Large Scale No-Till Vegetable Production (from the EFAO Conference 2021) 

Those were some really interesting large scale machines/attachments. That's a cool dump trailer that applies compost on beds

This is great information as always! I'm in the very beginning stages of starting my own market garden. I'm wanting to be no till as much as possible. Soaking up as much knowledge as I can. Thank you Farmer Jessie for all the time and great videos you give us!

Just got your book and read the first 10 pages! I cant wait to complete it!

thanks to every farmer on this video. you all mention issues with needing more organic matter faster. I hope you try biochar. it can be done large scale. a farmer in Ohio did it on 1000 acres in 2012 and published the data. I am small scale but biochar is helping hold up my organic matter more than any other thing I am doing. It appears that adding the very small amount of carbon actually starts a carbon sequestration that colidascopes rapidly.

Great vid. I learned a lot.

Are you a mind reader? I was just thinking I should go looking for a video on this and here you upload one.

The model of the "ideal soil" is one that is 50% pore space and of that, half is filled with water adhered to the soil particles and the other half is filled with air. Plant roots need both consistent and adequate amounts of air and water in the soil to perform their functions and if they have both they are efficient and long lived in the soil. Long lived roots allow plants to use more of their energy to produce above ground growth in the form of biomass and crop. Coarse textured or sandy soils have an imbalance in that the pore space will contain much more air and much less water (9 to 15%) than the ideal soil. SWRT subsurface membranes correct this imbalance by detaining/retaining twice as much rainfall or irrigation water in the rootzone to optimize plant growth and production.

I see plant roots break concrete apart so why is there concern that the roots can’t get through clay?

Starts at 8:35.

I have questions about termination of cover crops using animals. The main one is, are there precautions about specific cover crops and livestock health issues resulting i.e. bloat, scouring, etc.

A lot of large scale no tillers seem to kill of w chemicals still. Does this really count?

Canada! :)

Why weed at all instead of letting those weeds feed the soil organisms with sugars?

Great discussions and presentations, thanks. Not hearing about the use of multi-species (10-20+) cover-crops, nor the use of repeat mowing of cover-crops which can help with heavy residue but still allows the cover to stay in a vegetative stage of growth (easily done with a flail mower held at 12-18 inches). The main way of getting stable carbon into soils (at depth also) is with deep rooted long growth cover-crops. Crop residue left on the surface mostly decomposes to C02, it does help with weed control and moisture loss but not soil carbon. Walter Jehne and Christine Jones are great at explaining this, and nutrient availability in highly microbial soils (fed by plant root exudates). I think work also needs to be done with techniques for keeping cover-crops growing with the cash crop, as an alternative to termination, possibly using repeat mowing or crimping. I would also encourage growers to explore the use of permanent living pathways / alleyways (mixed species of grasses and forbes, mostly native) and permanent planting beds; and set up all wheeled equipment to straddle the beds. There are many benefits, one is creating and maintaining diverse permanent habitat throughout the farm. I operated a certified organic mixed vegetable operation on 15 acres in upstate New York where we developed and sustained this scenario for 20 years (farmed for 35, now retired).

$35 a tonne is dirt cheap for compost