The BEST Fertiliser is NOT What You Think

[@ben.strong]

Thanks for watching! This is a new channel so I’d love you to like and subscribe if you want to see more content like this 😊 also let me know what you thought below.

[@uschiaala]

I have lots of guilds, some of them deliberate, some of them organic. Seeing diverse little friend groups in the garden makes me so happy.

[@ben.strong]

Nice, me too! I love it when you get those happy accidents popping up

[@MerriCreek_RunsThroughCoburg]

Good luck with Gino the cute pooch multiplying in your diverse guild. 😅

[@ben.strong]

Haha he’s always happy to join a new guild

[@Homestead_OnTheRock_]

Great video and can’t wait to implement some of this knowledge once we start our garden beds 🙌🏼

[@ben.strong]

Thanks Tom and Sam!

[@Charles00-xj3kz]

I tried sweet potato growing under capsicums last year. Worked well. The SP shaded the soil, grew tubers and was well behaved (didn't climb up the capsicums) I am going to try this with tomatoes this year. Sort of a guild where you are trying to use a ground cover under the taller plants.

[@ben.strong]

Yeah that’s a great idea! I had a similar arrangement by accident where my cucumbers sprawled underneath the eggplants. Worked pretty well too!

[@Womboo369]

Great video ❤ definitely going to try this.

[@darnell5422]

Each video is better than the last, totally going to try this out this summer !

[@ben.strong]

Awesome!! Thanks for watching :)

[@annettestrong2177]

Ben you have done so well at condensing your research in such a short time, it keeps the interest and awakens the interest to certainly learn more and hopefully will inspire others to do the same. Ben you need to produce a book so that all this information can be referenced. Looking forward to seeing Gino in the next episode. Nan

[@ben.strong]

Thanks Nan :)

[@Amy-xb7in]

Really love your videos! Such useful information and easy to take in, and beautiful shots/illustrations

[@ben.strong]

Thank you so much 😊

[@anaschilling2668]

Absolutely!!! Got heaps of volunteers spread around too! Regards to Gino 🐶🍅

[@ben.strong]

He’s the best volunteer 🐶

[@anaschilling2668]

@@ben.strongbet he is!! 😂 good Italian boy

[@timsmith5019]

Many thanks. 🙏 Another well produced, very thoughtful and balanced clip. Great work. 👍

[@ben.strong]

Thank you sir! Appreciate the kind words :)

[@nvrcnfrm6225]

wow great video, something ive never really heard of or atleast had explained so thoroughly, cheers

[@ben.strong]

That's great to hear! thanks for watching :)

[@timmcintyre3066]

G'day again, young fella. Interesting vid. Like the info on the trial plot in Germany. The microhizal approach hasn't been lost on commercial horticulture., there are several trichoderma stains which seem to have varying defrees of success in innoculating crops. I have large scale experience and can 100% endorse adding Bacillus subtillus to irrigation water to totally suppress pythium and phytophora. Also worth investigating is Bacillus amyoliqucenious, which definitely enhances nutrient uptake. And is an excellent fungicide. It does a great job against Botrytis. Anyway keep up the good work.

[@ben.strong]

All very interesting, thanks for the insights! I love hearing about what’s done on large scale. Is bacillus subtilus cultured and sold commercially?

[@timmcintyre3066]

Biowish is the brand name we used , but there's various strains out there. It works by crowding out pathanogenic spp. Serenade is a Bayer product that's the Bac . amy strain. It's an excellent preventative that enhances growth just add to irrigation or apply with a hose diffuser

[@ben.strong]

@@timmcintyre3066 very interesting I'll look into it thanks!

[@gospelofchange]

This is the vibe

[@ben.strong]

Thanks mate!

[@666bruv]

Good to see you have followed Dr Christine Jones, she was a fantastic infuence on so many

[@ben.strong]

Christine Jones is fantastic!

[@vicki2526]

Very informative. Thank you 😊

[@ben.strong]

You’re welcome 😊

[@benjamincorio7865]

Hi Ben, loving the channel. I am a new gardener up in North East Victoria, and this video was the inspiration for attempting a similar guild in one of my first summer beds. Specifically tomatoes/fennel/beats/spring onions. So far so good, everything is steadily growing. However I have recently encountered some folks online claiming that fennel will inhibit tomato growth and crop yield. Of course there are just as many folks claiming it's not an issue, and not a great deal of scientific literature pertinent to a home garden setting either. So my question is, is this something you considered when planning your guilds? And would you mind giving an update on how you feel your guilds performed after harvest? Cheers

[@ben.strong]

Hey mate, glad you’re enjoying the channel! Yes this is an interesting topic. I didn’t touch on it because I think for the most part, you don’t have to worry about it too much with annuals, and in my experience most grow fine together. In my experience it is perennials with aggressive root systems that inhibit the growth of annuals around them. For example I have a lemon balm growing next to some potatoes which is clearly inhibiting their growth. Equally a mulberry tree next to another annual bed, and you can see the plants taper in size as they get closer to the mulberry. My guild of tomatoes, fennel and eggplant is growing well so far (I ended up leaving out the beets cos I had too many already). Happy to provide an update at a later date too. Maybe follow me on insta too in case I post it there.

[@Mikee_A]

Awesome channel. Great content. Keep up the good work.

[@ben.strong]

Thanks so much!

[@terrymalone9432]

Thanks for the information. Will try those combos

[@ben.strong]

No problem 👍 let me know how it goes!

[@Mulljackson]

Nice vid, commenting for the algo. Cheers

[@ben.strong]

Thanks!

[@mike-o5g]

this is fascinating. im thinking root exudates also explain why plant biodiversity increases plant growth for all. more types of root exudates means more tools in the bag to breed more species of good microbes and eliminate more species of bad microbes.

[@ben.strong]

Yep! Seems to be that a diversity of exudates supports a diversity of microbes and therefore a more functional soil microbiome.

[@lis819]

Young people such as yourself give me great hope for the future…

[@ben.strong]

That's really nice to hear! thank you

[@veronikaspence3911]

Jerusalem artichokes grow much taller than all sunflowers I have ever planted in my garden. In fact l use them for wind protection

[@ben.strong]

ohh interesting, well we'll see how I go! I forgot to mention that the sunflowers I'm growing are the 'giant' variety which I also have never grown.

[@Womboo369]

Agree! I’ve seen them at least 2 metres tall

[@jorawar2030]

Hello from Canada, did you remove the green house built video? I was gonna build something similar and wanted to watch it again to help me build

[@ben.strong]

Hey I think you might be thinking of someone else, I haven’t made a video about my greenhouse

[@jorawar2030]

@@ben.strong no you made one video about the cheap seed starting room / mini green house structure

[@ben.strong]

@@jorawar2030 I can assure you I didn’t 😂 all the videos I have made on KZbin are still there. I made an instagram reel about the greenhouse, but that’s it.

[@jorawar2030]

@@ben.strong ahaha 😂 you might be right

[@brucegarrison4999]

Very good information, I really like that chart you made up how can I get a copy of it?

[@ben.strong]

If you tell me the time stamp so I know exactly which section you’re talking about and your email address I can send it to you. If you want to email me you can find my email in the channel description :)

[@janeballinger2117]

Thanks for the video.

[@ben.strong]

Thanks Jane!

[@marisaphoenix1893]

💯 we don’t use any fertilizer. We only use home made compost, chop and drop and heavy interplanting. Our plants are thriving.

[@ben.strong]

love that! this is the way to go I reckon

[@ah649]

GINO 🐕✨

[@ToukiMS]

This comment is just for the algorithm 😊

[@ben.strong]

Feed the machine 😄

[@slipperyorca8092]

your audio is way too loud

[@ben.strong]

Thanks for the feedback, is it that the music is too loud? Or does it sound like I’m shouting? It was a really windy day when I was filming so I had to talk over it.

[@slipperyorca8092]

@@ben.strong it was the overall audio levels. As I was watching other videos the sound was at a "normal" level for me. Then when your video opened up I had to turn the volume slider way down because it was so much louder than the other videos.

[@ah649]

@ben.strong you could try holding your mic further away during your voiceovers 😊