Understanding Our Soil: The Nitrogen Cycle, Fixers, and Fertilizer 

I'm a certified organic farmer in Kentucky, this is the BEST short video that explains the whole process. Great Job! We're going to play this video on the farm, especially for farm tours etc...

This is the best and easiest video out here to understand nitrogen cycle! Good work man! Its very concise!

As a master degreed biologist I must compliment you on this outstanding, highly informative, and educational video on the N2 cycle in our soil.

I planted micro clover in my grass about ten years ago. My yard has been the greenest in the neighborhood. I didn’t have to use fertilizer for all those years.

Artistry in explaining science - I am truly amazed and thankful that you are doing this! In less than 5 minutes you achieved more than many teachers did in few hours.. congrats to you!

Thank you so much. I was given a native pea plant which I tucked into a sunflower bed, then didn't understand why the sunflower next to it grew to twice the size of the others. Now I do. Luckily I saved some seeds so I'll now plant them around my orchard and other areas where I want to improve the soil. I watch a lot of gardening videos but this is the best explanation of soil health I've seen.

The understanding of the nitrogen cycle is crucial to understanding life on the planet as a whole. It is the base on which almost all life is sustained and very few people even know about it. Kudo’s very well done vid!

As a farmer I am very impressed with this video. Well done 🙏

I want to translate this in Swahili for the local farmers in Africa. The trend of artificial fertilisers is starting to catch on there too, and I Know this video can at least give small scale farmers some hope in their age old practices of organic farming. Let me know if your teams approves; my contribution will be my voice in Swahili.

Thank you very much for this video! I'm a biological farmer myself and it helps me to explain people, why it is so important, to use organic fertilizers.

This was excellent! Well done!

I had an idea about making an animated nitrogen cycle video like this, but you nailed it way better than I could have done! Awesome job on every aspect of the production on this. It's exactly what it needs to be and the info is on-point. Thank you for making and sharing this!

YES! This is why I am doing permaculture in my garden. It is time to feed earth with what she needs before we think of taking anything from her. Please continue your pedagogy. :-)

When I saw this video available I thought "ugh, I really need to watch something like this one day to understand it all" So glad I clicked on the link. Such a clear and useful description of it all, without unnecessary details.

Cannabis became legal here in Ontario a few yrs ago. Decided to try my hand at growing indoors. I filled up a 30 gallon fabric pot with 1/3 worm castings, 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 rice hulls and pumice all mixed in with 1 1/2 cups of kelp meal, crab meal, neem seed meal, oyster shell flour, basalt rock dust, fish bone meal. Cover crop was sown (alfalfa, fenugreek, clover, lentil and buckwheat mix), red wigglers were introduced and allowed to flourish for 1 month before transplanting the seedling in soil. This little pet project of mine has turned into an odyssey of learning and an outright competition between myseld and a friend who is also running a one plant wonder tent in his basement. Each subsequent grow cycle and new cover cropping has improved this little "biome" of ours immensely. The soil simply gets mightier every time. I started a small worm composting bin with a handful of wigglers from the fabric pot and simply not overfeeding them keeps the operation running clean and odor free. Feeding the worms crushed up malted barley (sold at any brewer's supply store) puts them on steroids. Their overall vigor is off the charts when feeding on it. Those castings are loaded with enzymes that I happily top dress my soil with. Simply bending to nature and all of it's unseen secrets has been so rewarding. Having a ball with this.

I feel like I have a much better grasp on the nutrient cycle now. Thanks!

He didn't mention it in the video but the "fungi" that attaches to the roots is called micorhizal which can increase nutrient uptake by 3000%. Which is why its always good to use soil that has micorhizzae it in or you can add it in yourself.

Nammazhvar in Tamilnadu, India already talked about this 20 years back.. Don't plough the land , plant waste should go to the soil as fertilizer and this work will be done by earthworm and millipedes, don't use the chemical fertilizer it will kill the soil.. but only 10 percent of farmers listen to his words and they are successful and sell organic food in the market... The government needs to educate the farmers , but they fail to do it .. Even the school teachers who do agriculture in Tamilnadu follow chemical farming due to lack of time.. this video is very simple and says how chemical farming kills the soil... This needs to be reached to all the farmers in the world.

Beautifully done. I have my own organic no-dig garden and this video will clearly explain why I'm so eccentric about chemical fertilizer growing. Thank you for sharing.

Man, what you did in under 5 minutes is incredible. Majestic. Congrats

I'm just started gardening last spring and never even thought about stuff like this. Thanks for the information.

Great vid as a home gardener I try to minimize impact to environment as well as cost. I have stopped pulling clover in my garden and just allowed it to grow among the veggies.

I love to stumble in this kind of "soon to be stars" channels. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for sources, that's very useful generally speaking.

Absolutely incredible. A lot of information, easy to digest, appealing, all in one. I'm proud of you for doing this.

Thank you for your hard work to create such a concise and informative video! This is a great tool to help people quickly understand our role as gardeners to help regenerate the natural cycle of fertility.

This is why the one going movement #Savesoil is HUGE for the current generation and more importantly for the future generations and avoid the desertification of soil while is inevitable if nothing is done to change the current farming system that relies on inorganic fertilizers. #SAVESOIL

Wow, I have to say ..." 👏 Bravo!" Quick and clear. It tells the world why I do "living soil" in my garden! It's thriving!

I’ve been reading and trying to understand these concepts as I’ve been moving into more permaculture practices in my garden, but coming up short. I knew you shouldn’t till, I knew there’s beneficial bacteria in the soil and I knew one should focus on amending soil rather than fertilizing plants - but from a scientific perspective I never knew WHY. This video was so easy to follow and genuinely informative. I feel like I’m finally beginning to actually understand rather than just going on blind faith, anecdotal observation and intuition. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this for us!

Excellent video. You have a knack for breaking stuff like this down into meaningful visual and audio. Thank you.

I have recently become passionate about soil health in my garden here on a property in SE Australia so have been watching RU-vid vids on the topic and yours is one of the most educational & entertaining I have seen while still keeping it simple enough for us nuff nuffs. Thank you.

This great work deserves more attention from a wider audience. Love, Light, Luck; Health, Wealth, Elf

Excellent stuff, making complex concepts easy to understand. Well done 👍

Wow....found out that this is the best video to understand the N cycle and the importance of organic fertilizers. Thanks for sharing this video.

I've heard some of this in the past but never had a full understanding like your video provided to me IN UNDER 5 MINUTES. Great information, great video. Thanks for sharing!

One of the best videos on sustainability seen in a long time, and I am a nerd on this. Kudos and THANK YOU! It will be very useful to spread the word in an easy and kind way.

In my opinion, if you're going to use fertilizer salts, it's best to just grow in hydroponics. Way less water usage, and the salts don't run off into the rivers. If you're going to grow in dirt, you might as well take advantage of the natural processes that exist in it.

It's mind-blowing how ingeniously engineered the entire system is. It's so carefully balanced and thoughtfully integrated into the larger planetary scheme. The universe is so astonishingly designed.

This video is fantastic. It summarises so many complex things quickly and simply. Great work!

AMAZING. I need to watch this again, but THIS is truly excellent and perspective changing . THANK YOU. I’ve been using hugelculture to try to rebuild my soil. Last year a whole bunch of new mushrooms emerged over the seasons, telling me that I’m moving in the right direction. One barrier I’ve found is invasive plants like garlic mustard which has allelopathy properties that destroy the mycelium. I’ve been pulling it every chance I get.

Great breakdown, I will be sharing with some folks im helping start up home gardens with. This provides a good understanding of how soil health is vital.

Absolutely great explanation! Thank you for the excellent video and animation work!

Thank you! Backyard gardener here just trying to better understand it all so that I may perfect my methods for better vegetable harvests. THANK YOU!❤

Bravo! I work with a company that sells an aloe vera-based biostimulant soil amendment, and this is the most straightforward video I have seen that properly explains the process so clearly. Looking forward to sharing this video with others - Thank you!!

First class content. Easy to understand and still contains the important information.

Good job, very well done. To the point and great job on the animations!

in my 15 years of watching RU-vid I think this is one of the best educational explainers I've seen

I have been listening to the Real Organic Podcast that talks all about the importance of growing food in soil and all the systems the soil supports, like the Nitrogen cycle. I think learning and understanding these things is some of the most important work we can do. Thank you for sharing!

These videos just keep getting better

This is great. I've subscribed in the hopes that you make more videos about plant nutrition cycles.

I am a soil health educator and this is fantastic....well done!

Excellent! This video engages humans of all ages to realize that what happens in our communities, on our land - in parks, on roadsides, in our back yards, in front of our public buildings... EVERYWHERE - DOES make a Difference.

This video is super ! I’m sharing this with my permaculture class!

Super super great video, simplifies some complicated ideas, made sense of a lot I was struggling with in a very short time, TYSM!!!

Very delightfully put together video. In-depth, and clear

Thank you! Excellent video. Well done. Simple enough for everyone to follow. Thank you again!

this is such a great video, well done! so easy to follow and is so informative!

thank you for this people need to understand this and youve made it really accessible. doing gods work

This is very helpful for my organic edible gardening. Perfect video that really explains it well. Thanks!

At the moment I am studying the Nitrogen Cycle, my first language is not English, but my master is with an Australian University. I want to say THANK YOU (gracias).

I can't wait to show this to my students. Well made video, easy to watch and and understand

Let’s “fix” the algorithm

Wow, what a concise and crisp presentation of a concept which is partially understood by many, thanks a lot.

This is SUCH a good explainer. I am going to share this with all my friends who would be put off by a science lecture but who would benefit from knowing about this.

Fantastic explainer video! There's an excessive algae growth in the community lake where I come from. This may be one of the reasons

What a great video! Thank you for sharing.

I like how simple you made this. I've done lots of research on this topic. Lots...

Very important info for organic growers! Thank you!

Thank you for sharing this. I dont think this is common knowledge and it needs to be spread around.

And this is how people used to farm until big companies & government decided they knew best. Now we have those that be telling farmers not to do what they told them do!!! Amazing , isn't it???

Such a good presentation! Not a word too many and very easy to understand. Bravo!

Fantastic explination of the nitroge cycle and impact of synethic fertilizers. Thanks for making.

amazing explanation, thank you so much!!

This is incredibly enlightening for me. I'm just about to plant a large garden system in my back yard. I am currently prepping for planting next year, and want to make sure my soil is as healthy as possible. Thanks for the great video!

Absolutely outstanding explanation. As a dedicated Regenerative Farmer this is priceless in the education of those we seeking to enlighten and inspire. Thank you 🙏🏽💖

Very easy to understand, thank you! I grew up in the prairies and have heard about how using fertilizer creates a cycle of dependency, but this actually made me see/understand the steps in that process. Very cool, will be ordering more clover crop cover for the future!

Great video, thank you for making it!

Great video. Greatly helped me with my education. Thank u and keep it up 🙌

This is the best short video which explains what others will do in one hour. Thank you very much 👍

This made a very complicated and hard to comprehend in laboratory settings subject to a very easily digestible and fun to watch video with all the needed information to understand the situation! Thank you so much!

This is very useful, thank you so much!!

To. compliment this video, weeds love nitrates, as we successionally moved along, grasses for lawns love an equal of nitrates to ammonium, n as we get to fruit trees , the grapes, conifers to deciduous more ammonium than nitrate. This also includes the amount of bacteria to fungus biomass ratio, weeds love a bacterial dominated soil, a disturbed soil, grass loves equal to more fungus and as we go along to the deciduous, fungal dominated.

Absolutely easy to follow. Thank you! I need visual and you did just that. Wow!

Amazing video. Graphics were so clear and simple. Well done.

Thanks for citing the literature, I really apriciate that!

Great video. Seems these Nitrogen Fixing plants could be called Nutrient Fixers, since they help plants take up minerals, too.

This video literally could not be better. Thank you!

Thanks for spreading the word. Share this!

This channel is AWESOME!!

Love your content!

easily the best explanation of the cycle there is out there. props to you.

Best video I have yet seen. It should have millions of views.

This animation should be translated to all world languages and used in schools

Well explained 100%.

Wow! the way things are explained here just clicked. great video!

THANK YOU for sharing this video😊 When the soil thrives so will the quality of our lives. #SAVESOIL

You created such Great content, why did you stop creating ☹️

I’ve been trying to get a basic grasp of regenerative farming and it t feels like this put me in the right direction. 👍🏿

I'll be planting a lot of sunflowers this year and beans. Thank you for this well thought out and informative video! Amazing work!

Well done good sir,