Renowned Farmer Jean-Martin Fortier Gives Rodale Institute a Tour of His Farms (Part 1) 

Gracias por el comentario Nataly :) ¡La segunda parte llegará pronto!

Back when it was all starting Colby :) Great find! 🌱

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There are a lot of reasons to use woven plastic landscape fabric and/or tarp vs organic mulch 1. Far superior weed control- if you are in an area with a lot of real weed pressure, organic mulch simply will not cut it compared to plastic. This is only magnified when you start trying to actually feed people instead of hobby gardening 2. Increased yield- this has been tested by many growers, including JADAM which is a methodology out of Korea. They found that mulch should be added in the autumn (or 1-3 months before planting) so it has time to break down into compost before planting. Organic mulch is better than bare soil, but landscape fabric is best. The reason is that microbes require nutrients to break down the mulch. These are nutrients that would be going to the plants for higher yield. 3. Labor- constantly sourcing and spreading organic matter is a lot of work. When you’re farming to feed people instead of just a hobby harden, this labor adds up fast and the cost gets transferred to the consumer. 4. Notice what he said in the video when he pulled up the tarp- the reason it’s so clean under the tarp is because there is not a dry mulch layer refusing to break down on the top. Think of any uncovered compost pile or bin you’ve ever seen. There is 4-8” of dry trash (“mulch”) on top at all times unless you are constantly working it under. This trash makes it harder to plant certain crops especially when working with transplanters or direct-seeders. The plastic keeps the whole column damp which allows the soil life to consume the trash (mulch layer). I’m familiar with the Ruth Stout method & back to eden, I’m familiar with Lasagna gardening and I’m familiar with farms who have made this method work on scale. But it has a lot of limitations and pitfalls.

Wonderful Question nolo4449 :) To add on to what was said by Rock Dust below, using plastic mulch also has better moisture retention. And it is better at capturing heat in the soil (which is especially useful at the beginning of the season when the soil is still warming up from the winter months). However, if you’re on a scale with enough labor and the means to do so, then using organic materials as mulch is wonderful!

@@rodaleinstitute do you worry about micro plastics in the soil? I figure microbes break it down so it doesn’t really matter

It's in Quebec province, Canada. :)

Edissa B. got it right! :)

Gracias :) Está en Canadá, cerca de Montreal.

It's good to have a mentor. Check out Rodale Institue's and The Market Gardener's internships and online courses to help guide you in the right direction :)