019 this has been viewed 4,621 times we need to reach quorum please share

[@jimbledsoe9083]

14,768 views May 2020, tipping

[@claireandersongrahamkeller2744]

@@jimbledsoe9083 Shared globally - Maui to Orkney - to Permaculture Networks! Done.

[@tylerehrlich1471]

Thank you for this video! I ordered a bunch of seeds intending to try multi-species dryland mixes, and your findings on the tipping point is invaluable information to have! I now have confidence in a chaos garden of 12+ species producing not just food but top soil!

[@NextLevelFarmerDotCom]

That was the most informative talk on soil health, microbes, human health, plant health, ways to build carbon in soil and the effects on climate change. I never new that water vapor was effecting climate change. It reminds me of the Dust Bowl years ago in America history where farmers just grew wheat. Droughts came and the soil blew away. Biodiversity crops and stimulating soil microbes is the key to fixing climate change.

[@alexekeli7301]

Wow, that was so interesting. I learned so much from this..

[@mikeharrington5593]

I wonder whether the addition of compost or livestock poop would have similar beneficial soil microbiome effects to sowing a cocktail of diverse plants alone? Giant Agrichem has vested financial interests which are opposed to regenerative farming. Water vapor as a greenhouse gas is over-emphasized by the speaker because it is a fluctuating factor, unlike the accumulation of atmospheric CO2 which remains at least constant & historically has been increasing year on year.

[@James-ol2fr]

She mentions that there are some ranches with as much diversity as 500-700 species. I wonder if she has a list somewhere of all of the farms or ranches she recommends as an ideal to a particular area. I know she's been to Gabe Browns place, but he doesn't work with that much, does he? There are areas around here (Texas) that are very susceptible to drought, and I would like to know why. If I look out on their pastures, they seem pretty diverse. Is it mostly that they are not diverse ENOUGH? Is it that overgrazing has caused the succession to move backwards a bit to those dryer species and to keep many of the forbs which would encourage more fungal relationships to grow, which also keeps the plants from being able to get more water underground through mycelial relationships? Is it that the grasses are cut too short much of the season? During drought, I think some people assume it's better to have short cut grass as opposed to long since it is basically like tinder.

[@skybasesolutions-patchmap4813]

This is VERY interesting ... * so how do you put the carbon and water back into the soil? * what are the key features for the dozen plants that are needed? * who is growing these plants in isolation (against this advice I might add) to be able to get the mix? * how did we KEEP that mix? we have a whole bunch of questions with no answers I feel that there should be a commercial now so we can get to Harvey's 'rest of the story'

[@TS-vr9of]

1. You put carbon pack in the soil Through the liquid carbon pathway. The liquid carbon pathway is when plants exude sugars, and other carbon based compounds into the soil to feed microbial life.The more diverse the plant species, the more diverse the root exudates, and the more diverse the microbial population becomes. bacteria don't hold on to carbon very well but they are good at extracting different nutrients. Fungi are the ones who create Stable Carbon substances called humic substances that have a half life of hundreds of years. As mentioned in the presentation bacterial dominated soils turn 11% of the root exudates into stable carbon substances, while fungal dominated soils turn up to 55% of root exudates into stable carbon. In Short, in order to put carbon back in the soil you need plant diversity and fungi present. In the case of some of the examples she used they got the fungi back in the soil through biostimulants(compost/worm casting extracts) .

[@TS-vr9of]

2. In the dozen plant species you should think about root type, leaf type, plant height, shade tolerance, and plant family. Cover crops are usually organized into four basic types, warm season grasses, Warm Season broad leaves, cool season grasses, and cool season broad leaves. You want a mix of fibrous roots( most grasses) and tap roots, deep roots and shallow roots. You want Legumes(anything with a seed pod), which are the best at fixing nitrogen. You want brassicas, which are the best at holding nitrogen for the next growing season. You want grasses, which are the best at exuding large quantities of liquid carbon . You want species that encourage mycorrhizal fung(sunflower, flax, buckwheat,oats), mycorrhizal fungi are good at harvesting phosphorous, and transporting other nutrients and water between plants. Hope this overview helps you.

[@TS-vr9of]

3. As to who and how these cover crop seeds are grown, I agree it does matter. Some farmers grow them as mono crops, but some regenerative farms grow them is mixes with different seed sizes. They wait till multiple species have set seed and combines the field, then separate out the different types of seeds with different screen sorter sizes. If the regenerative farms grow a mono crop cash crop or cover crop seed they still have the spring and fall to plant a diverse cover crop and are still able to build soil and restore soil ecosystem function.

[@TS-vr9of]

4. Kind of related to the third question, but when seeds aren't patented GMO's, saving seed even on a large scale is quite feasible and profitable for farmers. The seeds also become more climate adjusted in that farmers particular area. This is a lecture by Gabe Brown, one of the pioneers in regenerative agriculture. He out produces his neighbors and the county average year after year, and he uses No chemical or organic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides.He also saves his cash and cover crop seeds, which makes him even more profitable per acre. kzbin.info/www/bejne/q4bQepenZalpY6M

[@melbournesubtropicfruits9474]

@@TS-vr9of Buckwheat can be quite invasive

[@otivaeey]

One major problem with potted plants and landscaping is no weeds are allowed AT ALL. Does a diversified origin compost solve that?

[@downbntout]

So much to be gained

[@MrCanigou]

As a 26 yrs experienced field agronomist / veggie producer, I would LOVE to construct such a diverse cover on my new 200 m² sandy garden, near Lyon, France :-)

[@digio1991]

"...in research we're gonna start looking at viruses and beneficial ones..." Uao really spot-on ...

[@jimbledsoe9083]

2:57 Interesting what is the portion of human to microbiome as compared to plants to soil life?

[@MicrobeMomma]

Love this! Thank you Doc!

[@transmescars]

Une question? Comment est-il possible d'avoir des commentaires vieux de 5 mois au sujet de cette vidéo diffusée le 03 août 2019 ???? Merci pour toutes explications à cette question!!!

[@melbournesubtropicfruits9474]

Where can i find a list of at least 20 to 25 seed types so that i can experiment at my community garden as an autumn to spring green crop? Thanks

[@BaliBrit]

Here is the chart www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/30640500/CCC/CCC%202018-final%203.05.18.pdf

[@claireandersongrahamkeller2744]

Yay!!!

[@farmregen9708]

what is the bio stimulant she talks about around minute 22 ?

[@cedriccabrol2]

could be johnson su extract... but it is not important, what is important is multispecies mobgrazing (35 or more day)

[@downbntout]

Your seed supplier might know? Certainly it isn't a fungicide

[@downbntout]

Dwight Eichorn See 41:35

[@vt4green]

It is 'vermiliquid', or 'worm juice' that you get from pouring water through your earthworm farm.

[@promanx1]

A Bio stimulant normally refers to an additive that is applied to feed biology. Something like a Kelp or fish hydrolyses or carbohydrates,ect. They may also be using a good vermiliquid or compost tea and or extract. Hard to say without talking to the people involved.

[@fibreinvestmentaustralia5309]

Most coral reefs are also on continental shelves. Correlation is not causation. Christine Jones talks a lot and makes many claims without pointing to research to back these. No doubt there's a lot of sound observations and indeed evidence, but it's a shame she has to wade into areas outside her expertise and quite frankly talk rubbish. Her commentary on water vapour, co2, and greenhouse was misleading and unnecessary. Leave that to the climatologists.

[@michaelscott5557]

How do you know that her views on water vapour are wrong? She did mention that it was proven. What are your credentials and where is your proof?