Use Cover Crops & Never Fertilize Again!

Learn all about how @DiegoFooter changed his soil from hardpan rocky clay to 12% organic matter in a matter of 6 years. We go deep into cover cropping and natural methods of building incredible soil.

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[johndeggendorf]

One thing I’ve learned after binge watching these kinds of videos (and a lot of sweat): Farmers are a lot SMARTER than most people think. There is real wisdom that comes from working with the soil, learning from nature, and patience. What Diego said about building UP has been my resolve. Work, use what you’ve got, be patient, be future oriented, and enjoy the process. Thanks 🙏. Awesome content.

[Horse]

I would try the following with poor compacted soil:
1) Use steel one time to break up compacted soil.
2) Add compost, leaves, earthworms and compost tea. Drench the soil several times with compost tea.
Add basalt rock dust. Dr Arden Andersen MD also has a PhD in biophysics. He says it is paramagnetic meaning it responds to magnetism. It gives the plants more energy which increases their growth rate and decreases their growing season.
3) Simultaneously, I would build a Johnson Su bioreactor. I would like to get some starter compost from a bioreactor at least a year old. Older if they use a lot of wood chips due to the high fiber content.
I would also build Red Wiggler worm bins. Give them rock dust, sterilized egg shells, coffee grounds and seaweed. Worms turn the chitin into the enzyme chitinase which devours the exoskeletons of aphids.
4) Plant comfrey at my borders to use as mulch and compost. Comfrey attracts minerals. Excellent green for compost. Great mulch.
The idea is to get as much photosynthesis from plants as possible. To do that you need trace minerals.
For example, manganese is needed for hydrolysis to split H20 into H and OH. Thus the need for that rock dust. Other trace minerals needed will be Boron, Cobalt, Sodium. Plus N, P and K. Most plants can produce three times as much sugars from photosynthesis as they do normally. All that carbon builds up soil biology.
All those coffee grounds produce Nitrogen as does those cover crops. But this N is eaten by soil biology including earthworms or was added from the Red Wigglers and the bins has been transformed into an amino acid. Plants have 10, 000 enzymes. Humans have 75, 000 enzymes. Ideally, your plants never see Ammonia or any liquid nitrates but only amino acids. This saves your plants from expending energy making their own amino acids. Liquid N runs out and contaminates ground water. It also attracts insects as many pests cannot digest completed proteins.
At this point, your plants will have enough energy to make lipids which repel other insects and diseases. Lipids give the crops a healthy shine. And they make excellent forage for animals. They eat less because they go for the most nutrient dense grasses in the field in their first swing through the paddock. In the paddock system, the animals only graze a small area and are moved to another paddock. Good forage has 3 to 4 times the protein and lipids of commercial farms.
Healthy organic crops have been passed over by locusts in Africa because they cannot digest healthy plants with lots of proteins and oils.
I have been studying for the past two years. No financing yet for a market garden.
What we need is for a series of gardeners on YouTube to build Johnson Su Bioreactors and give starter compost to make compost tea. You are supposed to give the Bioreactor compost pile a gallon of water every day. I would give it that much starter compost tea every day for 4 or 5 days after the pile has cooled down on day 5 or 6. Each Master Gardener could be a source of knowledge and compost and compost teas. They might even make bulk purchases so smaller farms could a discount on rock dust. Or have so many worm castings that they could sell them.
I found a place that sells basalt rock dust for as little as $65 a ton in bulk.
See this for details on what advanced farming looks like.
These people do not use a Johnson Su Bioreactor and do not have worm bins producing N and S amino acids. Though they would have plenty of worms in a No Till garden.

[KGzSUPREME]

There’s a big ditch in my backyard me and my dad just threw logs, dries up leaves, grass clippings and whatever else in there. We weren’t turning it or anything. Just started doing that and it looks and smells good can see plenty of worms. Also got some mushrooms over the fall which was cool.

[emanonymous]

that's the guy that introduced me to neversink farms! i love this emerging community among farmers- in other business ventures people hide their techniques but in regenerative agriculture people are making detailed youtube vids

[FORYESHUA]

Nature's Always Right + Cover Crops to fertilize is Old School taught in Permaculture. It's awesome, and this is a valuable video that farmers should watch. Thanks for sharing. It's good to see Diego's growth over the years of observing his channel.

[freegandavehartman]

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb

[cpnotill]

Good reminders of what can be done using cover crops and I'm a big fan of using them. Love Diego's work and thanks for sharing Steven! 👍🌱

[garymehalick]

This is the first time in a multitude of videos that someone actually says what to do with a cover crop after it's grown. Thank you.

[wildedibles]

Building the soil is the way to go forward and can be done at anytime all these natural ways are the best ways to build fertility :)

[wildedibles]

Ive been exploring this in my garden...i chop and drop or pinch and drop....or pull and drop my weeds or things ive planted
I pull only when I'm trying to get rid of it
Im also using more and more mulches
But yes if i composted it i would have less bug problems but my gardens are building soil in place
Some plants I compost and add back as a mulch finished
But when i have say lambs quarters or dandelion that pull nutrients or clovers
I want to keep this biology in the soil where it is
Many cover crops make great nurse plants taking care of our plants as they grow
Im making more notes on this this year
Perfect example im growing beans around my corn and the beans shade the soil at the corns feet but adding to the fertility like the clover is doing around my carrots
This if i need to cut back a bit i chop some back and cover bare ground around it or around struggling plants
Its been interesting making notes with you garden journals have gone to new levels ;)
We need to be thinking about planting our weeds

[VastCNC]

Love Diego Footer. If he writes a book I'd read the crap out of it.

[PermaPen]

Love it! Diego is far ahead of me, but this is my path, too. Little or no inputs except fertility I can create on-site.

[tomfisher]

Hi Diego, thanks for another great video. I'm faced with a bit of a dilemma. I planted a cover crop in my garden beds. Right now they are about 10" tall. After planting and germination, I found a source for leaves so I ordered 18 cubic feet of leaves for my 1100 sq. ft. garden. I have pretty good soil, originally hard clay, as I have taken care of it for years. So, here's my dilemma: Although I am composting a good portion of the leaves, I still have probably 12-15 cubic yards of shredded (once) leaves to deal with. I was thinking about putting the rest of my shredded leaves on my garden walks, letting the cover crop grow in my beds until, terminating it in the spring. Then I could rake shredded leaves onto my beds after I plant. My second option would be to terminate my cover crop right now and cover the beds with shredded leaves. Which option would you choose?

[smurfiennes]

My garden soil is clay and very hard. I don’t do anything much but pruning here and there, but they always grow well. In the future I would like to plant fruits and vegetables like beans, peppers, etc. besides flowers.

[billherrick]

excellent video. grow your own mulch - mulch - mulch.

[BroDudeBruh]

I loved this. Starting from scratch on 10 acres and will have to bring compost in at first but plan to be there long term. So 5 years not too bad.

[busyrand]

Beautiful Mustard Greens... I'd love to grow them to eat. That's amazing they're huge enough to chop and compost.

[SamHasPlans]

Wow this is a truly beautiful garden! Two months for those big gorgeous mustard plants! True soil! C:

[thomasa]

Thanks for posting a winter video during Southern Hemisphere winter

No one else does, they all just like “you should’ve don’t this 6 months ago and going to forget in the next 6”

[niekhue]

Thank you. I'll try to do this with my coffe farm.