Ruth Stout Method FAQs: Asked and Answered!
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- čas přidán 4. 08. 2024
- Fall is a great time of year to put the Ruth Stout method to work! Ever since my first Ruth Stout method video I've had lots of questions about the approach, but a recent set of questions from a viewer did a good job of touching on all the key themes. I hope this helps anyone who has been contemplating this approach to breaking new ground.
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Another way to speed up the process if you didn't till, you can use the first season and plant sunflowers, their tap roots are very deep, at the end of the season just cut them at the ground level and let the tap root decompose. This will greatly improve the soil conditions in a "never" tilled garden space.
Thanks for the tip. Not heard this before, will try it in the UK.
This is what I was going to try this year, along with a shallow till. My property is almost entirely heavy clay soil. Literally no top soil at all. (Which put a real damper on my pants to install hugelkulture beds... they're more like watery graves. Ha ha ha)
I was thinking i'd do "hills" of manure to plant squash & melons. Then add sunflowers and pole beans in a 3 sisters methods. I really hope it gives great results. After a few years I hope to actually have soil.
I am surrounded by GMO corn&soybean farms so I'll never be able to really grow corn; but figure I can do sunflowers for a few years then switch to dicon radishes/turnips or something.
From my research you can only plant sunflowers in the same place for up to 3 years or they toxify the soil. Hence, rotating them out every few years.
Happy gardening! 😊🌱
Sunflowers are dynamic accumulators, i think is their term. Meaning they draw in minerals but also toxins in. So if removing potential toxins remove the root afterwards, but if you know your garden is clean then leaving it in is a great idea, thanks, i hadn't considered this.
Check out Back to Reality ! Just like you did with steps n video doc. Cool !
I cut all my plants at soil level and leave all roots in the garden. It leaves pathways for water to get down deep too,
I discovered a lot of farmers use Daikon radish to break up hard clay soils like mine, so I planted a packet of seeds last spring and it worked great. So well, in fact, that I bought 10 POUNDS of Daikon seed this season to condition a large plot that will be dedicated to the Ruth Stout method. As an added bonus, I’ll have an abundance of Daikon to use as an edible garnish for sashimi and sushi, or to add to salads. But if you’re going to eat them, be sure to peel them first because the skins have a VERY strong peppery taste.
Ok thanks
@@maritimegardening4887 Actually in the US Daikon Radish is sometimes even sown by planes onto huge fields after the main harvest. In order to compensate for soil compaction done by huge machines. Those radishes are left to rot in the soil, so they create nice holes / entryways for water and air and if there is still some soil life despite big ag methods, it has something to process. Carrots are divas when it comes to soil (requires fine, loose good soil), so they are not a good crop to start with, especially when one does not dig / till. Whereas Daikon radish is the robust pioneer that goes down deeply and can deal with compacted or very dense soil (loam, even clay).
I came across videos by Cotswold Seeds. They supply only to farmers and commercial growers and have online presentations about green manures / cover crops. The principles they explain are still highly interesting for hobby gardeners and small growers.
They also mention daikon radish favourably as a plant against soil compaction and as a pioneer. And chicoree seems to be an excellent pioneer as well: It is grown over 2 years and has a deep extensive root system. I just checked there are leaf and root chicory varieties, but a search with chicory as a cover crop should help with choosing the right kind for soil loosening.
Of course one could interplant (although not sure how practical that would be with the chicory. I guess big ag use radish varieties that are not as good to eat, but are the best "diggers", but I think for a hobby gardener the normal daikon radish seeds would be O.K.
One thing that was also remarkable. Cotswold Seeds checked results for their green manure / cover crop seed mixes. (how much bio mass had been produced).
Mixes with 1 / 2 / 6 / 12 different plants (some going deep, some with shallow roots). The mix of 12 had the best results. The plants support each other, if one type does not fare well in a season (too dry, too wet, cool etc.) other types can compensate etc.
There are cover crops that are really good single performers - but mixes (with weaker performers) will beat their performance. This is important because some of those seeds are cheap - and others cost more. So it is not necessary to work only with the best performing seeds, one can utilize the much cheaper ones (I think clovers are good) and get even better results. And of course the plants have different strenghts. some go deep, others are especially robust, or they fix nitrogen, ...
To transfer that insight into vegetable gardens.
Diversity is king: Mixing up things (if only with a few flowers, radishes, herbs etc. in between) can boost performanc or speed up things. And it also confuses pests ;) and if we are really lucky some strong smelling plants may ward off slugs. (I have not had much success with that so far).
I want to thank you for your pros and cons of Ruth Stout and other methods of gardening.You have answered several questions I have had rumbling into my mind. Really good video.
Thanks glad to help!
Love the question and answers Greg! I think this should be a regular series for you.
Thank, I'll try to keep that going.
Very good information! Mulch is key when deciding to garden. I DO NOT USE ANY CHEMICALS INCLUDING SYNTHETIC FERTLIZERS IN MY GARDEN. Healthy soil grows healthy vegetables and fruit and healthy vegetables and fruit make for healthy people.
Rino Godbout how deep is your soil beneath the wood chips and how deep is your wood chip layer? Also , do you recommend putting kitchen scraps on the wood chips gradually and adding more mulch on top of that ? Thanks !
Confirms a lot of things I was wondering about. Thanks for a really clear explanation.
Great video. Totally agree, keep it simple and following principles
I've had gardens in the past. Some years good, some not so much. Have been researching the ruth stout method and found your channel. Thus far, this video has been the clearest and most direct
information I've seen. Very helpful, thank you.
Glad to help
If you sow “Short n’ Sweet” carrots in your first year they usually do better. They’re shorter and fatter and they don’t have to go as deep into the soil. After the first year or two you can change over to Danvers or Scarlet Nantes and do fine.
If you coat your potatoes in garden sulfur prior to planting them you will prevent scab. It’s not the same as sulfur you out into the soil, it’s a coating powder that you roll the taters in before planting them. Buy seed potatoes every year for a while and don’t grow potatoes in the same spot for four years. The scab in your soil will go away after a couple years of good rotations.
This was extremely informative and simplified. You’ve provided answers, before I had questions. Thanks so much, I’ve really enjoyed your lesson.
Glad it was helpful!
This is the most straight up and realistic video I have watch. Thanks for saying "it's ok to till on year one". Most of us don't have a season to lose while we can begin a "no till" garden. Thanks for been sincere and realistic. This makes sense to me. I'll try to do your method (till, add manure, mulch) and hopefully provide you with an update as to how it worked for me.
Awesome - good luck with your garden :)
I use my Alpaca poop and it's great for my garden
First thanks for all the great content...I look forward to the videos. Second on the potato scab issues. This year we did an experiment. One 4x8 bed, planted 6-8 in deep mushroom soil (so aged cow manure) and the other bed 6x5 we barely embedded in composed leaves/old potting soil mix (last year's SIP tomatoe beds) and covered with partially composted leaves again 6-8in deep or so. Night and day difference. The leaf bed...30% higher harvest (even though it's a smaller bed) AND zero scab...zero. The bed with mushroom compost (that I'm sure had anti fungal treatment at least at some point) had a TON of scab. The potatoes were a control and literally came from the same bags (norlean, kenninbeck, and yukon). The norleans by far were the worst...almost half were so rotted they were unusable. Last...the beds were new and only about 10ft apart and just about identical conditions.
So...my thought is this
1) I was told to avoid manures when planting potatoes because of scab
2) we all know lower ph inhibits scab... Barely decomposed leave have a ton of acid (there might have even been some pine needles and grass clippings in there because I vac'd and shredded them with my mower last fall)....I really think there is something to topping with the leaves... again zero scab.
Just my humble $0.02....
Manure is notorious for promoting scab, especially if the bacterium was present in the cow's diet. That said, I've done leaf covered beds with potatoes and still gotten scab - but perhaps the bacterium was already present in that soil, and I think I had them "in" the soil, not on it. You may be on to something with planting "on" the soil and using the leaves on top, because they are acidic while breaking down, even though that acidity is gone once composted (after your lovely, scab-less potatoes have formed).
Good idea man - I'm have to try it out with a scab-prone variety next year!
I used this method for zucchini, squash, and cucumbers. But I mixed dirt and all that into the mulch so I had a deeper bed with a little more substance. I used grass trimmings, leaves, and a bag of cheap garden soil to make my mulch.
Jason Stover for a 12” raised bed above lawn , which ingredients would you recommend putting potting soil compost and wood chips up to 12” or some other method ? Thanks !
Moving to Florida this summer and I'm consumed with having a garden. I've been watching many different methods and working on my plan. Thank you for your thoughts it helped me alot. Happy Gardening!
That's great - good luck!
Just checking in- did you purchase a home? How do you like it? Do you miss winter? lol
@@tonyatoomey5244 how sweet of you to check in. And yes we are settled in North Florida. And I do hope to see a snow again, I will always miss North Georgia. But we are very much enjoying it here. Everything except the mosquitos! Haha. No garden tho but we did manage a coop for chickens. 🐔🌞☺
I like this video and you talk plain everyday terms no nonsense. I also watched the original Ruth Stout vid. IM the type who borrows my sisters tiller and have tilled up the ground adding amendments, but in the last couple of years put down cardboard to help keep weeds out. So this year in another area that has been tilled or at least the soil turned over Im going to apply the cardboard method and plant tomatoes there to see what happens.
I think you'll be pleased! Thanks for watching :)
This has been super thought provoking!! Great simple ideas~!!!
Glad you think so!
Awesome thank you! You just saved a LOT of people lot of frustration.
Cool :)
Already looking forward to next years planting
Thanks so much for this realistic video. A big help.
My pleasure :)
Thanks for making this one, I appreciated a lot of the info and drew some inspiration from it. Our winter rainfall (and dry insane hot summer) region here also blessed me with rockhard clay. Doing similar things - your info will be valuable.
Regards from South Africa!
Thanks - I hope it works good for you!
Great information! Thank you.
I watched the interview with Ruth, what an interesting lady.
I agree :)
Glad you said this about tilling at the start. Im completely new to gardening, but watching videos on these various methods left me thinking “wouldnt it be of benefit to till first and then cover to speed up the process”. So glad to hear my thoughts weren’t unfounded
Always good to think for yourself :) Good on ya man!
So darn helpful. And clear. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Good video. I built a 15x4 Ruth Stout method bed last weekend for the spring. I love potatoes so that bed is going to make me very happy if it works out. I read a book year's ago about lasagna gardening. In that book it suggested planting potatoes in just plain old piles of straw. I always wondered if that would ever work out.
Yes, as long as the potatoes are on the soil, and you have lots of straw (enough to keep the light of the new potatoes that form) it will work out fine.
Dude! THIS WAS FRIGGIN BRILLIANT! Thank you for explaining the mystery of the Ruth stout method for me.
No song and dance . Just great garden info. #SUB. ‼️
If there were an award for best CZcams gardening video THIS VIDEO would win it.
Thanks man!
Go caps
I didn't have great success with doing something akin the Ruth Stout method with potatoes this year. I believe the extreme drought in Europe was to blame. The potatoes, planted in spring, were covered by a lot of loose material that didn't hold the water that I had to manually give. The potato plants only started to really grow in August after a few real showers. Right now they're only just killed by frost and I haven't dug any potato up yet, so I can't be sure how it looks, but my potatoes grown the conventional way did normally, because the hard clay they were in holds water well. I like the Ruth Stout method, but if it's really very dry, I think you're better off digging in your potatoes in solid soil. Well, I guess it comes down to what all seasoned farmers know: every year is different, you can't just have one way of doing things, you're weather dependent and you're always adapting. One year you do something one way, the next year you may end up doing something completely different because of circumstances. Ruth Stout may work out fine for me next season.
I get better results putting them in the soil too - the RS method is great from a work:yield ratio point of view - you get a lot for almost no work - but you're right, you get more back when you get them in the soil a bit.
My 1st year to grow potatoes. I cut grass and weeds down, covered with cardboard, laid whole seed potatoes down and covered with fresh wood chips, about 6 to 7 inches. Only watering has been rain. Planted under pecan trees, didn't think about the shade, took about 6 weeks but they have broken through chips. Now waiting to see if I get any harvest. This was an experiment on my take of the Ruth Stout Method.
I would have advised, with that depth of woodchips, to not bother with the cardboard. Would allow potatoes to access soil & its nutrients. Takes cardboard many months, and where I live, over a year to break down. Curious to see how it works out, please keep me in the loop :)
@@maritimegardening4887 I will, thought about not using cardboard, but had Bermuda grass start up and took over.
Really, I was just trying to kill all growth for next year, but watched all your videos and Ruth Stout and thought I try potatoes.
So far I'm excited with what I've got coming up, like you, I had to dig up area st to see abd although it was slow, I did see roots growing, and just kept checkiing.
I live inSouth Central Montana, hot, dry, windy in the summer. Raised bed, put down hay, planted lettuce, cucumber, cabbage and potatoes in hay, everything grew great.
I have seen many methods of using straw..but this has been the most informative. Thanks. (I have just had 52 bails of straw delivered, and can't wait to get started..I am what is called a lazy gardener..hate spade work, so great for me).
I think you'll be very happy with this approach :)
This was really helpful, thanks!
Glad to help :)
Thank you for the videos. I appreciate your time. I live in zone three unfortunately. Just started real gardening last year and lots of your videos have been very helpful. I was born in Halifax and miss the temperate weather.
Thanks! Are you in fort Mcmurray or something?
@@maritimegardening4887 My ansesters arrived in Novia Scotia in 1726. Homestead in the Blue Rocks. I live in Prince George now. Moved west in 1973. Been here 34 years. Have had a planter box garden for several years but after being inspired by your videos. Spring 2018 i set up two Hugelculture beds, three 4'x12' raised beds and an 8'x16' greenhouse. I even set up a Ruth Stout 4'x8' garden. I got a late start this year but the garden produced lots of produce we enjoyed. Looking forward to next year. Thank you for the inspiration.
Wow thanks! I'm so glad you've expanded and are growing more of your own food! Stories like this are why I make videos! All the best to you :)
me too, if you can guess correctly when the frost will be done, you can still get good production, especially with our new extended hot summers.
@@harryknickle7792 hello fellow Northerner! 😎
Thank you for the rant, sir. Be well.
Thank you kindly
I love my rabbits. I can put their waste directly on my plants. Won't burn and provides excellent nutrients with no weed seeds.
I wish I had rabbits. Wife will not consent :)
You just have to have a lot to take care of a big garden. Janice
@@maritimegardening4887 give her a mini bunny for her birthday?
@@svetlanikolova7673 Lol Great idea! Who can say no to a fuzzy little bunny!
@@triplemoonhomestead126 I can. Or rather my 4 cats would think I had bought them a moving snack.
Great video you have a great way of explaining thanks
Thanks :)
We used cow manure that was 3-4 yrs. old. beautiful fall greens garden! Here in S. Mo. I think we'll have to sheet mulch with card board, then manure, then hay. Need to kill off all the undesirables first. Lots of Cat briars, scrub tree saplings, Prairie grass, etc.,etc.,etc.. OH almost forgot! ROCKS!!! We have lots of Rocks! More rocks than you can shake a stick at! Great vid. Will finish it later.
Thanks
I have had success with fingerling potatoes...banana fingers and rose Finn apple fingerlings. Good video of Ruth Stout gardening.
Thanks for sharing
Very helpful this FAQs video, thank you very much! I agree about not using transport energy for soil, when so easy to make your own for free with a good idea how to. Personally, would love to source an organic life stock farm for their manure, would be just perfect. Anyhow, got my manure, wood chip, some leaf mulch and grass cuttings, all ready for next year too. Potato seedlings at the ready...
Very good! Best of luck for next year :)
Ruth Stout did not add a layer of manure to the ground, she laid a layer of old straw or hay down, threw her seed potatoes on top of the straw or hay and then covered the seed potatoes with a thick layer of straw or hay.
This makes my third year of growing potatoes the Ruth Stout way and I've had wonderful yields each year. I do not use raised beds, I have a garden about 30 feet wide and 130 feet long. I grow my potatoes on one end and plant about 75 lbs. of seed potatoes.
We are older and have some health issues so I am now growing less corn and more potatoes. We also mulch our whole garden with old hay. We grow tomatoes, green beans, lima beans, butternut squash, pumpkin, bell peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, corn, potatoes along with strawberries, black and red raspberries. We use to have more room before we moved and had several fruit trees, but now we only have the berries for our fruit. We never use any herbicides or pesticides. We goats and use the old (soiled) hay from their barns for our manure.
We use to have cows, goats and chickens and I piled their manure on the side of the garden and let it rot. In late winter I'd spread it around the garden with my tractor and a blade and in the early spring I'd till it in. It all worked great and we always had a wonderful garden. But like I said before we are older and now have health issues and have sold our farm and now have a smaller garden.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge with this video.
looks to me like she's throwing them on the soil here:czcams.com/video/GNU8IJzRHZk/video.html
it also makes sense to put them in contact with the soil since that's where the water and nutrients are. Also - by only putting the hay on top you need less hay
This was one of the first clips I seen of yours which popped up on its own so I watched again. Seems like its been awhile since doing a Q&A.
Yes - I'll get back to doing those soon - maybe one every 2 weeks
Two thoughts: there is a warm season cover crop mix that contains something called oil seed radish: it has big roots that beak up hard pan.
Also, having livestock as part of the mix: chickens and pigs are great tilling machines.
The cover crops could be fed to the livestock, too.
Great videos!
How I miss 'Down Home'!
Very best wishes from England . . . At present . . .
I can only speak to my experience - around here the warm season is the growing season - so growing a cover crop during that time would mean not growing food during the growing season. Perhaps it makes sense in hotter climates. Re the chickens & pigs - great idea but not an option for me or a good many people. Anyway man, thanks for watching - hope this helps you connect with your roots :)
Great information. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
When you said, “I don’t like to complicate things that don’t need to be complicated....”
I was there.
I like you.
David
South Carolina
Cool man thanks!
My philosophy too. Stick it in and it will grow
was wondering what happened to you,great informative video.I just used that type of bed for potatoes,have them planted lets see if they survive the winter.Im covering every thing with rotten straw for next spring thanks to a neighbor who supplied it.
Yes, wife was also out of town so I was on my own with the kids. Without her there's be no maritime gardening, just maritime daddy :)
I also toss coffee grounds and banana, orange peels on top of the soil in my garden! Peanut shells too!
don't forget to add your egg shells
Yellow Yukon Potatoes have been my best crops. Zone 8a Louisiana. Plant 5 or 6 inches in ground, when plant is about 6 to 8 inches tall, I cover with hay, only leaving top leaves above hay.
I'm going to try this year. Good to have this info.
Good luck!
By the way... are you "THE" Debbie Gibson" ? :)
@@maritimegardening4887 I've had this name longer than she has but no I'm not the singer.
@@debbiegibson6113 ha ha :)
Brilliant! Thank you for answering every question that I had about this method!! Excellent, informative video. I appreciate this. New here to your channel. ~Sammie-B.F.H.
Glad it was helpful, and welcome!
We are very new at having living gardens... lol. We tried last year but in Texas the weather cooked everything in their pots. So we would like to try this method. Our main issue last year with what we did actually get to grow was literally eaten by ants and making tunnels through our potatoes and corn. We’ve tried everything except poisoning or produce. DE works to kill the nests some
Do you have any advice that has worked well for you or others for preventing ants.
Were they eating the potatoes and corn or just making tunnels in the soil? I have ants everywhere but they don't seem to bother my plants at all.
This year I grew potatoes in two ways, one in soil and one on top of soil with several inches of wood chips on top. The ones in wood chips grew a little better and none were green. I also exposed them both to heavy drought conditions. The ones in wood chips are delayed in growing but they live weeks longer in drought conditions when the ones in dirt have long died back.
Next year put a 6" mulch over the the ones in the soil - best of both worlds. Even better results I predict.
I tried the same technique with potatoes laid onto soil with hardwood chips covering the potatoes and I found that the tubers were easily found by rabbits and voles in the wood chips here in New England and most of the potatoes got annihilated. I think the soil disguises the potatoes better, at least for rabbits, and I do not think I will use wood chips again with potatoes unless I do container gardening with the potatoes. This year when I use wood chips I will put containers on top to avoid the voles and rabbits. I could be wrong about a lot of parameters here. I don’t know exactly what got the potatoes. But wild rabbits lived close by and voles are everywhere here.. Hardwood chips are useful. When the wood chips rot, great soil! and you can use hardwood chips laced with winecap straphoria mushroom mycelium so the chips are serving several functions at once: mulch, soil building for next year, weed blocking, mushroom cultivation etc. I just think with potatoes the scent can be more easily found by critters because of the air spaces in the chips. Just a theory! It was a potato crop failure. One out of ten potatoes were undamaged. Containers on top of chips would be almost foolproof for potatoes except for blight. At least this is my current theory and I am doing it this way this year.
Thanks for sharing your experience.... I was just waiting for someone to clarify and answer my doubts regarding RUTH STOUT methods.
Now I know ....your tips are fantastic.
I am in India.... Tropical area.
We have lots of weeds growing during monsoon.
Just gathering cut grass and weeds becomes huge beds to be used as mulch.
With suitable compost and good soil mix I trying to grow few vegetables.
Hope this can go on till December.
After that weather is dru warm... Then sultry till next June.
Hope things turn out favourable.
One of the ways to reduce scab on potatoes is to plant them with old leaves or grass. Before we read about that we discovered it by chance when some leftover "volunteer" potatoes came up through a leaf mulch and were amazing clean.
The cause of potato scab is Streptomyces scabies. The solution - aside from growing scab resistant potatoes is to acidify the soil (typically with sulfur). I'm not sure how old leaves and grass would acidfy soil - or otherwise eliminate Streptomyces scabies.
@@maritimegardening4887 I did some research and the theory seems to be that the leaves or grass do acidify the soil close to the tubers.
In Australia where I live in Sydney, I live near one of the racecourses.
Winter I grow onions, garlic and potatoes, carrots in the summer to my taste, I love meat😀
Questions...even though this question is 2 years after you put out the video; but I just stumbled across your channel. So I have gardened for 40 years on the same property. I am in MN. I have always tilled my garden almost always fall and spring. I always have good success. But now over the last couple years I have been working towards no till and now have 4 very large raised beds. For those 40 years I never fertilized or top dressed anything until the last couple years. We have chickens...so last fall we had a lot of chicken manure from our chicken coop and we used all of it....and tilled it in my big garden....the garden seemed as good as usual. Now this year I decided instead of buying something to top dress my raised beds I put a nice layer of chicken manure/bedding mix from our coop (we only have 15 chickens) on top of my raised beds and I thought it was okay to leave it sit on top for the winter to do it's thing. Now after listening to you I think OH NO I screwed up! It has snowed here like 8 inches already but the ground is still not frozen. Do you think I am okay to leave that top dressing on the beds and work it in good before I plant in the spring? Or should I try fork it in now over the snow?
Also we raised 5 feeder pigs and have all that poop from their barn to deal with. I was going to lightly put it on my huge garden and till it in...now it snowed. Nothing is tilled yet. If the weather breaks should I put the pig manure on top and till my garden one more time? Or not use it at all? Or what would you do? Thanks if you got time to read and answer this long email 👍
Great Qs - I think I will dedicate a video to answering these - thanks for the inspiration :)
@@maritimegardening4887 👍 Guess I better subscribe 👍👍
I heard somewhere to never plant potatoes with manure or you can get scab . I don't know exactly why. I have gotten scab on my potatoes this year. My potatoes did terrible this year. I am working on getting my garden in shape for spring, putting down compost,horse manure and leaves. I have wood chips in between the rows. Now if the weather cooperates.
It is a risk, and I forgot to mention that. The fresher it is, the greater the risk.
After hearing about the no dig method (Charles Dowding, Bob Flowerdew or Ruth stout to name a few well known names), and getting a near virgin garden which had barely been touched in 50 years, I chose to consider the hugel method. The top soil is barely a few inches deep, the sub soil is practically clay with broken rock, and below that is compacted clay and rock intermixed. We live in a wet sump, and the water barely drains away. I've been able to get free horse dung, and free oak saw dust. Being limited on access, and only being able work the ground spring and autumn, I've dug to below the sub soil, removing the rock as I go, any branches are used in the base of the hole, inter mixed with horse dung and saw dust, the soil is periodically added in layers like a lasagne,band the weeds added only when the hole is deep. The first year, the plants didn't take too well, but and I noticed more fly's. The native birds seemed to do better. Covering the soil with more sawdust and forking through, has helped keep the crumb structure of the soil. The plants are doing better this year, and the birds love my flower beds, as I found they are full to the brim with worms. The earth is easy to work with just a hand trowel, although after the rain, the soil remains wet even at 30 cm above the rest of the ground. But the plants and trees have survived. I would recommend the back breaking work the first year, but will continue mulching from here on in, to enable the microrysal fungi to get a hold, and help feed the plants that are sharing the beds.
Big fan of the hugelkultur method myself - and have a number of videos on it - glad it's working for you :)
I am turning a area of my large till garden into a BTE, I have a large amount of maple trees would if be an ok idea to start it with leaves? I have horses so I would then put the manure on top of the leaves. Then in the spring add a mulch
Put the leaves over the manure. They will hold in it's heat and help it decompose,. they will also smother some of the weeds that will germinate next spring.
Hello neighbour (I'm in NB)! Love having videos from a fellow Maritimer! Do you or can you plant potatoes in the same Ruth Stout bed year after year?
I think it's wise to rotate them to a different bed each year, with at least a four year pattern (only grow them in the same bed every 4th year)
I'm employing this method on an existing raised bed...I tilled for years..I've added free stuff for years...and hope it's a good time to employ her method...
You will not be sorry!
I was wondering about tilling first and then mulching. Thanks for confirming. What if I put down straw or hay mulch and then cover it over the winter with black plastic? Will the mulch break down faster or slower or should I just let it snow and rain on the mulch?
If it gets covered with snow the plastic will have no effect. Also - the water will not get at the soil as well. I'd skip the plastic.
Such a helpful video, we started trying the back to eden method last year on land that is extremely poor....and had no luck at all with growing. Thanks to watching this video (and learning lots from your other videos) we are spending this autumn completely changing how we prep our land and hopefully will start having better results next year. Thankyou for you videos
Glad it helped!
thank you so much for your insights. I do have a question in that is it possible to put pine shavings instead of wood chips. I have read the fallacies about pine shavings creating a acidic soil , so I thought it would be for me ideal. thank you
Yes, but you need to add a source of nitrogen as well for best results
Pine needles fo create an as acidic soil. My mother grew hydrangeas and mulched with pine straw so they were blue. Non acidic soil makes them turn pink.
so useful! (comments, too!). like having coffee with my neighbour :)
Thanks :)
Excellent concepts, I think I'll try it (if we are still here next season). Get your calcium and potassium up to deal with your potato scab. Do a soil test first to see if calcium and potassium are too low. GOD bless.
I'm doing most of what this U-Mass article says. Nothing there about calcium or potassium. In fact, most calcium amendments would raise the pH of the soil, which is supposed to make it worse. I find the potatoes with russet-type skins (russet, russet burbank, kennebec) seem to do very well and be fairly scab resistant.
Ideal is a soil pH of 6.4 ,and the occurance of plant diseases increases as your soil becomes more acid than that. And the risk of the occurance of insect attack on plants occurs when the pH is above 6.4. Every soil needs to be analysed as to what minerals are not within the desired balance within all the minerals as a balance. So a blanket recommendation is not appropriate. Manganese can be especially important for plant disease prevention. There are a few exceptions for plant disease prevention such as fusarium wilt that needs much different mineral management than most plant diseases. Of course there are other factors like plant population, firmness of seedbed, soil texture and rainfall that do influence the plant disease risk. @@maritimegardening4887
@@gordonbricker1670 Sorry, it's been a while since I made that video - to what blanket recommendation are you referring?
I was referring to the recommendation for calcium or potassium applied to soil to help prevent plant disease. That blanket recommendation would be only good if the specific plot of soil was low in calcium or potassium. There is a well known formula for balance of cationic elements like calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, etc. This calculated balance determines firstly the chemistry of the soil, which in turn determines the physics and biological health of the soil. We can see in our gardens and fields when soil looks good and produces healthy plants. A soil analysis can be a great tool to help us in times we need some direction towards success. Choosing a soil lab is critical though.
I have had huge success...just a think layer of fresh horse manure...like 12 inches..just out side my stable...left for 2 weeks in the rain..then plant in it..its not hot..
I should have also said...They were the best tasting potatoes ever
It's amazing how good they are when you grow your own!
Great video! I have a spot with some heavy duty weed growth It's going to be really rough tilling. She wants me to till to plant sweet potatoes and use the hay method. If I till it can I plant in the dirt or do I have to have horse manure or compost? Or do I have to wait till next spring?
Yes, plant in the soil - no horse manure needed, then cover with a good layer of mulch
@@maritimegardening4887 Thank you!
Actually tilling or ploughing kills a lot and does destroy life in the soil. Better to fork it gently and loosen the roots then top it with layers.
Did you see the dead life under a microscope? How do you know it destroys the life? And how do you know any dead life doesnt return in a few months?
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust..the cycle of nature and life continues..js
I'm 59 and been raised gardening my whole life ...passed on to me from my grandparents I spent summers with..the earth gives back the love you give to it.js
About a year ago, we took down a very large maple tree in the backyard. The stump was removed and I'm wondering if the expansive abandoned existing roots are to my new gardens' benefit or detriment.
If they are rotting, they'll certainly do no harm.
Carrots can be left to rot inside the ground the first season along with other root veggies
Thank you.
You're welcome!
I am new to gardening other than a few tomato plants. My soil is 50% sand, 50% tan clay. Most of the yard is that way do to a large construction project. Western Illinois here and I have no earthworms. How do I begin to amend soil for a garden?
My site was all clay and rock. Easiest and cheapest way is to get horse manure and either work it in or just place it on top and plant right in it if its really well aged.
great video. Do you have a video on the construction of your log raised beds?
czcams.com/video/RtMIld3clEM/video.html
czcams.com/video/SLP3C11RtxE/video.html
I’ve used the Ruth Stout method for potatoes the past two years with excellent production. Mice or voles nibbled approximately 10% of the potatoes with the Ruth Stout method; no other drawback.
I've found about the same. I should have spoken to the mice/vole question as well, darn - I get that one a lot :)
@@maritimegardening4887 Geez, now I'm hanging. Is there a deterrent?
The presence of mice & voles will draw in snakes and other predators that eat them, and the losses will decrease over a few seasons as the predator population rises. In the meantime, a 5-10% loss is nothing when you consider how easy it is to plant and grow potatoes this way. In a matter of minutes you can plant a zero maintenance garden that will provide 50 lb of potatoes.
@@maritimegardening4887 Thanks, gonna do more scything today to lay yet another bed. The ease itself is exciting. Just gotta work on scything technique to make that easier. Gotta get a good workout somewhere, i guess, and it ain't gonna be here
For new gardens I think deep root veg like carrots and parsnips need a raised bed and you need to stay this way for several years. I’m just into BTE for my third year and it’s no where near ready for carrots. But most of what we grow will do fine like squash, tomatoes, onions, etc. etc. I found sunflowers do a great job year 1 producing a nice crop (batch of seeds) while also sending deep roots. I.E you don’t lose any productivity year 1 while also breaking up hard pan, however, it may take x years to break up hard pan before it’s carrot-ready, and I don’t know what x is. Three years, five years, ten years?.
I think really depends on what you started with, and also, how long your soil is warm enough each year for the soil organisms to do their work. If you soil is frozen for x months a year, there's nothing going on in those months. Anyway, good comment Mark, I agree.
Question: What happens when the wind blows? We get some pretty stiff winds where I live. I can just see all my mulch strewn into the next county.
We get hurricane force winds here. Every year about a dozen shingles blow off my roof, & just last week 2 trees blew down next to the garden (for instance). The hay weaves itself together somehow & doesn't blow around.
Would you recommend this for above ground fruits? Like you mentioned squash, tomatoes, etc?
Yes - I use it for everything
Well, I've had my first run in with herbicide damage. Risky devistating and a bit unexpected.
Last year my results were amazing! I was so impressed, I converted all my large plots to RS. I used spend hay from my goats and rabbits and old rotted bales. Placed down hay in the fall, chickens went on top through winter. I hilled my potatoes & mulched my tomatoes, just a few weeks ago and that's when things went sideways!
This year, things are drastically different. Unbelievable in fact.
Almost everything will be a total loss. The brassicas and my few raised beds, will be the only survivors. I will loose everything else; 5ksq ft worth of veggies. A blow to the gut for sure.
Reading articles about this issue make the future seem really bleak. Maybe the end of gardening for 5+ years. I hope that's not the case.
I wonder who else has experienced this and how they recovered. I love growing this way. I never saw this coming.
Just switch to leaves and other things where the risk of them being sprayed with herbicide is low. You don't need hay to do RS
@@maritimegardening4887
Definitely.
I will have to readjust what and how much space I garden, based on what I can find as far as leaves. But, i guess I'll have to give the soil time to leach anyway I guess.
I don't know what I'll do with all my animals manure though. It's one reason I keep livestock, to fertilize my gardens and fields.
I read that using leaves as mulch robs the soil of nitrogen. Is this a myth?
@@TheButterflySoulfire
This is a myth.
Any theory that is anti-mulch, echos that any brown material is a nitrogen robber.
Leaf mold is proven to be one of the best additions to the garden because of the high fungal contribution. Plants thrive more on fungi, not (just) bacteria.
When I add leaves to the garden, it is at the end of the season. I just drive around and collect leaf bags as people begin cleaning their yards before winter. Average collection is 100-150 bags. I chip most of the leaves and mulch all of my gardens (until I run out). They decompose well over the winter months.
I also like using leaves as chicken bedding so it's nice and infused with manure by spring.
I either need to streamline my garden spaces or step up my leaf collection game.
Thanks! @Rachael Pullman
I live in a fairly dry climate, central california. Any tips for watering, if at all with this process.
Keep your soil mulched all the time and you will not have to water as often. Water an hour before sunrise when you do have to water. Organize your garden into beds and walking paths - and only water the beds. Don't till your soil - it will hold onto water much better, and extensive mycorrhizal fungi networks will help your plants find water . Finally - keep the soil in your beds at grade - the higher above grade the soil is, the more water they will need. Hope that helps :)
Can potatoes be planted in Indiana zone 5 at this time of year?... fall..October 29...I did this in the spring...not s great harvest...but i did nothing after planting them...had well over a foot of straw ...would like to try them again...I also used newspaper and my own compost in place....
I've had poor results planting them in the fall where I am, but our winters are very wet and damp. Cold + wet = dead potato! All I can say is try and see :)
For a lawn area how deep would you dig in the soil to start a hugoculture mound ?
I also have 12” 4x8 raised bed borders and I don’t know what to put inside . Thanks
About 16" is as deep as I usually go.
Maritime Gardening that sounds good ! I also have some left over potting soil . Would you recommend putting that on the logs , and then wood chips
Above that ? Thanks
@L O F E N O I A L O F -- this is one of the many good videos on Hugelkultur (your hugoculture made me chuckle)
czcams.com/video/3O2qCQU7Cac/video.html. CZcams has lots of videos
Enjoyed that potato enlightenment:) Thanks for sharing! Off the subject, I seem to remember you got a new camera this year. Is it user friendly? Would you recommend it? I'm in the market and looking for feedback:) Thanks!
I bought a Sony HDR CX405. Crazy easy to use, and you can see yourself while it's filming you on the tripod, very important for filming your own stuff. Cost me $300.
Thank you! I am 67, have never had a garden, have 3 acres, have half of a round bale that went bad, have aged horse manure so I think I will try this. BUT, a local ag agent says that hay when grown is sprayed with herbicides to kill weeds before harvest. He says by letting old hay compost into the ground you run risk of sterilizing the ground. Thoughts on this? Have you had problems? Thanks!!
Some hay has it - some doesn't - always a rick - I guess I've always been lucky
@@maritimegardening4887 Thank you for your reply. I think I will try it in just my backyard. If it works, great! If it sterilizes the ground, then raised or container garden it is in that spot. Thanks again!
What time of year did you plant your potatoes in the other video you featured? Thx!
Plant them when the dandelions make their flowers. For me that tends to be late apr/may
Question.... sometimes my hayseeds n starts to grow grass.....how do you prevent this.....its a new year...deciding what to do this garden. Thanks so much
add more mulch - smother it out. I also use cardboard in between rows to prevent weeds. Check this out: czcams.com/video/MN4uMHY0O_M/video.html
I don't have those types of animal manure but I do have rabbits so I'm going to use this next year.
Rabbit manure is supposed to be amazing wish I had my own rabbits here
@@maritimegardening4887 All I'm doing is I made a bed with about a foot of hay, and I've been tossing my 1 rabbits manure on and into it. I will continue addign as much of the rabbits manure as I can get (usually a cup or so a day) into the pile until March planting time. I did also add some bone meal and greensand. But in future years, all I will do is add more hay...see how it goes :) I'm a little worried about doing the 6 inches of manure to act as a soil but...hopefully since I started the bed back in august, the hay will have broken down enough....
What if you want to hay mulch, but you also want to till? Is this possible? Can the hay be raked back in the spring for tilling until the seeds germinate or will you have to commit to no till gardening? Thanks
You can do that, but I don't see why you'd want to continue tilling when you don't have to. Also, soil tillage, over time, causes nutrient loss and reduction of soil structure - which in turn leads to poor water retention. Just a few thoughts for you to consider.
@@maritimegardening4887 Thank you for responding. Personally, I'm prepared to give up the tilling, but my husband feels that it would become too much work without the machinery. We have a large garden.
@@lilyrosedaisy2003 It seems counter-intuitive, but there's less weeding & watering, & no need to till or fertilize - it's less work. I keep this entire 2500 square foot garden myself, and that's with a full time job a commute and young kids. Anyway - try to get him to watch the ruth stout video (link below). It's 20 minutes long, and it's an 80 year old woman talking about her garden (same size as mine) that she tends all on her own. If Ruth can't convince him, I certainly can't :) czcams.com/video/GNU8IJzRHZk/video.html
How about crabgrass. Here in Southeastern NC that stuff grows year round. I've dug up to 18" deep to try to remove the roots ( the only other way to get rid of it is to sell the farm). Unfortunately, crabgrass is the main grass here and it quickly overwhelms whatever else is growing. Do you think this would work?
I really have no experience with that particular weed. My best advice is to do what I do with tough weeds - cover and smother.
Cover with cardboard, then manure, then smother with mulch, wood chips, or straw. No weeds live through this.
Use chickens. Pen them up in area you want cleared.
New sub here , never grew potatoes but would 💕 to try . Don’t know what scab is but would like to know if you can still eat potato. How high on the acidic scale is bunny manure?
scab is blemishes on the potato skin. You can potatoes with scab - they just don't store as well. here's an article on rabbit manure: www.canr.msu.edu/news/bunny_honey_using_rabbit_manure_as_a_fertilizer
I'm going to have to rent a tiller - I am trying this method and was hoping that a rough till would give me a good start. I worry a bit bc we live on sand (maybe 2-3" dirt on top) and have a VERY high water table....it'll either be great or...will it rot??
Why not try some that way and make a few beds a bit above grade - like the ones I have that are about 3" above grade. If you have a source of rotten logs you can use the hugelkutur method.
@@maritimegardening4887 That's not a bad idea. I'll have to research that method, I don't think I know about it. Thanks!
Rabbit manure is so good. It won't burn the roots of plants, not even when it's straight out of the rabbit!
Ruth Stout tells us that she used to have her garden plowed. She got tired of waiting for the person who plowed her garden to come. That's how she got started.
I wish I had rabbits - it would be great to feed them my kitchen scraps and have them turn it into those pellets!
@@maritimegardening4887 You might find a pair. Check at local feed stores. Ask around. That's how I got my first pair, back when I was in grade school! My last pair were big white meat rabbits. My Brother raised them. I plan to get another pair. I had quit breeding my old pair. I couldn't eat those two! They died of old age. So, I'm going to get another pair.
I saw a video of Ruth Stout in her 80's I think. So I've got plenty of time, I'm only 68!
I'm in Philadelphia PA USA, so I was wondering how much the weather would affect watering. We routinely get 90+ F days in summer, with lows not getting below 70 F at night for weeks....as long as I keep the hay/mulch layer deep enough (12 inch+), would I need much supplemental rain? Or would the hay retain enough, do you think?
The mulch helps to prevent evaporation, and your soil structure can make a big difference in water retention - but also the annual rainfall is a factor - as is the temperature and relative humidity so it's different for everyone. I can't really say exactly what will work where you are since I'd have to know all of that and have experience growing in that climate. I don't water mine at all - but it's cooler here and we get lots of rain. I also have great soil :)
@@maritimegardening4887 yeah, it is usually pretty humid...but rain can vary. Guess I'll just have to wing it. Thanks!
i can get truck loads of wood chips but they are fresh Chipped do I need them to rot before I can use them for my garden ?
Yes.. age them at least one year! Add grass clippings then leaves! It will be better!
Super👏👏👏
Hey greg, I have a question on spacing. I have started a ruth stout bed to be ready for spring planting. I have a decently thick layer of hay and rabbit manure that I've been sprinkling in it for a couple months now. Online research all points to using 15-18 between plants, and 30 inches between rows, however I notice in most if not all of your potato videos that you usually use just a 9-12 inch spacing all around for your seed potatoes. What are you experinces with that? I have ordered more seed potatoes than I should have, (10 each of 4 different varities) and am not sure how closely I can plant them to be able to use them all. What are your general thoughts on spacing?
Many of those spacing recommendation are based on the space needed to weed between rows, operate machinery - etc. All my gardens are in (for the most part) 4'x8' beds - so there is wide spacing between the beds - but narrow spaces between the rows - based on how much space (In my opinion) the plant needs to get the light it needs to grow well. My row spacing depends on what I'm growing - so carrots can be 8" between rows - where as zucchini need to be 2 feet apart :) Hope that helps. Many no till gardeners break the rules when it comes to spacing
I think I might make a video to answer you question. Stay tuned - more elaborate answer coming soon :)
@@maritimegardening4887 awesome! I was specifically asking about potatoes, since that's what I'm putting in my new ruth stout bed...i was wondering how a closer spacing may affect yield and tuber size looking forward to a video response!
Great video. I have a large area in my garden (1/2 acre in eastern Ontario) that used to be hay field 30+ years ago and is now just perennial weeds. Will this method kill the perennial weeds as I have found nothing seems to kill them other than digging them out by hand. Very hard graft. Would love to create a large new garden area with potatoes as you have described. Also, I have access to straw but not hay....will that work or does it need to be hay? Thanks, I will check back to see your reply. Cheers.
I can't guarantee it will kill everything - as I've said in previous vids - if you pile on enough stuff it kills most things, but not everything. To be sure throw down cardboard first, but of course that takes more time and you have to find the cardboard. straw/hay/leaves - anything works as long as you add enough to block out the sunlight.
@@maritimegardening4887 Thanks a lot for the reply. Really enjoy your videos. Cheers.
@@tuppenceandbobneedlearts Just to follow up, I have two patches of goutweed on my property, and it took three years of laying heavy paper and leaves on it to smother it out. Where my gardens are, by contrast the hay alone smothers out everything except wild blackberries - which are goddamned zombie plants in my experience!
@@maritimegardening4887 I am dealing with Tufted Vetch, Sheep Sorrel, Milkweed, Couch Grass and an assortment of other weeds I have yet to identify. The Vetch and the Sorrel are the worst. They are almost impossible to get rig of. I have the vetch worming it's way up from under layers of newspaper, landscape fabric and 2 inches of pea stone I have laid down in some pathways. It is my zombie plant!But we never give up trying, do we. I guess that is what makes us real gardeners and I love growing most of my own food. Cheers.
Glad you like the vids thanks!
What about clay soil? I have tilled, covered everything with hay and now I wait. I am planning to plant in spring 2021. I planted before (not Ruth Stout) and the garden did somewhat well the first year and then very poorly the following two years. I am SO hoping things will grow here in northern Alberta. I grew up in BC. I can't say how disspointing it is that is hard to grow stuff here.
I guess the natural question is - how clay is it? It may have been beneficial to till some manure or other organic material into it - but it will definitely benefit from have that hay there.
New gardener question; if I don't have access to horse manure, what do you suggest as the base layer?
Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean - can you elaborate a little? I made that video a year ago :)
Haha, yes, sorry. In the video, you put down a layer of horse manure. That is what you planted the potatoes in. You explained that the horse manure was good because it isn’t very “strong” (I think that’s the word you used). What can I use as that first layer if I don’t have access to horse manure? If I go to the garden center, what type of bagged medium or mixture of mediums can you suggest I use?
Can you use flax straw?
Thank you in advance.
I don't see why not. It will biodegrade like any other straw so yes, go for it :)