not a no till flag waver like he described but fungus is one of the things that help balance pathogenic nematodes. Unfortunately mycorrhizal fungus is delicate and doesn't establish well with tilling. No criticism, this guy knows his stuff. Its just another way to balance the good guys and the bad guys in the soil without the tilling.
I have a tractor tiller, and I have found that is still better to mow it first if you can. If you have a tractor, you can also disk first and till after that. I have had some success with that as well.
Woot! I just finished a semester of horticulture and I am so excited that I understood every darned thing you just said! I love your videos, man. Every time I hear that "Waddaya say, we spend a little time in the garden? Alright alright alright?" I gotta get my notepad out because I know you're gonna be shedding some light.
I grow in 15-20 gal plastic pots (lots of them!). Thanks to you I am now growing mustard in them and turniing it in with a shovel and chopping it up! I hope this will help my okra in the spring because in the past it has really suffered. Thanks for your helpful info. Best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday!
The way I see it Your tilling more tilth into your garden and building soil all along the way. Oh..and biofumigating at the same time. Next level awesome abundance. Thanks for sharing
This was good to hear. We used mustered in the greenhouses when I worked for my Dad. It must have worked we never had problems with nematodes. I will have a greenhouse again for the first time in years and was thinking I would plant mustered. I never really knew why we planted it guess my Dad was a wise man. I always thought ( don't know why I thought it) the mustard was for aphids, and it really didn't work well, lol. I learned something today. Thanks Hoss tools for all you do.
While I like not till idea and it’s t does work so far I’ve been mixing in plant matter that’s breaking down each spring to slowly build the soil then I cover with mulch and go not till for the season eventually Ill just broad fork
I'm in neither camp. I think it's possible where, in some instances, tiling is necessary. It took me years to get the red clay cut in my garden enough that I could get my wheel hoe to go through it. If it sits for too long, it kinda gets too hard still. That said, my step dad has a garden with much less clay in it. He only uses a tiller. This spring when I did the plowing, the tractor didn't really notice my garden with the clay. But his, I couldn't go as deep and would stop instantly in some spots. I've never seen the John Deere 5400 be stopped like that. That tells me that, if you can get away with the tillage during the most of the year without using a tiller, you're better off. But, sometimes, you just have to do what you have to do.
@@gardeningwithhoss my thoughts exactly. If I can run my 2 wheel hoe with the new cultivator teeth, literally, running as fast as I can, that tells me cutting back on tilling helps.
im all for tillin it loose to grow and any nutrient tilled in . tan sandy clay abd red clay in keithville La. in canopy areas theres 4-6" of blavk dirt but not on my backyard. im dooin flowers 40 variety sunflowers . storms been took my good rows and my worst 40' is now my best.
Great video! I have been using mustard for winter cover crops for several years now, both in Washington state where I was a market gardener and now in our retirement in southern France. I either scythe it down or use my weed-whacker. I appreciate your discussion on the time element. I too have a Grillo tiller and I just love it. It has different gearing than the BCS I had back in Washington - a faster first gear than the BCS. I grow buckwheat every year as my summer cover crop. I read many years ago that both buckwheat and rye make insoluble phosphorus in the soil soluble for plants so I am working on that model. Our new homestead is at 500 meters in altitude and in sight of the castle of Montsegur. Pretty darn scenic but the soil has been worked for over 1000 years rather than 100 years so I have to do more soil building. Anyways, all the best.
Jason, I wrote this to Hoss and Deep South Homestead. Would love to know your thoughts. I wouldn’t call myself a fist waving no-till advocate but this is frustrating to watch. Every single soil biologist in the world will tell you the same thing. Tilling causes nutrient runoff, compaction, erosion, destroys soil structure and the list goes on and on. The USA currently loses topsoil ten times faster than it can be replaced. Much of this is attributed to tilling and not covering the soil. When rain hits bare soil it causes erosion and compaction. There is no way around that without covering your soil. The UN says all the world’s topsoil will be depleted in 60 years. None of what I just mentioned are my opinions. These are all verifiable facts. So why do people still till? Lack of education and people are stubborn. I live in the south with hard clay soil and bermuda grass. A growers worst nightmare. I simply put a large one time covering of compost on the grass and off I went. The key is to put enough compost down to smother the grass and not fertilize it. It works amazing. Richard Perkins has setup no-till gardens around the world successfully. The principles never change. The approach varies slightly based on climate and the materials available to the farmer in their particular area. Soil type does not matter. On a square foot basis, no-till destroys big ag production. Scalability is also not as issue. Gabe Brown farms thousands of acres using a no-till cover cropping system. Tilling is an outdated practice that is demonstrably unsustainable, bad for the soil food web and bad for the environment. Maybe this is why people mention no- till to you.
Well, you CAN eat the mustard greens. They actually are very tasty. The trick is to lightly pickel them. It’s quick, easy and very tasty. We just posted a video on how to do this.
About 50 miles due north of you. ..I use a rotation of different brassicas because I harvest them. But this year, I planted 6 tight (6" apart) rows of a daikon radish crop in January. I didn't expect harvestable roots being so late, although I got some really deep ones..both for breaking hard pan, and for fumigation. They grew well. As soon as they started to go to seed, I tilled them in (no cutting) with my Troybilt, and they were gone in a week. Not sure if the troybilt "eats" them up better or not, but a couple of passes, they are down and in. I mean they were really well decomposed in a week. I hilled and transplanted tomatoes and peppers into the rows on drip. I raise my beds with a furrowing plow about 12". (Easier to pick, weed and harvest standing down in the furrow). Also did turnips and mustard elsewhere. I disagree about the Mustard late/summer planting. I've done it successfully with Giant Curled Indian Mustard. Good eating, and they are spicy...just hard to clean.
Travis on your February row by row you mentioned soaking buttermilk seeds in buttermilk before you plant them the lactic acid in buttermilk will soften the seed husk to allow for faster germination and possibly better germination. you can soak them in a light vinager solution and do the Same thing. :}
Hey Travis. My riding mower is a craftsman 42". I found a baffe to make it mulch. Covers up the hole in the deck. It's great for cutting leaves in the yard, then I bag the chopped leaves.
I'm placing my order for sweet onions & much more , So glad Deepsouth Homestead told their friends/ subscribers about Hoss tools, amazing videos & being 56 yrs old & living in HOT TEXAS for the past almost 14 yrs , from cold cold days up north , I've had to re- learn how to garden in my Zone 9 now . October 7, 2021 God bless you for such great informative content 🙏🏻 Josette Tharp Montgomery County, Texas 🙏🏻
This is not intended as a dumb question but there’s not much difference in cultivating with teeth that break the soil surface and tilling where the times just cut less than an inch of the soil surface. Am I wrong?
I use marigolds in the raised beds with the tomatoes and peppers and had no problems with nematodes. I plan on growing okra for the first time next year in zone 7b Central VA and will see what happens when I mix in some marigolds with the okra.
Hi Travis. I am getting ready to start a new plot. Do you have a video showing the process from start to finish? Weeds to rows? I’m in 7B. The area has been used as garden in the past but now is crabgrass, wild onion, mullein, etc.
Not sure we do, but that would make a great video. But here's what I recommend: Cultivate the area then tarp it for 3-4 weeks. Pull back the tarp, cultivate again and put the tarp back on. Repeat this 3-4 times and it should do wonders for reducing your weed seed bank in the new plot.
Do marigolds have the same tendency to suppress other plants like the mustard? Because my tomatoes look pathetic and its taking them forever to ripen up. First year using the flowers so should i have put them in the same bed? Its only a 2x4 bed.
Very interesting - Root-knot nematodes are the WORST here in Florida. So......what you're saying, though, is that if you tarp, you want to do it for more than a month? Why wouldn't it speed up the process and be beneficial for less than that time?
The tarp will speed up the process of the breakdown if the soil is moist. However, it also seems to lengthen the allellopathic effects of the mustard plants. So if tarping, I would give myself a little more time between removing the tarp and planting something else there.
I'm wondering if - even if you haven't YET had problems, might it be a good idea to do this as a preventative measure? Perhaps every second or third year. Excellent vlog, very thought provoking!
That's exactly why we do it -- as a preventative measure. I cut those okra stalks at soil level and left the roots there. So I didn't really investigate the root knot nematode issue, but I know it can occur down here.
I’m going to be adding my broccoli plants and other brassica plants to my compost pile. Will I get the same effect when I use that compost in my garden?
Compost usually gets so hot that you don't have to worry about nematodes. As far as the allopathic effects go, once the stuff is broken down you shouldn't see any issues.
A farmer that reads the scholarly studies too! And then tells us what they say so we don't have to track them down! And handles a tiller one-handed! Shoot.Thank you!
@Nooneinparticular987 Well, I could but I have a lot of confidence in this guy. I mean, he's applying his knowledge in his own garden. That counts for something, right? I'm going to take his word for it. As much as soil science and botany are interesting to me, the science of bio fumigation is a bit deeper in "the weeds", so to speak, than this hobby gardener needs to go. I appreciate your suggestion though.
I loved the provocative title, Travis! I appreciate that you look at, and show respect for, both points of view. And I especially like that you are running a relatively large-scale tilled garden and a no-till trial side by side for a longer term. A good, practical demo. And true dedication to their practical garden usage. Maybe you will solve the quandary of hyper-polarization in the US! Or at least in the comments! Or, perhaps not...;-)
@@gardeningwithhoss I am a loose adherent to no-till in my raised beds, but somehow I missed the indoctrination when they told everyone to proselytize at every chance and kill all infidels... ;-0
Should you till in the entire marigold plant just before it goes to seed or just till in the the roots for nematode control. I'm planning on mixing in marigolds with my tomatoes and peppers. Lots of great info on your videos. Thanks for sharing.
I think I will try this. Have you ever heard of Tobacco Mosaic Virus? Supposedly people who smoke cigarettes will have a hard time growing tomatoes because of this virus. Do you know anything about this? THanks.
All right, All right, All right... Love your vlogs. Very informative and you keep it interesting. I have a really bad problem with Pig weed (Amaranthus albus). I live in East Tennessee but I am from Central Florida where I was told it was called "Snake Weed, I guess because of its thorns up and down the stalk. I got some horse compost that was infested with its seeds and I've been cursed with it for years now. How would you recommend I remove this torment from modest plot? Thanks in advance.
Need to do some of the till and tarp method we mention frequently. That will force the weed seeds you have in the soil to germinate, but die because there's no light.
Danny, I wrote this to Hoss Tools. I suspect I already know, but as a fellow southerner, what are your thoughts on this? I wouldn’t call myself a fist waving no-till advocate but this is frustrating to watch. Every single soil biologist in the world will tell you the same thing. Tilling causes nutrient runoff, compaction, erosion, destroys soil structure and the list goes on and on. The USA currently loses topsoil ten times faster than it can be replaced. Much of this is attributed to tilling and not covering the soil. When rain hits bare soil it causes erosion and compaction. There is no way around that without covering your soil. The UN says all the world’s topsoil will be depleted in 60 years. None of what I just mentioned are my opinions. These are all verifiable facts. So why do people still till? Lack of education and people are stubborn. I live in the south with hard clay soil and bermuda grass. A growers worst nightmare. I simply put a large one time covering of compost on the grass and off I went. The key is to put enough compost down to smother the grass and not fertilize it. It works amazing. Richard Perkins has setup no-till gardens around the world successfully. The principles never change. The approach varies slightly based on climate and the materials available to the farmer in their particular area. Soil type does not matter. On a square foot basis, no-till destroys big ag production. Scalability is also not as issue. Gabe Brown farms thousands of acres using a no-till cover cropping system. Tilling is an outdated practice that is demonstrably unsustainable, bad for the soil food web and bad for the environment. Maybe this is why people mention no- till to you.
@@christagrote8519 why not preach to all the building contractors out there destroying land to throw up more gas stations? Minimum tilling like what hoss tools and deep south do aint nearly as bad as ripping out thousands of acres to put up condos walmarts and 7-11s.
@@christagrote8519 If you posted this, then you are flag waving. Admit it. Not everyone agrees with you. Soils vary in composition, structure...and its tilling requirements. Soil type DOES matter. This is the problem with armchair experts...no ability to see deeper. See his land? It's flat as a hoe cake. Topsoil isn't going anywhere. And his soil is like mine...it soaks in, and doesn't run off. I can have 5 inches of rain, and go out and work the soil in 3 days. I've been to Western Africa and seen what "no till" does after generations and generations of hand working, minimum/no tilling of the soil...and it eventually leads to suppression of growth....yes...of everything, and starvation. When they do responsibly till, when and where needed, production increases and more people are fed. I've lived in GA where clay is the top soil. There are areas where there is true clay top soil, like over in Early County and up in the bottoms of the Mountains. But most of it is fill dirt. Sure, once you get that, compost and whatever has to be applied just to get anything to grow. But in S. GA, on the Coastal Plains, we have Sandy Clay loam, most of it is in flat areas. The soil doesn't wash...and most farmers down here that have land where it may wash restore their topsoil mechanically in the winters.
@@christagrote8519 If you believe that load of crap I have a bridge I can sell you. THERE IS NO BASIS TO THEM! STOP REPEATING THE LIE! The powers that be make money off of marketing campaigns like this just as with man made global cooling, I mean warming, I mean "lets just call it climate change". Just raise taxes and it will all go away.
Travis I'm going to be clearing and preparing farm land that has been let grow up for 5 years . After that would you suggest maybe putting in an early spring cover crop and then by May or June starting a first vegetable crop ? I know it was good land prior to the grasses , weeds and small trees it has now ?
I don't know that I'd try to squeeze in a cover crop in that short a time frame. I'd probably define my plots, do a tarp and till rotation to reduce the weed seed bank as much as possible, get a soil test, and add as much compost as you could.
I wonder if you can combine the 2. Plant your mustard cover crops. When it comes time and chop it down and cover with good compost. I wonder if this would be the best of both worlds.
Then it would only manage the nematodes in the compost, where there are likely none. Has to be mixed into the are where the nematodes are present to work.
@@gardeningwithhoss Thanks for the reply. Yea I guess this would be a more local dispersion of the chemicals from the plant debris. I haven't used mustards to do this in the past and have relied on marigolds for the most part to fight my nematode issues with root parasitic nematodes. But since the roots release the alpha-terthieny and the roots get down deeper it is able to spread out a bit to release the alpha-terthieny. Thanks again for your info and videos.
Great show Travis just want to know an older video you said something that there was a cover crop section like you have your wheel hose seeds and fertilizers I can't find the cover crop I would like to look at it and hopefully I can buy some and very short timeline I'm in the middle of moving so I'm just wanted to see what is available on your site thank you
Here's a link to our Cover Crops page: hosstools.com/product-category/premium-garden-seeds/cover-crops/ If you hit the filter button, you can filter between cool-season and warm-season cover crops.
Planting in fall would be most ideal, but there are some that will germinate in cooler soils. Winter Rye and our Frosty Berseem Clover should still germinate for you.
Does bio fumigation allow us to plant tomatoes in same plot in the following year? Or do you have to rotate crops. If rotating rows of crops how far away must we move night shades? Gardening in Minnesota. Love your videos.
We always recommend rotating and not planting the same family of crops in the same spot in consecutive years. But if you're unable to rotate, cover crops certainly will help. The distance between rotations is up to you. Just do the best you can with the garden size you have.
As a part of our rotation, we won't plant any okra here for another couple years. We have never planted nightshades in this plot, so that could be a possibility come spring. We have 10 plots which allows us to practice a pretty solid rotation and include quite a few cover crops in the mix.
I gree with you. Tilling incorporates organic matter in the soil and gets rid of any tree roots that could suck you garden dry in the summer months. I use my Mantis to till as deep as I can, about ten inches. Yesterday, I tilled my little garden and had to stop half way through to remove the oak roots from the Mantis’ tines. I also hit some big roots with the Mantis that I will have to cut out with an axe. My grandmother was a good gardener and she plowed her garden every year. I early years with a mule and later with a tractor and three row plow. She had some of the best early corn , tomatoes, green beans and cabbage you ever ate. The only addendums she added was 5-10-15, what we called guano. She had a good loam soil to work with, unlike the sandy crap I have in my garden. This soil is typical of South Georgia. I know that if I did not till my garden I would need an axe to make a furrow to plant the seeds in.
How deep are you tilling your soil to incorporate the cover crop? no mulching deck on a riding mower is no issue, I cut a piece of sheet metal to cover the discharge chute on my ZTR mower and attach the metal with screws or small bolts and then my mower chops the material into small pieces and drops it back on the soil.
New to the channel and really have learned a lot since watching. So thank you.. But how often do you plant this mustard in your rotation? Every Year, Every other year rotated with another cover crop? Also, can you mix this with another Cover Crop like the crimson clover??..If you mentioned in the video, I'm sorry, i guess i missed it...Thank you (Zone 6a, NE KS)
Do you know from your research how far down RKN live? I wonder if just a chop and drop then tarping would work? Or if maybe the no till folks who use a tilther would have some success? How do no till folks feel about solarization? That’s gotta be worse for all the beneficial micro life than tilling, right? I was also wondering about how you mentioned that heat plays a role in the fumigation process and warm weather is preferable. I have heard that for tomatoes that have RKN resistance, that this resistance is only applicable to 85 degrees. Do you think those two things are related?
Very interesting additional questions. The study I read that recommended watering to deepen the effect would suggest that they indeed could be deeper. I'm not sure of the "no-till" stance on solarization or whether the RKN resistance is halted at a certain temperature.
Can you do one on potatoe beetles or bugs, i move my plot every year, but this year as soon as they came up i was infested with beetles eating the leaves, so i dusted and covered them completely up, but i think the bugs will return
If a tarp is used, what is the approximate time for planting after the tarp is removed? I am assuming the tarp is left on for a month. And, would watering be an advantage before the tarp is placed? Thank you. #ilikebigwords
I moisten the soil to help bring in worms before I cover. I plant in it immediately after removal and have no problems. Mind you I ammend my soil with compost before and after tarping.
I would certainly water heavily before adding the tarp. Once the tarp is removed, I would give myself a few weeks assuming mustard was the cover crop there previously. If another type of cover crop, you could plant right away.
I live in Maryland and I'm not sure if we have nematodes. I'm 4 miles from the PA boarder and 16 miles south of Gettysburg pa to give an idea of my location.
I have a bran new garden never planted before it was a old farm. This fall I used the tractor to rot I’ll it twice plan on doing it agin in the spring, like March. Then add peat moss, manure ,bone meal, blood meal, worm casings, perlite , vermiculite. Mix it up and add to my planting rows. Am I ok with this. I’m 79 years old I’ve garden before, small city garden. Any help will be apreached thanks Jim oh the farm is in north west indiana we have 14 acres garden will be 40x100.
I would skip the perlite and vermiculite. They work great in a seed starting mix, but not sure I'd want too much of it in the in-ground garden. But all else sounds great.
during the cool temperatures of spring and fall. 4 to 6 weeks before the average last frost date in spring. In the fall you want to find your first frost date, look at the maturity dates of your mustard and go backwards to find when it is best for your zone.
Can this be done in a 3x4 raised bed in a new garden area? The root knot nematodes are effecting my tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. I have a small tiller that would (carefully) work in that raised bed. Thanks.😄
How often do you guys do the cover crop of mustard greens? Is it like a one time deal that you can do and it works for a while or does it have to be done every year?
We try to do it once a year after our okra crop is done. Doesn't necessarily have to be done that often, but a good practice for sure if you grow lots of okra or nightshades.
@@gardeningwithhoss i grow a fair amount of okra and nightshades but i find that these root knots in my garden dont discriminate when it comes to what they attack so Im planing on doing a cover crop this coming summer. It might have to be a once a year thing for me lol
I think ours is the Grillo G85 with the Yamaha 6.6 hp motor on it. They make some beefier ones, but this one is perfect for what we do. It's a great tiller. The tilling implement width is around 30."
Is mustard more allelopathic with germination or growth? If I wanted to plant a flat of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant immediately following a short spring cover crop, what would you recommend. It needs to be incorporated by fork so no Sudan grass please. Sold the BCS tiller when I downsized the garden. Thanks Travis! zone 6a
I've never tested the allellopathy with transplants, but have seen it affect my germination on direct-seeded crops when trying to replant too quickly. Buckwheat is probably the easiest to incorporate and only takes about 4-6 weeks to mature.
No. The garden area in this video used to be covered with them, but I cut them all down. Not a big fan of pine trees. Those pine trees are the edge of my property.
It's more of a preventative measure anytime we grow okra. Bad nematodes are very prevalent in the south. Most of the time it's not a matter of if you're going to have them, but when. Our extensive cover cropping helps to keep it from becoming a big problem.
@@gardeningwithhoss I know that nematodes can be a problem, when I was younger I worked spraying Banana. I think it's worth a trial patch to see if natural microbiological methods can work against them though, it all depends on what you want to do with your soil.
You could, but you wouldn't get the nematode suppression effects because the mustard would then be in the compost (which shouldn't have any nematodes) as opposed to being incorporated into the native soil.
