Alfalfa is a suoer cheap animal feed and can feed your garden, build soil, start compost, Check out our new clothing line! http:www.freshpickedapparel.com
I do that too! I had people telling me I shouldn’t use it but I had plenty and I did anyway and I had the best garden I’ve ever had. Everything grows like crazy! I don’t add anything else except powdered eggs I save from my chickens. I usually put in about a 1/4 cup for each tomato plant and don’t have blossom end rot.
@@susieq725 i used egg shells and a couple teaspoons of crushed up Tums to supply calcium,it eliminated blossom end rot. I also sprinkled some Epsom salt around the drip line of my tomato plants. It created a new problem of too many tomatoes.
Alfalfa is not a grass at all! It’s actually a legume, like clover or peas. That’s why it is so nitrogen rich, it's a nitrogen fixer. We use it to keep weight on horses particularly over the winter because the high nitrogen is why they’re higher in protein.
When we had our horses we fed Alfalfa Cubes only. They had free range of 25 acres too, but when we fed them, instead of Hay, we fed them Alfalfa Cubes. When we bought them in 1995 they had a "poor" look to them, their hair wasn't shiny etc. But after going to the Alfalfa Cubes, they really did look good, healthy and had lots of muscle too. A lot of people told us we needed to stop feeding them these cubes ,but our Farrier said that it was the best of the best we could feed them. So we fed Alfalfa Cubes for about 10 years.
@Andrew Shay yes that's because alfalfa is more nutrient dense than other forages you can grow. High protein, lower sugar. As a crop, you often don't have to spray chemicals on it, so it's great to grow if you're doing a pesticide/herbicide-free farm. Recovering from a stroke is no small thing, glad it worked out.
If you read some of the "classic" gardening and composting books, they always talk about lucerne hay. Took me ages to realize that lucerne hay= alfalfa. Just fyi.
@@markr1550 The word "alfalfa" comes to American and Canadian English via Chilean Spanish, where it comes from Spanish Spanish, where it comes from the Spanish bungling pronouncing Arabic.
Great episode! I just have one correction. Alfalfa is in not a grass. It is a legume, like clover. In fact, it looks like really tall clover while growing. I also use it for soil building for container plants and think it is great. I soak and then drain my pellets to expand them. I place the mash on a window screen (over a bucket) to drain. I reserve the drainage for plant watering. Alfalfa also contains triacontanol, which is a growth stimulant. Where I live, a forty pound bag from TSC is around $10, so very affordable, and it lasts me a full season. I also use it for green in my compost bins during winter to keep heat up
I spent years in a feed mill making alfalfa pellets. They definately NOT soaked in water. Steam is mixed with the finely ground alfalfa seconds before before entering the tie to be compressed into the pellets. Repeat they are Not soaked in water that would make it impossible to pellet!!!
I'm sorry i appreantly didn't read your post very well, i have been s bit under the weathet lately, sorry. But i do think it would be interesting to see how all yhat.is done
FYI, to open the grain bags without having to tear them apart, face the front of the bag and pull the tape stitched into the closure. Pull the tape from the right end and it will open up like a zipper. Great video, thanks.
I love your videos. Thanks. Unless you buy organic, animal feed alfalfa is GMO alfalfa. This makes them resistant to herbicides, allowing farmers to spray the crops heavily. I would not put GMO alfalfa in my garden. The herbicide residue will adversely affect soil's microbial life.
I have been adding alfalfa pellets to my raised beds all winter to beef up the nitrogen. They break down nicely in the rain and snow and I will turn it all in before I plant. I also use the pellets in my leaf compost to keep the heat up. My compost pile has been running at about 160 degrees all winter because of the alfalfa pellets.
I'm picturing the roller coaster of emotions playing across the faces of my cow, horses, and goats as I come out of the house with an alfalfa mash... and dump it on the garden.
I live on the side of a mountain in the Appalachians. My garden is on a slope that is terraced. I have lots and lots of leaves, but I do not have a yard with grass. Finally now I have a way to compost my leaves without grass clippings. Thank You!
One thing I like about this channel is MI Gardener is that he explains things. A lot of time other people tell you to do this to do that but don't tell you what it does
Welp, I better stock up on alfalfa pellets for my horses before all the local gardeners scoop them up. (They really are great for the garden, too.) Thanks for the warning, Luke! 😉😂🤣😂🤣
The people who use them for feed are going to wonder what happened. ?? Where did all of the alfalfa go?? There have been several videos on using alfalfa pallets for the garden this winter.
I worked at horse farms as a teen & baled literally TONS of hay. Given the current cost of good hay, especially alfalfa, I can say "I've handled millions of dollars in products" 😆
Another good feed store product is shredded beet pulp. I don't care about the nutrients I use BP in my containers to hold more water for slow release. Soak shreds untill they fully expand and mulch your container plants with the spongy mush. It will dry up and next watering will last much longer and soil will stay cooler. My kale was good all through the heat of summer for the first time.
I love your channel! I live in Chicago and having someone who gardens in the same zone is awesome. The other RU-vid gardeners typically live in much warmer zones. It's awesome to see what you can do in a shorter growing season.
Yes, Alfalfa is in the Fabaceae family, and not a grass. Furthermore it has an npk of 2.5 -.0.5- 2.5 which means it is not low in potassium, only low in phosphorous.
I like my alfalfa after it’s been processed by my rabbits. They actually add large amount of nitrogen as well! Seriously, as purely organic fertilizers go, I’ve never used anything more productive than rabbit droppings. It makes cleaning out the underside of my cages feel like a harvest of sorts. About a week before every planting season, I till in a few wheelbarrow loads into my soil and I’m done. I may use an occasional side dressing in the form of store bought plant food for some crops, but not often.
I truly appreciate how thorough you are in your research, (pellets vs. cubes) and the differences due to the process in which each are made. Thank you!
Tractor Supply is great to have around, but both of ours are kinda quirky. What they're famous for in the poultry community is getting breeds/sexes wrong. 😅😂🤣
Laurie I grow fast growing beans and sweet potatoes which I use as my nitrogen source in our dry months. That way I get for for myself and nitrogen for the compost heap. But I'm too stingy to buy things like these Alfalfa bags 😄
Mine is not a one person household but I have a plastic dustbin that I drilled loads of half inch holes in (base and sides) and with no lid on but a plastic bag weighted with bricks I am really impressed with the rate at which organic matter decays in it. It’s almost impossible to fill up. Making a wormery is good too.
I collect grass from my local park right after they cut it. I know they don't use any herbicide on it. If you decide to give this a try, I would recommend avoiding dog waste. Most dogs are on worm medicine and you definitely don't want that making its way into your soil.
@@skimark8275 Triacontanol is a growth stimulant for many plants, most notably roses, in which it rapidly increases the number of basal breaks. 1-Triacontanol or n-triacontanol is a natural plant growth regulator. It has been widely used to enhance the yield of various crops around the world, mainly in Asia. same thing
Be aware that alfalfa (& hay) is often sprayed with broad leaf weed killers, that will last a LONG time (even surviving the digestive system of what eats it and the composting process of the manure) and will still affect broad leaf plants like vegetables. So you might be adding some long lasting chemicals to your soil by adding any grasses that are grown commercially or in large quantities.
True of hay, but Grazon kills alfalfa just as much as any other legume. Alfalfa pellets are safe from that particular disaster, but of course there are other sprays that might contaminate them. You can find organic alfalfa pellets, though - just usually in smaller sizes and not as cheap.
I guess just like us humans who eat chemical sprayed veggies... The most important factor that chemical amount is controlled, not like in third countries where they spray out of control.
I needed this video a couple of days ago. I just dumped a bunch in my elevated garden beds, mixed it in, and covered them in preparation for the spring.
Compost alfalfa pellets, beet pellets and coffee grounds along with saw dust pellets (all soaked n mixed) to kick-start hot composting, and keep adding your kitchen waste daily.
Never heard alfalfa being called a grass before. I knew it is a legume. I thought it was related to clover but read it is related to peas. Never would have thought to use alafala pellets/cubes sold as feed to use as fertilizer! And even cheaper than fertilizer. Like I have said before, always learning something new from your channel!
I saw a video on the "Impatient Gardener" yt channel, and she adds the alfalfa pellets (actually I think it is cubes she used in the video) to her compost bin. She has a video on this alone. And she explains how it works thoroughly.
I did a winter cover crop of alfalfa in one of my raised beds. I was going to just cut it and leave it but the compost pile really does need a wake up call. Thanks Luke!💜
Thank you for the soaking tip. Great idea! I learned these work great in my Hotbin composter by accident. I bought some of the small Timothy pellets for my chickens but they won't eat them so I was throwing them into my composter so they wouldn't go to waste and they have been keeping the temp nice and high; now I know why. Great channel!
I'm already struggling to find feed and will probably have to add this one to the list as well. I'm so glad I have already decided to extend the food plot for our critters.
Great tip! It’s hard to find enough green material in the spring for new lasagna beds. This will help tremendously! Thank you for taking the time to share.❤️
Thank you! Learned a lot. I appreciate you explaining why you need to soak pellets vs just putting around plants. Thank you for showing the larger pieces and how to best use them. I need to some for my compost bin this winter!
Rabbits 🐇 produce tons of cold manure!!! Plus you can breed them and eat them. IF you have a garden they are a huge help. You can use the manure during winter to amend your beds.
@@Juanrivers2022 I am thinking of also using it as a top dressing this year on top of my mutch I flipped my beds and flipped over a few new ones put about a wheel borrow on each of manure,(this has taken a couple months dumping them as I gathered enough) now I have the beds covered with a thick layer of straw and grass that we saved in piles from summer. Now I am ready to try a no dig approach where I keep top dressing with grass and rabbit droppings.
I have a house rabbit that I refer to as my indoor composter. Seems silly to spend months composting pellets when you can have them composted in a matter of hours by your bunny. And then there is your potassium. Easy. I never thought of using the pellets for nitrogen. She is too old for alfalfa though. I wonder if the Timothy and orchard hay have as much nitrogen.
Rabbit pellets - the kind that come OUT of live rabbits... are free and can be used directly in the beds. Been doing that for 30-40 years. Also one year old horse manure... again free. Do not use until aged for a year.
Good information, I'll put it to good use very soon. Thanks Also the 5 dollar bags of wood shavings at T supply work wonderful as ground cover in the garden and decompose very rapidly.adding humus.
If you have a saw mill nearby, you can buy wood chips, saw dust, etc much less expensive than bagged. A few months ago, $10 for trailer load (1 loader bucket full). I added a layer in chicken lot to give some traction after a rain. As would chips break down, soil is nourished and worms love being under the chips.
I am so glad you popped up on my screen thismorning to explain the uses of alfalfa. Especially appreciate your comment about avoiding pellets coated with wax or oil.
The word alfalfa is from latin meaning perfect food, the roots can go very deep where no other plant roots can reach, pulling minerals not many other plants reach.
Haha i actually bought 2 bags of 50lb of alfalfa (horse feed) from tractor supply last week. i soak them and just throw some on my raised beds.i’m making 14 more raised beds for this year so i need so many composts and fertilizers.
Yep it popped in my feed as well. I saw this guy from 2yrs ago. Fun ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-quUGuzed2kU.html. But now I wonder if grazon is used on alfalfa.
Thankfully we have chickens on our homestead so we use that to build up the nitrogen as well as potassium and phosphorus. I would think the alfalfa would probably be quicker to use as the chicken manure takes awhile to break down safe enough to garden with.
It looks SO cold there. Great video! I’m going to try this. I noticed the first signs of Spring today-buds on trees getting fatter, and winter tomatoes are ripening in abundance, so it’s a good time to beef up my compost pile before planting time in a couple of weeks.
Thanks Luke! This is exactly what I needed! I have tons of material for composting but its all carbon. I needed some cheap nitrogen source to get my hay and leaves heated up. Sounds like this is it.
The cubes for volume with be a great value as they will swell considerably. It would then be similar to mulching with hay. I’m a horse owner,so these products are not knew to me but it never occurred to me to use them in the garden. 🤷🏼♀️
Great idea Luke. You can also use the pelleted bedding in your compost when you don't have enough brown in your bin. LUKE, I am interested to hear more about your chicken decision. Did you get them? Do you love the Blue eggs? Have you looked into fermented feed for chickens? Please do a video on "The Chicken Decision" Pros, Cons, This, That, and the Yes or No of it all. Very Exciting! Thank you for all you do for the Gardens all around the World. Blessings ~
Thanks for the info , you are full of knowledge been watching your video's on lights and now alfalfa, can't wait to get started and I will start at TSC 1st ... I mostly grow flowers working on a cottage garden.
One of your best videos ever, dude! PURE content, short and concise - not a short video but every sentence and section is - and just good as f. Reference this video whenever you start wondering how you do what you do :). Amazing.
Roses do really great on alfalfa pellet tea, too. Alfalfa tea, anaerobically fermented about a week (it will smell like a drunk with dead fish in his pockets) has an NPK of 5-1-2. If you airate the tea and add wood ashes, manure, epsom salts, Ironite, or greensand, you can change your NPK and make it more balanced for use on other plants as well.
Luke that Is very interesting I did not know Alfalfa pellets were high In nitrogen and that you could put them In your compost pile or use them as a fertilizer I well definitely remember that when I start my compost
Thank you for this information. I have up on composing, because it wasn't producing like i thought it should. I'll definitely be adding this in and trying again.
So I have a question about the pellets heating up...could you put the mash in raised beds where you want to start direct sowing seeds earlier than usual for your zone so that it warms up the soil?
Botanically alfalfa is not a grass but a member of the #legume family (Medicago sativa, family fabaceae is the botanical identification)!!! Scientifically there is 2 main plant groups: dicotyledons (like alfalfa) and momocotyledons (such as grasses). Those legumes are associated with mycorrhiza to help fixing atmospheric nitrogen.
My time is valuable, I found this one to be the first migardener video that had 5mins of content in a 14 minute clip that I fast forwarded through, cautious now on viewing this channel sporadically instead of regularly