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OMG! How random is this that I am on you tube mere hours after you posted this video! SOOO cool to see the updates , wow! I hardly recognize the greenhouse. Congrats to Michael; cool learnings on the biochar work. 🎉❤
Hi, it might be part of the pH lowering “secret sauce” but I found it odd there was really nothing on biochar inoculation. Everyone seems to stress this point, biochar on its own will take a year or more before becoming effective in soil. In the meantime it’s likely a detractor. Therefore inoculation is a must. And here is where the anecdotal stuff comes in because biologicals are very difficult to reproduce to standardized outputs. Anyway, just thought it was very odd none of this was mentioned.
Sue Satyro talked about it in principle without using the word inoculation. That being said, knowing condition of your soil is always the best place to start. It is discussed and suggested on GenesisBiochar.com. Genesis will soon be offering inoculates so keep an eye on that. You can find good information about inoculating biochar on the IBI and USBI websites. Happy Growing!
Appreciated the B-Roll. Enjoyed the hard-work of by-hand earth moving. Like the idea of multiple different sourced layers of heat storage and delivery. Also appreciate the display of patience. THANKS for all you do.
Hi, i was lucky to find you, since im looking at using a shipping container as a greenhouse. Do you have a beehive nearby? How do you manage pollination?
These systems are examples of a great deal of thoughtful infrastructure but there are few examples of real food production. Is there something that I am missing?
"That was disappointing but a lesson for me" I think I should wear that on a t-shirt.....Problem is I need seven of those t-shirts. tHank you for a great review.
You are one of the only one that have there pipes under the greenhouse that have a sunkengreenhouse. Do you know why people usaly do there piping for geotermic outside the sunkengreenhuse and under when they have a greenhouse on the soil level?
Hummm, did you know heat travels through dirt at a rate of about 6 inches per month? I would have placed your cooling system as low in the pit as possible. The 50 to 55 degree temps from the earth rise to that point. Then, I would have placed the solar heat collected at depth to facilitate its arrival at the surface during the coldest months. Layering the cold system with the heat system in 3 levels may be defeating itself. Pumping warm air to 10 feet below the surface inside your greenhouse footprint will throw off that heat to the plants 20 months from when it was stored making June heat arrive at surface level in February, and August heat will arrive in April. By setting the tubes at 3 or 4 feet, the June heat will arrive in December.
Raise only cold tolerant crops in the greenhouse after Sept 1. Then you have a fresh food refrigerator where you just harvest until spring. Rather than trying to grow warm season crops in the winter.
If I ever get to build my greenhouse it will look a lot like yours except there will be a row of old windows along the front at the ground line so that cats don't climb the plastic and so ventilation and height for orange trees can be achieved.
Regular bricks that have holes in the middle- could you put those on their sides, lining up the holes, and then force the hot air through there to heat up the bricks, then reverse it at night to pull that heat back into the greenhouse?
You can have perennial plants. You need a lot of variety. The key is moving the cows around on the land in paddocks. You're allowing the other parts to rest.
Flaw in your design sir. Heat energy always wants to rise. You should have put the pex loop under the air tubes. Preferable under 2ft of sand. Its a MUCH better thermal mass than just dirt.
Another issue isn’t just fungi. I think a study I read said something like if there were nutrients k or s or something in the ground the root of the plant wouldn’t mesh with fungi, but if there were no nutrients then the roots would mesh with the fungi. So nutrients dictate if roots merge with fungi or not. And there has been studies showing what plants benefit from what type of fungi. Maybe it’s still new but gardeners are using one type of fungi. And pine trees use different fungi then tomatoes. And blue berries I believe only form a symbiotic relationship with one fungi and beets and other plants the roots don’t merge or use fungi.
Polycultures make sense. But let’s say you’re not growing for cows but in your garden. Is it good to grow oats with beets? I’ve not weeded my garden and have oats with beets. But will they out compete or crowd out the beets? In some parts it’s super noticeable that the grass is 12 inches tall and you can’t see the beets underneath. In other parts beets and oats are the same height. But so far I’m unconvinced that monocultures are bad. My beets this year with oats aren’t growing as tall as when in the past I just grew beets and I weeded. I guess I’ll see in September what the final results are. It’s still a toss up. Sure the oats are providing shade but in some parts the oats are so tall you can’t see the beets at all.
My question about absorption. I watched Cody’s lab and he showed massive differences. Like store bought charcoal was maybe a 10 I think while biochar or charcoal made with high heat absorbed three times as much iodine or 30. But then activated charcoal was like 60-90 I think. So is it economically feasible and worth it for biochar makers to have a massive system and turn their charcoal into activated carbon to them Put out onto the fields since it’d triple the absorption capability. And since the amendment will last for centuries it’d have bigger long term Impacts if it can absorb three times more then regular biochar. I wonder if anyone has done an experiment with it and looked at the costs of it.
I have not been involved in any studies that would answer your questions but someone at the International Biochar Initiative should be able to help you.
New Brunswick Canada. Corn - repeat - grown around 20,000 chicken houses. All the land now owned by factory farm owners. In the last 40 yrs. I did not realize it! Now I retired - and working on bringing 2 properties - 80 acres and 25 - to a Regen situation. Thank YOU so much for keeping this info up - online. Gives me threads to follow and decide how to begin. Sadly - I started with till, because that was how my grandfather and dad taught me 45 yrs ago. In a Month - I am working to follow Regen and continue. PLanting again tomorrow. 125 day grow season here.
I watch a lot of you tube videos on all kinds of subjects, but my most watched videos are food related. I have a small garden (sometimes), but have never canned but I do cook in a pressure cooker, stovetop and electric. Since I watch lots of videos I think I am a pretty good judge of instructional videos. Some are superb, some are just a joke and many are somewhere in between. I get the impression that I am watching a really knowledgeable expert on canning. I am planning to can soon and have been watching a lot of canning videos. Several are really good ones, but I think yours are right at the top. I felt like I was in a class being taught by a professional. I am buying one of your pickling books too.
I believe you are only meant to tamper down the edges of the hempcrete form, not the middle. Otherwise you lose the air pockets and thus lose insulation value.
