buckhunter10
Well-Known Member
Very interesting webinar on mycorrhizae fungi and how it helps to make hold water, increase nutrients in plants, increase nutrient uptake availability, reduce run-off, etc. Well worth the listen.
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Very interesting webinar on mycorrhizae fungi and how it helps to make hold water, increase nutrients in plants, increase nutrient uptake availability, reduce run-off, etc. Well worth the listen.
buckhunter10
Well-Known Member
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/small-acre-hunting-podcast/id1234801090?i=1000514569808
I was invited to speak on this podcast all about soil health and most importantly the resources that people can use to learn about soil health, from those far smarter and more experienced than I.
Thanks to Ty Miller for having me on. An absolute honor to be asked to discuss this topic that I am so passionate about, and far from an expert on. Truly humbling.
I appreciated the invite greatly and the conversation was a great one.
I was invited to speak on this podcast all about soil health and most importantly the resources that people can use to learn about soil health, from those far smarter and more experienced than I.
Thanks to Ty Miller for having me on. An absolute honor to be asked to discuss this topic that I am so passionate about, and far from an expert on. Truly humbling.
I appreciated the invite greatly and the conversation was a great one.
buckhunter10
Well-Known Member
Here I show how a legume plant is fixing atmospheric nitrogen, which is making it bioavailable for the next crop that I plant. This is a major benefit of a cover crop. It is important to note that this can take a few years, and going cold turkey on N fertilizer can reduce outputs/yields. One note I forgot to mention and wanted to add: When a crop is cut/browsed/etc.
Even though the entire plant is not dead, parts of the roots will die, which can make that nitrogen or other nutrients that were bound up to the roots, available to microbes, meaning transferable to the other plants in the network....Symbiosis! For more information on the Rhizophagey Cycle - youtube Dr. James White - several very informative webinars. For more information on Dr. Christine Jones and the studies, I referenced youtube Dr. Christine Jones, "The Nitrogen Solution".
BenAllgood
Well-Known Member
Good stuff. That's one of the reasons I don't cut my clover. The nitrogen released can be a jump start for grasses and a few weeks later, it looks like grass is taking over. Not bad if you're going to spray the grass later, but I only want to work in my plots once a year just to overseed them.
buckhunter10
Well-Known Member
Ben - if you are open to planting highly diverse cover crop mixes, vs. a monoculture of clover - you will highly reduce your weed competition. The reason grasses show up in clover plots is due to the amount of N being pumped into the soil, without a solid carbon to nitrogen ratio balancing the soil's microbiome - basically no "good crops" there to scavenge that N (rye, brassica, etc.).
If you have clover, rye, oats, turnips, etc. as a fall mix, you will get a solid mix of high and low CtoN crops, this helps to feed the microbes, and naturally through the thatch and allelopathic traits of rye grain (for example) will reduce the need for grass select herbicides.
BenAllgood
Well-Known Member
Exactly. I didn't mean that I planted clover alone. I plant a mix. I was pointing out that when people can see a flush of grass later on after mowing in a clover plot it may be because they've released some of the nitrogen.
buckhunter10
Well-Known Member
Ah yes! Mowing that clover and not having any crops to grab that N....booom grass seed!! Little buggers!!
To be honest Ben, I don't even mow my plots anymore. I am not against it but my time is limited. I broadcast right into it and then I do one burn off a year and broadcast into that standing thatch. I will need to take time and update this thread with how it worked this past year.
Like you, I am trying to limit my time and effort on plots. Although I do hope to get a drill someday soon!!
BenAllgood
Well-Known Member
Yep, that's what I'm doing. I don't have the time, nor do I want to devote too much time to such a small percent of my land. I'd rather spend my time or resources making the parts of my property where deer spend most of their time better. 5% of my land is devoted to supplemental foodplots. 35% is made up of developing early successional plant communities. 60% is woodland being converted back to primarily oaks. Those are rough numbers, but fairly accurate. I want lots of food, but I want it where the deer spend most of their time. The early successional areas and regenerating oak woodland gives me that along with cover. The foodplots are just supplemental and honestly just there to ease harvests and viewing.
buckhunter10
Well-Known Member
Another fantastic Webinar by John Kempf, understanding PH, redox, oxidation, and how they impact nutrient availability, fascinating!!
My notes below:
The only valid indicator of what nutrients are in the soil are sap analysis
Conventional soil tests will tell us if Iron or MG is in the soil profile but we don’t know if this is in the redox form vs. bioavailable form.
Tillage, exposure to sunlight, nitrate application – strong oxidizing factors
Nutrient availability is ultimately determined by biological activity.
Chemical inputs will result in hitting a ceiling in plant health. Need functioning biology
Crop health labs for sap analysis for more information.
No lab report or soil assay that gives us everything we are looking for in one-stop-shop
.
Really healthy soil will suppress pathogens – good biological activity.
Really healthy soil has enough biological available N, without adding N, to produce a top yield for that field, without supplemental N – all biologically delivered N.
Examples of plantings pulling up oxidized forms of Iron, but they are unable to use that form so they store it in the plant, once they realize it is not bioavailable. Will show up in the tissue sample but not in sap analysis. This reminds me of the Dr. Christine Jones study on the Nitrogen loop and the uptake of “funny proteins” or non-convertible nitrates to amino acids.
Often best to purchase the trace minerals in the amino acid state, not in the oxidized state.
Salt fertilizers, lime, etc. are all oxidizers! As well as heat, tillage, etc.
Soil PH and plant sap PH – zero correlation
Pathogenic microbes are oxidizers – so as you add fertilizers that are also oxidizers, which are reducing healthy microbes, you are enhancing pathogenic microbes’ populations.
Not all OM is created equal – many variables. Principle understanding is surrounded around the bio-physics over the environment in which the OM was created. Example, is it paramagnetic or diamagnetic? Depends on the soil's paramagnetic, electric conductivity.
Build Better Soils!!
dogghr
Well-Known Member
Now I like you giving synopsis Buck. I do you tube but a podcast puts me to sleep/ I know I know. Sometimes we do overthink tho as habitat managers. Rotational and/or multi specie foodplots certainly alleviate some need for fert and ph maintenance. Not sure I can go along so much with being picky of OM types being important for non profit growers tho. Loss of grazers such as cattle , Buffalo, elk, really changes how we must manage soils. Thanks for sharing
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
buckhunter10
Well-Known Member
i enjoyed the science behind it all. Especially the stuff that is new and on the cutting edge of understanding soil.
I suspect there are many things we as “just hunters” don’t need to know. An example is the FPS or physics behind our bow setups. I personally never found that very interesting.
Soil - I love. I really love the ideas of connecting the dots. Understand the importance of nutrient density and where/what impacts, aside from traditional ideas that stated OM or some other word as the only or key driver. Because of this I share my thoughts but don’t mean to insist anyone needs to be as interested as I.
One last caveat for me is I grow a massive garden of every year. Boardiine small farm. 200 tomato’s, 150 peppers, etc. So for me I am extremely interested in that soil building and nutrient uptake processes there as well.
always appreciate you sir.
AT
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buckhunter10
Well-Known Member
New Video - checkout how the cover crop is helping regulate temperature and moisture! This will only become more apparent as temperatures get warmer during this growing season!
Build Better Soils!
Build Better Soils!
buckhunter10
Well-Known Member
The idea behind quorum sensing continues to fascinate me. Similar to epigenetic triggers in humans, whitetails, etc. - quorum sensing within the soil micro-biome- is a very real phenomenon that further drives soil building capabilities, rhizosheath creation, and optimal nutrient densities in our food and crops.
The analogy I like to use:
Quorum Sensing is like a baseball team. If you have 6 ball players (microbes) on the field, you are going to have some clear gaps in your defense (soil profile, pathogen defense, etc.). As you increase the number of ballplayers and 9 is now reached (quorum level), you can achieve far greater consistency of play and possibly achieve greatness through this level of 9 is reached, which would be unreachable previously.
Not the best analogy but one that I hope helps folks grasp this fascinating topic.
Hope you all enjoy it!
buckhunter10
Well-Known Member
Garden update, step one to planting GREEN!
buckhunter10
Well-Known Member
Why I love hairy vetch and why I want to stop calling them "food plots" and start calling them Wildlife Pastures!
buckhunter10
Well-Known Member
Years ago, I would look at this field as a disaster. I would have worked this ground twice by now, tilled in beans, sprayed the beans, waited and prayed for rain, sprayed again, then tilled it all come fall to plant another crop.
Today, you can't wipe the smile off my face when I look at this picture. If you notice there is a doe meandering through this field. Also, note that much of Ohio is very worried about a drought right now. Does this field look like it lacks water to you? The reason is that it is a functioning soil system, taking advantage of the symbiotic relationship with the mycorrhizal fungi network, allowing the plants to become far less susceptible to drought!! This field is a photosynthetic machine - root exudates are being pumped into the soil to feed the biology and help build OM!
We cannot see is the various stages of growth and plants in this picture. but they are there. I suspect that doe is filling her rumen with hairy vetch, clovers, buckwheat, oats, sunflowers, and the awnless rye grain seed heads. Turkeys will come through here bugging and eating the clovers as well. The field would be buzzing from the sound of pollinators, doing what God intended.
Come July-August, I will spray this field, let it dry, and seed right into the standing thatch. If time permits, I will bush hog off the thatch 2 weeks later just to help spread out the layer of thatch. This thatch will feed microbes, but not nearly as much as the constant root exudates being pumped into the soil will. The thatch will help to retain moisture, and keep the soil cooler during the "dog days of Summer", lastly it helps to keep weed competition down.
After that, I will sit back and allow the microbes to go to work, and allow the wildlife to continue to utilize these nutrient-dense fields.
Hope you all enjoy this perspective on why I love Wildlife Pastures!
Build Better Soil!
AT.
lakngolf
Well-Known Member
I just wish the spraying was not a part of the process. It is needed to end the growth of items that will compete and win against successive seed but seems to be a quite unnatural introduction into this perceived all natural process.
I will spray a fence row but dont want it in the plots or garden.
Some in the throw and now vein get by without it I think.
I will spray a fence row but dont want it in the plots or garden.
Some in the throw and now vein get by without it I think.
buckhunter10
Well-Known Member
Yes sir. I am working to eliminate spraying as well. I have totally reduced my spray and now I use it once every 12-14 months. However, the goal is to eventually have a drill or planter and plant green then terminate via crimper or mowing.
Going from tilling, fertilizing, spraying excessively to where I am at today - has been a journey!! haha and my soil seems to be reacting very positively to all these changes.
I do not spray my garden. That is much smaller, relatively speaking, and I can manage that thatch and continued mowing (if needed). Always appreciate you, sir!
buckhunter10
Well-Known Member
No crimper? No problem - this is working great to create a thatch layer on my Garden! Quick update!
buckhunter10
Well-Known Member
Well, mowing worked so well in my garden. I believe I am doing all plots this year this way, no spray just mow and roll!
