At last, honest answers from a golf super ,admitting a problem and also dealing with low funding , every video ive seen has limitless budget and amazingly few problems,well done.Fabulous explanation.
I think (hope) someday commercial ag will figure this out. Most commercial Ag in the midwest is destroying soil and on a year to year basis. What you just described is Gods wonderful work.
Thank You Ken, for reintroducing this lost information, growing up on a farm, having very little money, we also used the organic materials and manures, I have carried this way with me, your knowledge and experience is very refreshing🙏🏽👍🏽
I usually apply wood chips around trees and goat manure and grasses around vegetables etc as mulch. I apply goat manure compost tea to all of them once a week. This regimen seems to allow all the plant species to thrive. Fungi usually appears on the wood chips after rain events. This not strict for trees, but I never mulch non-tree species with wood chips, ever. My soil used to be very poor and plants hardly grew. So far, so good.
You never mulch "None Tree Species?" Have you ever seen what wood chips does to a rose bush? What I find interesting is that Compost Teas sound like they're the end all for soil improvement. Have you ever planted grass seed on top of wood chips? My vineyard is going absolutely nuts "growth wise" guess what I mulched my vineyard with? You guessed it, wood chips. Vine crops thrive on fungal vs bacteria. Last year I mulched my tomatoes with wood chips, I couldn't walk through my garden the tomatoes were so thick. I think you re-evaluate your use of wood chips. Grass and manure are great, but some plants require or thrive on different soil chemistry.
The white fungi you see on woodchips is decay fungi. Mycorrhizal fungi can only be seen with a microscope (400x) & needs a living root with which to interact & form a network underground. If you have the white decay fungi, you may well have surviving myco spores as well.
Absolutely love the bit around 12:00 and maybe us humans need to think the same. Rather than binging on single aspects of nutrition (sugars, starches, alcohol, water, fats etc.) then excreting the excess imbalance, we should aim to consume it basic ratio of needs!
Thanks for video, extremely informative! But I would like to incorporate this with my lawn? I have 2 year old sod and higher PH 7.2 to 8.2 depending on location with my lawn. I would like to fix my issue from soil up!
Hello where did you find out about how much fungal or bacterial you need for grass or fruit trees sounds supper interesting and if there was a book I would read it anyways thanks for the video Trevor bow
Fantastic video. It is a shame that millions of tons of leaves, shrubs, branches are disposed out as garbage and goes into landfills along with the rest of our household trash. All towns should be picking up plant material separately and recycled. They town I live in does this and then allows the town residents to take the shredded 'waste' so they can use it as mulch. I am not sure what one bacteria to one part fungi means? What consists of one part fungi?
You actually reduse energy consumption if you ventilate in the vinter. The warm, humid air is ventilated out and cold, dry air is ventilated in. This means there is less water in the air inside wich reduces the amount of energy needed to warm up the air!
You got my atention when you said nitrogen es not the most important but CO2 i thougth i was crazy and importante as CO2 i found CH3COOH in compost is a good sign for fertility i confirm acetogenic bacteria makes my fields be green and fértil
@johnlawrence9547 hmmm , I am out my league here and don't know exactly how the ratio works..(I'm thinking, not knowing) 3 bacteria to one fungi seems like not enough bacteria..I was saying samesish when the video was talking about corn/maize(I see the plants look similar / grow tall) I personally wouldn't even worry about any ratios ...just pump ya soil full of chicken shit/ seaweed and the ratio will balance itself!! Again sorry,,, I do not have your ratio answer
Ok so I now have a completely different outlook on how to approach my growing habits. The question I'm left with is how do I now apply this new information to my soil. What can I purchase to make all of these things happen in my soil is there one simple product or do I try what the Indians did for thousands of years. Fish parts in the soil ? I know there are numerous ammendment choices and something that I would want a proper ratio of balance for these nutritional elements. But they don't come with protozoa fungi and the like. Any advice would help. Nematodes are available but not much else so I'm finding
You can look at our Microbial Mineral Tea pages on the web site. Learning to brew the tea and using our products to brew it will give you the results you are looking for. www.biomineralstechnologies.com/farm-solutions/restore-soils/microbial-mineral-teas
Blueberries @6:27 are not vines, they're shrubs and need much more acidic soil than the vines and cane plants (raspberry, blackberry) you mentioned. That brings up a question. Does overall soil PH affect the carbon to nitrogen and/or bacteria to fungi ratio?
@@makeamoveasap1978 Yes, I get that. I should have asked whether the starting pH might be a general indicator of those ratios .In listening to this again, I think the answer is yes. I just haven't found any info with an explanation of it from that angle.
Blueberries are perennials, and I've seen some northern species like V. angustifolium maybe older than I was at the time while picking. They produced heavily for wild ones in that area of Quebec, just across the from the Ottawa River on the upper-sides and top of the escarpment. Great mushroom picking there in the late summer and into fall too, especially boletes. So I'd say fungal. Just let them attract what they want through the extra stuff blueberries put out into their root exudates. Plants when provided with choices will establish the environment best suited for them without us worrying about it IMO.
@@GerryMantha Thank you. I'm in central VA where most of the soil is slightly acidic clay which I understand is good for fungal life but it isn't high enough in organic matter to support blueberries and the other fruits I want to grow. There are a few places in the larger surrounding area where blueberries thrive but none near either of my two tiny properties. They both sit on granite substrates with relatively thin soil layers on top. On the 2-acre property I only had enough soil depth to support a 2-bedroom septic system spread out across the back third. It seems I will need to do more research and figure out how feed my soil to get it to where it needs to be.
@@glenagarrett4704 In a way you're lucky. The soil where I am is calciferous gritty clay loam, underlaid by solid limestone. With nearly unlimited buffering capacity, I need to add elemental sulphur every year, and check the pH at least twice each growing season to ensure a continued response. I normally start preparing a new area for blueberries at least a year in advance. In the spring once the soil is workable, I add about 2" of compost with a good N content, along with 4 compressed bales of unbuffered sphagnum peat moss (approx. 16 cu ft per 100 sq ft). To keep the soil from buffering the peat too soon, I add an initial 10 pounds of elemental sulphur on the 100 sq ft. surface, then cover with 6" of ramial (arborist) wood chips. It just sits that way until fall, when I do one last pH test 6" below the soil surface under the chips, and if pH is still too high I apply more sulphur right over the chips at this time. The next year by the time the weather is warm enough, the chips are then only about 3" deep. I take a pH test, plant, and I'm done with it except for of course topping up the wood chip mulch each spring, and the regular addition of sulphur to prevent the pH from drifting up. The soil and the wood chips remain undisturbed because from that point on, anything added just goes on top. Blueberries have evolved to grow under conditions in which other plants don't do well. It's recreating these conditions that can be challenging. I've never worried about fungal to bacteria ratios, nor do I have access to the expensive analytical lab equipment necessary to accurately measure their relative mass. Many species of bacteria don't do well at a pH of 5 or below anyway, so build the environment and whatever the blueberries want will be what they cultivate most in their rhizosphere.
Hello, Mr. Al-Fadl, I am from Algeria. I would like to ask you. I made compost from cow and sheep animal dung, sawdust, vegetables, and fruits. I was stirring it, and after 3 months it became ripe and its color became deep brown. Its smell is like dirt mixed with rain. When I planted coriander seeds, I tried it, nothing grew, so I mixed it with dirt, but I found an hour and nothing appeared. I am very confused as to what it isIn your opinion, sir, you are very knowledgeable. Please advise me
Mr. Al-Fadl, we don't have enough information to properly diagnose your compost issues, but if you will provide your email address, I can send you a document with some diagnostic and success parameters for well-made compost.
From the video, I get ideas below. 1. It's Carbon, not Nitrogen, the most important nutrients to plants. 2. Every kind of plants favors different bacteria-fungi ratio soils. 3. Via the soil food web system, in order to maintain the proper composition of the micro-organisms themselves, they release those extra nutrients to the soil, and plants roots get the chance of absorbing those nutrients. Q: Is there any ways to adjust the bacteria-fungi ratio of a land, in order to grow the desired plants/crops/vegetables better?
Most soils have a very low fungi to bacteria ratio. In order to improve the ratio you need to incorporate inputs that promote beneficial fungal growth or that have a high fungal balance. Bio Minerals Technologies produces ingredients for a fungally rich tea that we use to help achieve those proper balances. On a small scale, incorporating brown material (wood chips, leaves, sawdust, and other high-carbon inputs) will help to improve the fungal balances within your soils.
Most farmed soil has significantly more bacteria. The key is to add fungi. We use our Microbial Mineral Tea to increase fungal balances in soils. You can find more information on the tea at www.biomineralstechnologies.com/farm-solutions/restore-soils/microbial-mineral-teas. You would need to build your own brewer, but we provide the ingredients for brewing. You are welcome to call us with additional questions or for specific applications within your soils.
You are welcome to share the links of this information with all you would like to educate. Our main focus is on farms and agricultural production as we are trying to educate the producers of our food supply and improve the nutritional value of our food sources in order to improve the nutritional results in our people.
I would love to see you cover the risks involved with applying compost. In California we have systematically turned compost into a product that is often not beneficial. Unfortunately many trends that start in California have a tendency to spread across the nation. One of the best things we can do is utilize compost. One of the most devastating things I have seen that put farmers out of business is compost. I work with a lot of cannabis farmers whom test their products in PPB. We are gaining lots of insight into our farm inputs. On a bright note we are increasing genetic expression. The same elements that we deem unhealthy for humans in excess are showing great results when they are not in abundance in plants too. Far to long we have used organic standards for our imputes and deemed them ok. We are learning that is not the case. That just imputes, don’t even get me started on excessive bacteria and nitrate production burning up the humas and exposing stuff like aluminum.
The old adage "too much of a good thing" is as applicable here as it is anywhere else. Properly produced compost is good for a field and a crop, not only for its nutritional value, but for its microbial population and increased diversity. However, like with any inputs, if you apply too much, it can create imbalances that are detrimental to the crops. It is always important to know the composition of what you are applying and maintaining the proper balances and ratios to manage your soil's overall health and productivity.
@davidking6136 The ‘talk’ about compost is in most cases far to ‘general’ and focuses too much on the starting process in terms of brown(C) and green (N) … and then looking for this ‘dark crumble’ end matter… but in most cases nobody, including myself 🙄, has a good idea about the basic NPK of this compost… so maybe, depending on the available starting ‘materials’, one of the NPK components could be far too high or low for the use with some specific plants/fruits/vegetables… real drama’s with the wrong application of compost happened in Sri Lanka for instance. I am still looking for a fast, economical and reliable field test kit for this NPK but the actual commercial products cannot convince me yet…
@@bmtedTo what extent does the 'curing' process improve compost? Might unfinished compost not be as beneficial or even negativity impact soil? Do the big commercial composters allow for curing time before marketing it?
I have been interested in boosting the Fungi in my soils for 15 years or more. I live on ancient, leached soils derived from granite sands, and so my nutrient levels tend to be very poor by US standards. At the same time I have, on my office wall, the Circle of Life diagram prepared by Texas A+M which is a family tree of life with all kingdoms from Archaea, Bacteria, Protists, Plants, Chromists (I believe they are called - sponges and corals) Fungi and Animals. If one follows this tree, you will see that Chromists evolved after Plants and then the "tree" splits and the Fungi are in the bottom left of their circle and Animals in the top left. Now we know that Animals need Na, I, Co and Se that Plants don't need. So I wonder whether Chromists are plants that learned to do something clever with I (say) and Animals are Chromists that learned to do something clever with Na, Co and Se. If so, Fungi might be Chromists that not only need I (in addition to all the plant nutrients) but also Ni or some other nutrient NOT required by Plants NOR by Animals. If so, on our leached, nutrient poor sandy soils, we may not be able to stimulate sufficient Fungal activity because they (the Fungi) simply cannot find sufficient of their essential nutrients to support the Fungal population that we (as farmers) would like. I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who has researched this.
I'd rather sequester more carbon in the soil rather than have it all outgas in the form of CO2. It can take many years to increase the stable organic carbon content of soil even a single percent. The ambient atmosphere has more than enough CO2 for my field crops now at 422 ppm minimum, up from 280 ppm before industrialization. I don't really see the point of that segment of the video.
You are correct in that it takes a long time to build organic carbon in the soil, but the plants don't use that carbon. They use the carbon from the CO2. You can look at our "Using Biology to Maximize Growing Systems" playlist for a more complete explanation.
@@bmted I’m well aware of where plants obtain carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, what chloroplasts are, and where stomata are located. I think you misunderstood my comment. I was specifically referring to the segment on nitrogen vs the importance of CO2 at 1:50, and the segment of the video concerning CO2 starting at 4:09. While the segment at 1:50 states the obvious that plants require more carbon than nitrogen, to farmers who grow plants nitrogen is a much more important consideration due to it being a common limiting factor to plant growth and thus actively managed. CO2 is free, abundant, and no one needs to worry about it unless growing in an unvented closed environment. And besides, carbon comes in second place to abundance in living plant tissue. By far the element of greatest abundance by mass (and thus the most important?) is oxygen in living plants. The segment at 4:09 opens with a claim that “the main structure of a plant is carbon dioxide produced by microbiology”. However CO2 is a colorless gas, and is not the compound responsible for plant structure. What gives plants structure is mainly its cell walls, comprised of polysaccharides such as cellulose, and amorphous polymers like lignin. While these molecules contain carbon as well as oxygen and hydrogen, the carbon comes from CO2 which itself is not directly utilized to create these substances. Instead photosynthesis utilizing sunlight as an energy source uses CO2 and water to produce these molecules through a complex multi-step process. In simple terms, it strips the carbon from the CO2 and releases excess O2 during photosynthesis to the atmosphere. Additionally, plants do not care where the CO2 came from in the atmosphere. It could be from the biologically driven part carbon cycle, from abiotic sources or sinks, or from burning one gallon of gasoline to produce 20 pounds of CO2 while driving your car. The video caption at 4:38 states that “the most important component of the soil atmosphere is carbon dioxide”. For whom or what? Soil microbiological processes are in fact impeded by CO2 because it is a waste product that displaces the oxygen that most beneficial microorganisms require for cellular respiration. Hence why the soil structure is of such critical importance, as the continuous slow exchange of atmospheric oxygen and CO2 in the soil is necessary to get rid of CO2. CO2 is not important nor wanted in soil by microorganisms or the plants themselves. The last sentence of this caption at 4:38 states “Everything that favors growth of microorganisms increases the generation of CO2”. So what’s the point here? The goal isn’t to increase CO2 levels in the soil for the benefit of plants. CO2 production is simply one indicator of metabolic activity, and in turn the relative speed at which mineralization may be taking place. Higher rates of activity don’t necessarily have a positive effect. If we wanted to speed up metabolic activity of soil microorganisms where moisture, C, and N aren’t limiting factors, the most effective way to do so would be through tillage. Tillage resulting in high metabolic rates due to the sudden large influx of oxygen causes soil microorganisms to quickly break down organic matter, and then work on more stable forms of carbon, lowering soil organic carbon (SOC) levels. This loss of SOC ends up adversely impacting soil structure, aggregate formation, water holding capacity, lowering cation exchange capacity (CEC), and contributes to climate change. Achieving the highest rates of metabolic activity possible is certainly not a goal for any farmer. I won’t even start on the F:B ratio part of the video, which in fact cannot be simply manipulated by the farmer through the use of “compost”.
Higher CO2 concentrations doesn’t mean better growing overall… the ‘extra’ green matter production you get is limited to an optimal concentration, different according plant species, and the nutritional value of plants goes down because the concentration of proteins (N) seems to drop more in relation to the rise of the carbon intake… bottom line is that you have to eat more in order to get a full balanced diet… balanced ? 🙄
No shit. Anyone who understands the basics of photosynthesis knows this. The carbon makes their biomass. Carbon release from fossil fuels is still destructive though if that is what you are getting at. And if you increase too much carbon they'll die just like you can force a human to eat and drink to death. Plants have adapted to increases in carbon over changes of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years. But the increase humans have caused in the 200 years since the industrial revolution is too rapid, they can not adjust properly because adapted alleles frequency dominance takes time to set in.
@@brudo5056 you can double the co2 in the atmosphere and it will do nothing to global avg temperature. you need to stop promoting this man made climate change theory that has failed to make a single valid scientific prediction.
@@whatabouttheearth nonsense. the CO2 in the atmosphere in the past was much much higher than it is now, and the world was full of animal and plant life. the CO2 during the Meseozoic was 10 times higher than it is today. you guys need to stop with the nonsense, because there is just far too much propaganda you're being exposed to here on RU-vid and other sites.
Fungi is not pronounced FunJai anywhere in the world other than America. American will say Fungus, Fungal, but won't say Fungi. Funjee, Funjai... wrong. Fung / Gi
How would one know before purchase which local farmers market vegetables like leafy greens and beets have a high level of NITRATES?? I read online that organic vegetables have less nitrates than conventional vegetables,due to the latter using nitrogen rich fertilizers???
