A great explanation for no-till. It's the little details that you show (not stepping in the beds, for example) that make these vlogs so helpful. Thank you!
Hey mate thanks for the video, for me the biggest thing I took from it is the idea of not disturbing the soil too much and being mindful of how you're affecting the microbiology when tilling the soil.
Our community garden was set up for disabled people. This looks wonderful at making it a lot easier for some of our gardeners to enable them to garden a lot more easily. Great for people with bad backs, etc. I am going to make one and see how effective it is for us. Thanks for the great video.
You're the best! Articulate and knowledgeable and very experienced. I can see you will be a one-stop-shop for all my gardening lessons. Thank you for sharing your methods, they will come into good use for me in the future!
Awesome, Can’t wait!!! I have 10/30 inch by 50 feet beds under two big Pecan trees in my backyard so it’s gonna be very helpful for me. I’m a little bit concerned about squirrels because I there are a lot in my backyard too
@@marcosbacas7169 if you have trouble with the potato family (tomatoes peppers etc:) it is because of the allelopathy of the pecans. Not such a great tree to grow under for certain crops, though most things should be fine.
Great video. We will share this with our customers for sure :) We sell land in rural areas and this will help generate some great ideas. Thanks for creating this!
Hi Moreno, i have been market farming for 30 years and no-till for the last 4 years. I did a test, broadforking one bed and not on the next bed. The vegetable grown was daikon, a root vegetable. The harvest in the not broadforked bed was larger. I repeated the test the next year and got the same results. Great to hear that you got the same results. Any explanation?
Brilliant video, our soil is currently so hard, we can’t even get our broad fork in!! We have to allow our first season compost to naturally work into the soil (solid sand/stone) and then broadfork next spring to really start our beds. So, frustrating yes, but a necessary step. Great video.
Thank you! Compost will definitely help a lot with your soil structure. Another possibility to try is using a garden fork or pitch fork. It's smaller than the broadfork and usually easier to handle. Ultimately with large inputs of organic matter it's just a matter of time before the soil becomes 'loose'.
@@moi7748 Hey Andrew, mulching your garden beds will help a lot with this! There's a lot of different sorts of mulch you could use depending on your climate. But generally, covering your garden beds will prevent your soil from 'baking'. A tiller can definitely be used but preferably in a way of 'kick-starting' the system, not as an ongoing practice.
@@TheDutchFarmer Yes, we did our first ever bed on the site last October to put some garlic in, we couldn't get the broadfork in at all, so just did the 'no did 'bed, planted and hoped for the best! we actually just harvested the garlic, bumper crop, we hadn't done anything on that bed at all as we have been building no-dig beds on the main plot, anyway, as it had dropped lots, we thought we'd try the broadfork and to our surprise, it went in! not all the way (this was back in March I think) but most of the way. I may try it again today! so that's why I am trying not to worry about it, my main beds hopefully will go the same way by winter, and so, I will try and restart the plot once it's all settled, so hoping for better success next year here. We have been hit so hard by the Covid stuff, and all our markets stopped, so, with a new farm, no government help available because we only started earning just before the Covid hit. We are hanging on by the skin of our teeth. But determined to succeed!!!
@@Bentonendflowerfarm The compost and no dig style beds have such an amazing effect on the overall soil condition. It surprises me every time how quickly we are able to create favorable growing conditions for the plants we grow! I'm sorry to hear that you guys have been negatively impacted by the current situation. I wish you all the best! Something that really works well for us lately is doing home delivery services. We send out a list with available produce to the local community (can be either done through social media/websites/email/phone), they place their order and a couple of days later we deliver their order. Works really well at the moment. Maybe something to consider? Otherwise wholesale has been really stable as well for us. Obviously crop selection will have to be adapted to serve that market profitably, but is a solid way of selling large quantities of produce. Anyways, you guys have the right attitude going forward and I hope you'll come out of this stronger!
Hi Moreno, een vriend van mij wil voor mij zo eentje maken. mag ik van jou de afmetingen van deze tool. dankjewel! ik vind dat je een geweldige instructeur bent! heb vandaag jouw boek gekregen. ga binnen de komende dagen lezen. nogmaals dankjewel!
I watched Charles Dowding state the same thing: that he tested and found broadforked beds inferior to undisturbed beds; however, you further stated that broadforking is only for initial break up of the soil. I wish someplace rented broadforks, as they cost $$$ to purchase.
Thanks for another great video! I'm trying to figure out how to to plant cover crops or green manure in a no tilling system. Do you plant green manure? How often do you include it in the rotations? I'm starting in a new project and I'd like to plant green manure. I only cut weeds using the scythe and the soil is not naked, so I'm not sure how to plant the green manure in this situation.
I have to wonder if that looseness of the soil that has caused you to dis continue using the broadfork will remain indefinitely, given nothing else in your methods changes? Or if over time, sun/heat, rain, and wind, that soil will begin to harden and compact down lower and start affecting crop results negatively, and make broadforking 2 to 3 yrs from now necessary? Maybe a great follow up video to show either way? Thumbs up !
@@robertdouglas8895 And they're great fodder if you have animals. Rutabagas, the old mangels, will do that, too. To answer the previously asked question from @Big Al SParks; no. The soil won't compact from the effects of wind, rain, or any other weather-related source, barring hail (the impact of the ice balls can cause some compaction). For compaction of the soil to occur, you need to have pressure/weight applied to the soil. Wind, rain, snow don't have any real weight to them (even the heavy snows seen in some Northern areas aren't really that heavy on a psi scale and any damage done is alleviated by their melting). A critter walking on the soil, a tree falling, driving a vehicle, or dragging any item are all things that can cause compaction, but not weather. What you might see, if you watch a loose bed slowly sink in height, is settling in the soil as particles slowly shift against each other. The soil will then, technically, be compact in that it will take up less space, but it won't be dangerous to the microscopic food web you are trying to encourage.
Brilliant as always, thank you! Would it be possible to do a vid on preparing a no-till area from grass to plantable beds sometime? I know you initially prepared yours with a one time tillage, but I'd like to prepare a currently meadow area into market garden beds for next year, so will be preparing, covering and wintering, so that I can start to use them next spring. I'm sure other viewers would find it useful too
Just wondering, do you grow in the same plot after harvest time and again or do you let the soil have a chance to replenish and if so, how do you replenish your soil. I know farmers with stock rotate their fields frequently. Do you add compost and manure?
You are the first gardener that I actually see not walking on the beds, here we don't use it because it is too expensive, a simple garden fork will do the job.
I use a garden fork/pitch fork as well. It means i have to go down the beds twice as it is about half as wide as a broad fork. The tines are not quite as long either. I get about 5 inches deep where the broadfork might do 10. It works but the broadfork would be even better. May purchase one later this season
When you walk through the forest, look for squirrels, skunks, raccoons, voles, moles, rabbits, and other such critters. They are the broadforks of the forest.
The tines on my broadfork are at a slight angle. Honestly, it doesn't make much difference. If used in the way I describe in the video, the results will be the same!
Hey Victor our farm is 1/3 acre. There's many ways you can make your land profitable. If you want to start a market garden you can start by checking out this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fRlUhUWS0Hk.html and this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IJ04HY1wD1k.html
Coming up with the quantity of composted organic matter to add in sufficient amounts is my problem. There is NOT a trusting quality source of i in my area. I definitely use wood chips and leaves and protect my beds from foot traffic. I have 20acres and tractor with a scoop...I can move quantities of material, but how does one ‘make’ enough??
Yes! Good point. This model wouldn’t cut it where you need it most. I’ve just moved to a new property, my other property( funnily enough) is in the sand dunes, and I’m now going to restore a 1200sqm horse arena. I’ll do it with a broad fork made for the job. The area has been scraped flat, zero topsoil and the top layer is lime sand and silt hard pan which is absolutely impenetrable in summer. I’ll document the process and show how soil can be built even under the most extreme adverse conditions. Cheers, Paul
Also, weeds are exasperating. There’s definite pressure for at least 3-4 years per area. 😉 Is there concern when gathering leaves to compost them for a year before using them? Always trying not to incorporate more weed seeds.
I love the idea to not disturb the soil, but what I observe is that in these no-dig systems there is often a huge import of compost. Depending where its from and how it was produced, I wonder if that is more sustainable and if there are alternatives where you can rest the soil without these imports?
You can cover crop 2-4 years, but those years the beds will be unproductive. You also skip this broadforking step if you have a few cycles with mainroot plants like White Mustard. On the other hand in productive fields you just can't avoid compost, the produce you take off the field must be replaced somehow. You can start making your own compost and upcycle food scraps, grass clippings, etc
In a small garden, or when one has enough time anyway, is there any reason not to use an ordinary garden fork the same way as you use the broadfork? Or in other words, besides the width, does the broadfork have any other advantage over an ordinary garden fork?
Hi Moreno, very nice video. Im wondering what type of soil you have. On a heavy clay soil like mine the broadfork is sometimes lifting up the soil in a package in stead of loosening it. Also wondering how you deal with liseron appearing through the compost beds? Thanks!
In heavy clay maybe move the fork at half the distance. Typically one would insert the fork about the length of the tines away from the last point of insertion. In the heavier clay if you go half that distance (6 inches instead of 1 foot) you may be more likely to have that clump of soil split up a bit instead of coming up in one solid mass. Or at least more break points and air pockets and overall decompaction across the length of the bed. My soil is a clay loam. Just a bit on the clay side of perfect. I apply my amendments right after forking so some of it can fall down into the holes and cracks left after forking. My thinking is it will help incorporate the organic matter deeper through soil profile faster than letting nature do the job from the top. This higher organic matter content, in time, should allow the clay to perform more like a loam.
Hi Moreno! We are in our 4th year of CSA. We gave up on Farmer's Markets because everything just wilts in the heat. So it is all CSA and trying to make enough not to have to have another job. But what we are finding in our beds in which we put wood based compost and worm castings (by the ton) is that the dirt is turning to dust. We get the compost from a local company (they all use the same dealer of it) and the worm castings from another state. We tilth these together once they are on the beds, rake and roll it but we aren't seeing that much of a change in our soil over the four years. Even with putting 5 inches of new compost the top gets quite hard. We have been no dig for the last 2 years. If I dig my hands into the "soil" it is just dust. Any ideas? And we love the videos. Thank you!
Hei :) veldig bra video! Great stuff Moreno 💚🌼🐝. Did you also use it initially for removing root weeds? Before adding compost? BTW I have bought one too 😃
Thank you! We removed the weeds through initial tillage and after that immediately into the no dig setup with the compost. Looking back at it, could have done it without the tillage! Anyways, the broadfork does help with opening up the subsoil :)
I've seen other videos where you use cardboard to start the beds. So I am guessing that when you use the boardfork the cardboard has already decomposed and you are going through the whole thing?
Hi. My name is Hannes Snyman from South Africa. I have been looking at your video's and something baffle's me. Although I work the same way and have as many trees in mt garden as you, I keep on losing my crops. After adding about an inch or two on my bed's I can come back in 2-3 weeks and my trees would have invade all my new compost.... how do you do it?
Hey Hannes, sorry to hear that. It has probably to do with the type of trees you're growing under. Some trees can be quite aggressive. I'm currently working on several videos that will go into depth on this topic. They will all be released this month.
My biggest Take-Away: The broadfork is only a tool for a certain period in preparing the beds and for starting a healthy soil. Thx for the Video Moreno! Would be very interesting if you can give some insights on how your financial income developed in the first year. I think it would encourage a lot of upcoming farmers. Greetings from Germany!
Hi Moreno, thanks for the video ! I was wondering, are you able to sow directly in the compost? For example carrots? I have a vegetable garden with 8 beds. On one of them I tried to do like you, only compost on top. I transplanted some lettuces a few weeks ago on the "compost bed" and on another one made of a mix of horse/chicken and cow manure mostly. On the "compost bed" the lettuces are not growing at all, they stay green though but they just won't grow. Do you have an idea of what could it be? Thanks !
Thomas I had a package of carrot seeds accidentally empty into my pocket. I emptied my pocket on a new bed (covered grass with two layers of wet cardboard and topped it with 5” of compost) . I kind of forgot I had done this until the carrots started sprouting. I thinned them out to about an inch apart and I had a great crop of long straight carrots 100 days later. I didn’t put the seeds in rows or rake them into the compost, I just broadcast them in a haphazard manner when cleaning my pocket.
Thank you so much! I really enjoyed the little educational narrative about the forest ecosystem and the humor about someone hiking with a broad fork. 😂 I’m trying out no-till this growing season and nervous to get started because it’s hard for me to envision my plants surviving in my previously compacted soil. I’m definitely getting myself a broad fork!! Thank you!!
Gee, I have used my broadfork to take out sod, rocks...all sorts of junk. Also to ready my grow tunnels but now I see how I should refine my use. Thanks. P.S. It sure is fun to use. And I'm old.
Thanks for all the contents clear and right the goals your videos are. For inputs of compost and woodchip, how do you process to provide those big amounts you need and how much time a year you lowering them to ground level ?
Broad forks are pricy. I've been wanting to invest in a welder because of other various projects and repairs. For a little more money a welder would be the better investment to buy. I could fabricate a broad fork and a number of other tools needed that could cost thousands.
