permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

https://ello.co/permaculture/post/bo7vnnrln_mpqwuoqtdhuq

Biointensive Gardening Q&A

I appreciate your response.  I want to increase the microbiology in the soil.

I think that the plastic tarp would create an anaerobic condition in the
soil underneath, since the soil would not be able to breate and have
necessary aeration to sustain oxygen needing mocrorganisms.
I would never use plastic mulch for anything.

Hay.
I have lots of potential hay on my property.

Cut it and put it on your beds green or dried.

Many people tell me not to mulch with hay because it has weed seeds
and I would just be adding those seeds to my raised beds.   What is

I would not worry about seeds. There is no way to completely escape weeds
so...plan on defeating them using various strategies which include tillage,
mulch cover cropping to outcompete the weed crop with a cover crop (and it
might be some other weed that is easy to manage) and hand weeding.

I have some experience with weeding. I have a small farm in Orange County.
Long Story.
Initially I planned on using tillage to control weeds in order to have
crops. It worked but the plan required a tractor and I got to the point
that I needed to sell it so now am back doing raised bed gardening manually.

If you have a tractor and are planting 1.5 acres then I would find a way to
use the tractor with various implements to till or cultivate the weeds
under just after they emerge. the best plan is to till the beds several
times in succesion to get rid of the most weeds that would germinate before
you plant the beds. I would do this once then when the beds are relatively
weed free and have the desired tilth, mulch them with hay and or compost.
Plan on planting into this seedbed comprised of the mulch and the layer of
topsoil underneath. Ideally you would not rototill the beds to create the
plantable seedbed but would use a SEEDING RAKE to scarify the top of the
bed to prepare it for planting. I am giving you the tip of the iceberg
about all this. There are volumes that have been written about this, i.e.
NO TILL FARMING AND GARDENING.
To summerize you want to grow your crops in no till raised beds that have a
heavy layer of compost on top that you plant into. This is the best way to
go. There are tons of videos at YouTube to watch. Go to YuTube and search
for videos by Emelia Hazelip. She is doing homestead gardening not
production but does clearly illustrate how to make a weed free raised bed.

Join my permaculture mailing list and ask questions there. I run this list
and have put thousands of posts into the archives, mostly on notill
biointensive gardening. Here are links with tons of info you can use.
My Ello Permaculture page:
Permaculture
https://ello.co/permaculture
EcoLandTech
http://www.ibiblio.org/london/
Market Farming
http://www.ibiblio.org/marketfarming/
Permaculture mailing list:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
The Permaculture Mailing List Message Archives are located here:
Permaculture Mailing List Message Archives
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/permaculture
Google command to search these archives:
site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [search string (omit the
brackets)]
Put this command in your browser's Google search box, not in the URL box.:
This site in particular:
Biointensive Gardening Guide and Farm & Garden Hand Tool Sourcelist
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/documents/gardening-hand-tools.faq
Garden and Farm Handtool Sourcelist & Biointensive Gardening Guide
https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared/garden-and-farm-handtool-sourcelist-biointensive-gardening-guide
Introduction To Effective Microorganisms (EM) by Vinny Pinto
https://sites.google.com/site/biointensivefarming/introduction-to-effective-microorganisms-em-by-vinny-pinto
Biointensive Farming
https://sites.google.com/site/biointensivefarming/
Avant Geared
https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared
Avant Geared G+ page (lots of good things here)
https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/116100117925365792988/+Avantgeared
Venaura Farm (my farm) G+ page (lots of good things here)
https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/106181639516457096425/+Avantgeared-GardenTools
compostteas -- Compost Teas: 24 hour, EM, IM, BD & fermented plant extracts
compost teas mailing list
https://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/compostteas

Message archives:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/compostteas/

   -

   I have much more - takes time to collect all the links

   your experience with applying hay and weeds?

See above.

If I understand the process correctly that you employ, the steps are as 
follows
Prepare the raised beds and mulch heavily with hay.
How long do you keep the beds in hay before you plant in that section?

When the hay has decomposed to the point that seeds can germinate in the
seedbed formed by mulch and topsoil underneath (it will get mixed up when
you scarify and tilth the surface with a seeding rake. You will applying
more compost, manure, rock mineral amendments and compost tea).

How long does it take for the hay to decompose?

Depends on moisture and the fertility of the soil underneath and if you
apply manure or compost tea to the beds in the meantime)

Do weeds grow up in the mean time, just fewer, because of the heavy mulch?

Yes, lots fewer, Pull them by hand.

Compost Tea and good microbiology compost.
I can see the benefits of this.
I have not yet figured out how to create living compost in abundance
for my 1.5 acre garden.
Any insight or web site that talks about creating compost on the small
farm level that has worked for you?

See my links above and what I have written.
Making compost:
do you have a tractor with a loader?
Where are you located?
Get some rock dust from rock quarries and mix it into the soil in your
raised beds. Get tons of this rock powder. You probably need to
remineralize your soil. Call a quarry and have a trucker bring you a few
hundred tons of it. It is free. Look for Martin Marietta quarries in NC;
get some granite dust.
Rock powders, i.e. remineralization, is almost as valuable to plants as
NP&K nutrients. You are talking about growing NUTRIENT DENSE food.
Vegetables grown in highly mineralized soils look better, are more insect
and disease resistant, tast, better, have more nutrition and keep longer.

I bought a huge tractor and a huge hiler bedder, rotovator field cultivator
Yeomans plow and created acres of tall wide raised beds.

<>

Here is something I found in the compost tea list about good compost and
thus good soil and robust soil life.. This was a reply to a question about
applying humic acid as fungal food when applying compost tea.

<>

Best of all humic acids to use are those found in great compost.
Being not one acid.
As in not having just one elemental formula.

Humic acids make up the dark brown coloring in your teas.

No matter how you use compost, directly or to make a tea or extract from it.
It is "all" about the quality of the compost used.

No machine, method or additives can makeup from starting off with lame
compost.

We need to let go of looking at compost as a fertilizer.
But to see great compost as a microbe inoculate instead.

Not judge it by its available N-P-K.
But judged under a microscope for its diversity of life and their numbers.

As calling something compost that is loaded up with high available N-P-K
numbers.
But without the abundance and diversity of oxygen breathing life in it.
Is at best,
still lame compost!

The real importance of great compost is its living biology, not its
chemistry.
As life changes everything.

John Bridges