Easy No-turn Compost w/ Leaves, Grass, and Biochar!
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- čas přidán 11. 09. 2024
- Compost is the MOST important thing you can do for your garden, but turning the piles can be too difficult for some, including myself, because of old age or physical limitations. The solution is to make leaf mold using brown fall leaves, grass, and biochar!
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Hi. was watching David the Good and he mentioned your bio char video and recommended it be watched. I watched your video on bio char and several other of your videos. I do not usually subscribe to channels. But I really like the way you think and layout your videos. I plan to watch several more of your videos. I am 66. Was raised on a 140 acres beef cattle farm. We had a 2 acres garden. Now I live on a 10 acres farmstead. We raise Muscovy's, Chickens for eggs and meat and goats for milk. Our garden is around 1 acres. Someone may say "why watch other growers since I have been growing crops since I was sever". My answer is I learn something new each time I watch a video. Those new things I learn save me time and money and grow me more food. I also have a back that causes problems so I will be watching your videos to see back saving tips. One question i have about the bio char method you created. Are you concerned that as the metal breakdown occurs with it use that metal leakage could occur and attach to your bio char thus ending up in your garden. I am not saying it will. I just would like your thoughts on that before I start using this method. Again thank you for putting out your videos. Time to go today to plant Irish Potatoes and transplanted 500 onions a few leeks a few shallots and from what I learned from one of videos transplant some volunteer garlic. I have just enough volunteer garlic to plant the skips in the 200 bulb garlic bed. Thank you for that video. Wishing only the best for you and your family from North Arkansas
I would not worry about metal leaching out of charcoal that originated from clean wood or bones and then charged with inoculants to change it into biochar. Besides, most plants derive the metals from soil and are beneficial sources of vitamins. Am not sure which metals and where would they come from to cause concern. I am 69 and learning a lot about no till and biochar methods.
Nice !!! love your piles. I only got to harvest leave from the trees on our property last fall. They are mostly decomposed now. But as soon as I get my lawn mower with a bag running I'm going to spread grass clipping on top of fall leaves and run over it with a lawn mower with out a bag. That won't be as good as yours but I'm just starting out. Can't hardly wait till leaves fall this fall. I'm going to go all over town looking for bags of leaves setting on the crub. Make a big compost pile next spring.
Dude, I really love your videos. I literally feel like I’m walking with you your yard, showering me with wisdom. Thanks
Glad you enjoy it!
Thank you for your post. While living in the Sierra mountains I have used wood for years. In the pass i just waited until my stove was full of ash. Your video gave me information about Biochar. I just take out the red hot coals in a metal bucket and add water. The charcoal floats to the top . I take a screen and dip out the charcoal . Again thanks
Thanks for posting!
Your channel is great! I have a new channel to watch that shares my geekiness when it comes to soil and gardening, I, too, whip out the microscope to see whats going on. I live in town and my backyard is my farm, its no hobby, its my second job and sanity. Just trying to care for soil, grow nutrient dense food and care for the ecosystems on my parcel, my world.
That is awesome! Keep writing to let us know what's going on in your garden, and on your microscope slides!
@@LiveOnWhatYouGrow Yes, me too. I obtained a microscope this summer and am still searching for slides and kit to put it to use. Would love to see some pictures of good bacteria and fungi to aim for.
G'day from Melbourne, Australia! Thanks for sharing your methods and knowledge.I really enjoy watching your practical and NATURAL ways in creating nutrient dense, healthy food!👍💜🙏🍀
That's the way I use to do my compost.... Same way as Nature does.... (except perhaps biochar)
And it works extremely well...
Thanks for sharing
🖐️ from 🇨🇵
And thank you for commenting, Paul!
You seem like a fun guy 😉... Thanks for sharing your method! 😎
Thanks for watching!
Did you just call me a fungi?
be careful using grass clippings where the yard has been treated with weed killer!
I got burned by persistent herbicide contamination from grass clippings. Lessons have been learned. All my seedlings pulled thru and returned to normal but they were really struggling with weird growth.
If you can avoid chemicals of any sort the better off you will be. Some quick facts. Weed killer is not absorbed by grass. Weed killer is absorbed in the soil and then affects seed growth. Weed killer has a half life. Meaning over time it transforms into other compounds. Eventually becoming ineffective and non existent in the soil. If it wasnt people wouldnt need to put it down every year. Again better to avoid but if you cant time will be on your side.
Just getting caught up on your videos... like you composting method seems simpler then turning the pile every 3 days there eh! Thanks for sharing
Didn't know about adding the biochar but I do use layers of coffee grounds, courtesy of a coffee shop, instead of grass in my leaf bins.
Great idea! Used coffee grounds are a great source of nitrogen... and free, just like the grass clippings.
So I suspect what you’re adding is charcoal not truly biochar? But it will certainly be biochar once the composting is finished! I cut down a large linden tree in my yard last fall and all of the branches under 2 inches got chipped up and stored dry over winter, so now I have about 100 gallons of truly ramial wood chips, which I plan to compost soon, but need to wait until I can get more green material. Zone 4a 200 miles north of Toronto. Had a realllyyyyy late spring here! I thought the snow would never leave.
@@garthwunsch Try hitting up the coffee shops and see if they'll give you their used coffee grounds, it's a great green ingredient! BTW, all my charcoal gets turned to biochar over the winter so that's what I added to my compost pile!
@@garthwunsch No, not at all. It's a nitrogen source to help break down the leaves. I do make biochar from store bought pure charcoal. Put it in grow bags and pots and am slowly adding it to the raised beds. Don't need much for my small situation. All my grass is mulch mowed for the lawn.
Another great video. I am about to embark on the biochar adventure. Purchased same woodchipper, going to build kiln, etc. Another way I am going to invest time and money. But please post videos showing visible effects of using biochar ammended soil over regular soil. There is a ton of videos showing why it is beneficial, how it works, how to make it and so on. But there are not many videos showing the results in practice comparing one way vs other. Will be very appreciative. I live in FL zone 10a. Thank you.
That would be really hard to do because it would turn out to be a two or more-year project, as the full benefits can't be seen in the first year. All I can say is, in my 50-plus years of gardening, I've never had the harvests I have now. My plants now literally grow twice the size of anything I've ever seen before!
@@LiveOnWhatYouGrow Thank you very much. This is very re-assuring. Not only I want to enrich my sandy soil but I want to those nutrients retain and not leached out. That is why I want to incorporate the compost charged biochar.
I don't know if you've seen this or not, but here is a study on using biochar for retaining water and nutrients in sandy soil: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcbb.12026
@@LiveOnWhatYouGrow Thanks again. After reading this article I will definitely pursue biochar production but it will take some time to build the oven since I do not have wood burning stove. I am planing to use 55 gal metal drum lined with a layer of refractory material (perlite mixed with sodium silicate slurry) and smaller steel drum that will go inside as the pyrolisis reactor. I will use propane as fuel with air blower to quickly heat it to above 1000 F for high temperature pyrolysis
Looks great,have you ever grown leeks? here in Texas i completely neglect them even thru 110f summer(they die off in summer),they die each year and come back on their own.i never water them. No pests touch them. They are great in soups and stews.
Absolutely, we love them too!
I got a lot of value from your video. The thing that caught my attention the most though, was you like myself, have serious back issues. I’m always looking for ways and ideas on how other people can do their gardening and outdoor work and spare my back, which has a shelflife shorter than what I would like. Thank you much for your experience. I am curious, seriously, about how ectomorphic mycorrhiza, which is what you can see when it establishes itself in cellulose material, add value to your Compost, considering that most gardens are not perennial Woody plants but our annuals. I’m going by memory, but 15 years ago it was well known that endomorphic mycorrhiza was the only beneficial fungal activity that could be used for annual plants. I’m not saying that Endo is more valuable than Ectomycorriza. What’s your thoughts, please.
Something else I realized, with my composting that I learned from this video was just how important the biochar is to keep your piles aerated. I am definitely getting more involved with biochar. Thanks again. Please keep up the great videos.
My thoughts on the different types of fungi are that I use whatever is indigenous to my area and whatever is dominant will be what is growing in my compost. I don't buy different fungi for different applications. Maybe I could, or should, do that but for now, I'm just going to use what is naturally occurring in my soil and compost.
Working on finding time to make huge piles like this. I've got the material and the shredder. Great little jobs for the downtime.
Have fun!
Nice video as always very informative. Keep up the good work.
Thanks
Ditto
I use coffee grounds for my nitro. My compost is mainly leafs and grounds. They'll get it cooking up fast.
Thanks ZZ, for all your comments. I intended to make a (mostly) no-work garden out of necessity as I'm getting older and didn't want to have to turn those compost piles. But I've discovered the (mostly) no-work method is actually a superior way to garden. I don't have any weeds to speak of, except the one's I WANT to have. Just a few years ago it wasn't that way! Like a lot of people, halfway through the season my garden was producing weeds faster than I could pull them! Now I only have to pull one here or there, all of that by understanding the roles of Fungi and Bacteria. Weeds just don't grow when your F:B ratio is correct! I am easily doubling and tripling my harvests since I've been using the (mostly) no-work method. Welcome aboard!
Thanks! Great job! Perhaps we could improve the process by mixing the ingredients before filling up the pile.
You're right Stefan. I've developed the bad habit of not mixing it because when my neighbor drops off the leaves we have to carry the heavy bags up the hill and he takes the empty bags back with him to refill them. So I have to do it as fast as I can to add the biochar, leaves, and water so he doesn't have to wait around too long! For that video, I got him to leave the bags of grass. Maybe I'm afraid he'll stop giving me his clippings if he had to wait too long!
Maybe you could give him several spare bags, would save you some stress 😊
I'm both physically and mentally unable to do a "no turn" pile! I'm incapable of layering as well. I've tried, honestly I have 😂. I have to mix it all up even though I'm literally telling myself that it'll only be more work as I'm mixing it up! Like I said, I just can't fight the urge to mix!
In my opinion, the best No-turn piles use fall leaves, or other high carbon ingredients that decompose through fungal action and not bacterial! I believe turning those high carbon piles is counter productive because you break the fungal hyphae, which are the threadlike bodies of the fungi! Most people actually need to raise the fungi in their garden soils to get to the 1:1 Fungi to Bacteria ratio (F:B) and I think making this kind of No-turn compost pile is the best way to go! Just put the materials in... and leave it! No additional work needed until you need to add it to your garden beds!
@@LiveOnWhatYouGrow I'm going to try! I'll be shoving leafs into a big dunnage construction bag I found and hiding it from myself 😆.
I found shredding as I vac (15 -1) makes the leaf handling easier. Then I mulch, no composting needed. In the spring (in mid CA) it's been eaten by the microbes, leaving the garden ready for planting.
Good job, thanks for commenting!
Pure gold
Black Gold!
Hello, before I ask my question I’d like to tell you just how grateful I am for your videos (which I am binge watching). Your information is so needed, so thank you.
Question: can I substitute another medium for the leaves to encourage the fungal position of this process. I live in a pine forest in northern New Mexico and have no access to leaves around me. I do save cardboard etc to have brown material, and I have recently started raising chickens and have access to their bedding which I intend to compost this spring. Other than that, I’m at a loss. Any suggestions?
Also, I’ve started collecting cans to begin making biochar thanks to your incredible videos. You have broken down the information so that even I could understand it! I’m excited to see how much I can make before spring planting season.
Hi Linda, thanks for all the kind words. The cardboard will be fine. You can get more from your grocery store. Get lots and lots! Just make sure the cardboard isn't glossy. You can also use pine cones, pine needles, and rotten wood. As they decompose they lose their acidity, so don't worry about that. You can also use wood chips you may be able to get from an arborist, or you can ask for sawdust from a carpentry shop. Try to be creative. As a side note, if you like our content, please subscribe so you'll get notifications whenever we put up new videos. If you do that, you'll help us have a bigger reach so more people will see our thumbnails and our videos, and become inspired like you! Subscribing helps us get the word out and won't cost you anything! Thanks again, let us know how you make out finding your brown materials!-- John and Anne
I assume that the biochar you put in the compost pile can be plain uncharged correct? It becomes charged as it absorbs the decomposing compost.
That is correct. However, I make mine throughout the winter so I bring in buckets of compost in the fall to mix it with the charcoal right as I make it to give it a head start.
Thank you for your excellent information. It has gotten me inspired to do some composting in a more deliberate way. I have both sunny and shade locations where I could start a pile. Is one better than the other ?
I would prefer the shady one, unless I lived in Alaska. Then I would prefer the sunny one.
Wonderful video - very informative! Can you also tell us where you got the shredder from? They seem to be difficult to find (for me, anyway). TIA
My sister gave it to me and I don't know where she got it from. You could try Amazon. Here's a link I found that has lots of shredders: amzn.to/48zRr57 But you have to get a good one that will cost about $500 I wouldn't waste my money on the cheap ones that are there. But at least most of them have free shipping. Do your due diligence and you will be rewarded!
@@LiveOnWhatYouGrow Thank you!
👍
If I prune live branches from a tree with green leaves on it and put it through my chipper shredder, would the shredded material be consider both green and brown or just green since it's spring time and it was a live branch?
Green because the branches still have water and sugar in them... but there is some carbon in it!
@@LiveOnWhatYouGrow thanks
Question: do you have anything between the compost pile an the ground? Ie a tarp? Thanks!
No, I want all the worms and microorganisms to come up out of the ground permeate the compost.
Since it's no-turn compost, does it take longer to complete?
I never let it complete, I spread it ON TOP of my garden beds, after about six months without mixing it in, as a mulch and the decomposition continues tin the beds.
Oppps, I probably made a mistake charging biochar. I soaked it with my diluted urine, add some wormcasting and fish emulsion in a bucket and it has been soaking for 2 weeks now. Am I doing it wrong and How do I fix it? Thanks
What you're doing is perfect!
is your biochar already alive with different bacterias before use or it gets alive within the compost pile, so you start with charcoal ? thanks
When I take it out of my woodstove all it it is charcoal. I then add nutrients to it when I'm storing it in the garbage cans and 5-gallon buckets all winter. I usually add fish fertilizer, compost , leaf mold, eggshell powder, worm castings, etc. When I make compost I add this mixture between layers to further absorb nutrition from the pile.
@@LiveOnWhatYouGrow thank you for this precision, it's really appreciate 🙂
Where did you learn microscopy?
Hello, from lots of different sources including:
Elaine Ingham--
www.youtube.com/@soilfoodwebschool
Matt Powers--
www.youtube.com/@ThePermacultureStudent
Shooting the Soil-
www.youtube.com/@ShootingtheSoil
Is your compost able to kill the grass seeds in your grass clippings so grass is not germinating in garden beds when the compost is added?
Either it gets hot enough to kill the seeds, OR there weren't any seeds in it in the first place, because I never get grass growing when I add it to my beds.
Love your videos!
Where do you garden?
We're in Connecticut USA in zone 6b. Where are you from?
@@LiveOnWhatYouGrow I garden near Toronto, Ontario, I asked because I like to know how our climate conditions are similar.
I like your style.
@@tobruz You're not much farther north than Connecticut is. My average last frost is around May 1st. What's yours?
@@LiveOnWhatYouGrow May 24 is about our last frost but a bit sooner every year. Nice to watch your stuff just one step ahead of me! Have been at it for over 40 years now, same garden but evolving practices every year.
@@tobruz Yes, I am with you, in Wasaga Beach, Ontario. we are in zone 5b and love this contents and subscribed to get more of this contents.
About how long will it take for the that compost pile of your to break down and usesble in a garden?
How often does your compost pile need watering once you're done adding to it?
Thanks
Actually, it's usable just about at any stage. I could use it as a mulch right the way it is right now, except the wind would blow it away. During the spring and summer, I use it after 2-3 months, if it has been watered regularly and I shredded right up to the time I put the beds to sleep for the winter. That last spreading, I don't need to shred it at all as it will break down perfectly over the winter.
@@LiveOnWhatYouGrow good to know. Thanks
Will it stop rats living in it? Thats what worries me! Just heard about leaves and grasscuttings good combination i have no biochard! I dont want to turn until fully composted! I will start this method Thank you great video!😊
I have never seen a rat in any of my compost piles for the past 35 years at this homestead. I think rats are attracted to the smell given off by anaerobic composting.
You never explained as an average, how long to burn the cans.
It varies depending on how hot your fire is and the moisture content of your feedstock. Mine take approximately one hour in my woodstove. When the can turns cherry red and the flames and smoke are no longer exiting from the hole in the end, you know it's probably done. After you let it cool and open it up, if it's not done, simply put it back into your next fire.
can I pee and take a sheet everyday into it? makes it richer btw
Pee is Okay because it's sterile and a good nitrogen source, but human, dog, or cat sheet shouldn't be added to the garden unless it is 100% composted because it will introduce bacteria to your gardens that could be fatal if you eat the large wonderful-looking vegetables you would grow with it!
thank you so much for sharing this information, I appreciate you
You're welcome!