- 5,250
- 159
I sure will!
I just put this below together today, as I have had some questions, similar to yours.
Barely
cowpea
hairy vetch
Crimson clover
sorghum-
rape -
forage peas
buckwheat
Sunnhemp
Fixation Balansa -
No Till Food Plots - So Easy
- Thread starter at1010
- Start date
I just put this below together today, as I have had some questions, similar to yours.
Barely
cowpea
hairy vetch
Crimson clover
sorghum-
rape -
forage peas
buckwheat
Sunnhemp
Fixation Balansa -
- 5,250
- 159
Working on that sir. Might start taking orders in a week and filling orders in July. Finalizing everything in next 5-10 days.
- 5,250
- 159
This is live now - for any pre-orders. We will also be getting our distributor's orders in shortly. I am adding a new distributor in Western Ohio and Northern IL for those around those areas. We also have our current distributors, which include Greg (good buddy of mine) in SE Ohio.
Thank you all!
- 5,250
- 159
thank you so much! As soon as I have seed - it’ll be on to you! Should be around early to mid July. Thank you again so much.
- 5,250
- 159
thank you so much for the support brother!
tpierce
Junior Member
- 5,250
- 159
- 5,250
- 159
Now back to our regular programming!
Soil Health Friday – Keeping Soil Covered
One of the important principles of soil health is “keeping the soil covered”. You might hear this said a few different ways, such as “armor the soil”, “constant thatch”, etc. All in all, these are different variations of saying the same thing, and one of the big driving factors for no-till growing methods.
Keeping the soil covered allows the grower to slow rainfall down, reduce erosion risk (specifically when accompanied by a growing root), reduce soil surface temperature, increase water infiltration, and reduce water evaporation. Having this armor on the soil also will slowly break down, releasing nutrients to our growing plants (correct carbon to nitrogen ratios over cover crops and crop rotations play a big role here and with nutrient cycling, we can cover more of this in another blog).
So why does this matter?
As we keep our soil covered, and increase our duration of having a constant root growing in our soils, we increase our microbial (specifically fungal) networks in our soil structure. These fungal networks create biotic glues (glomalin) which further help to hold the soil together (aggregates). When you combine this with root structures in the soil, you have further created a porous soil structure for better water infiltration. You have also slowed down the raindrops before they are pounding into the top layer of the bare dirt (traditional deep tillage system) – this helps to heavily reduce erosion and even compaction! There have been studies that show rainfall on bare soil is a leading cause of compaction – mind-blowing!!
Now that we have the soil covered and we are taking advantage of all in the list above, we can increase water infiltration in our soils. This means that we are increasing water efficiency. So, in times of heavy rains, we are not having our water and soil run off, as it is infiltrating which is allowing our plants to take full advantage of the available rainfall, far beyond the immediate time in which it fell. Likewise, in dry periods when having the soil covered we can reduce the soil temperature and reduce dew evaporation, allowing us to take advantage of even the smallest amounts of moisture that would otherwise be lost in a traditional system.
As we continue to increase the health of our system and soils through better microbial activity, we achieve better nutrient solubility, water efficiency, water infiltration, etc. We can continue to stimulate other microbial communications that further drive the synergistic nutrient cycling and symbiotic plant communications with the soils, making our soils and plants healthier.
Here at Vitalize Seed, we have come up with two mixes and plans for planting these mixes that help to drive all of these systems and soil health benefits. We fully believe in transparency and research and want to continue to share information about soil health, to allow our growers and customers to choose the best methods for their slice of heaven.
Thank you for considering Vitalize Seed as you cover crop seed source. We believe in diversity with a purpose.
Albert
Soil Health Friday – Keeping Soil Covered
One of the important principles of soil health is “keeping the soil covered”. You might hear this said a few different ways, such as “armor the soil”, “constant thatch”, etc. All in all, these are different variations of saying the same thing, and one of the big driving factors for no-till growing methods.
Keeping the soil covered allows the grower to slow rainfall down, reduce erosion risk (specifically when accompanied by a growing root), reduce soil surface temperature, increase water infiltration, and reduce water evaporation. Having this armor on the soil also will slowly break down, releasing nutrients to our growing plants (correct carbon to nitrogen ratios over cover crops and crop rotations play a big role here and with nutrient cycling, we can cover more of this in another blog).
So why does this matter?
As we keep our soil covered, and increase our duration of having a constant root growing in our soils, we increase our microbial (specifically fungal) networks in our soil structure. These fungal networks create biotic glues (glomalin) which further help to hold the soil together (aggregates). When you combine this with root structures in the soil, you have further created a porous soil structure for better water infiltration. You have also slowed down the raindrops before they are pounding into the top layer of the bare dirt (traditional deep tillage system) – this helps to heavily reduce erosion and even compaction! There have been studies that show rainfall on bare soil is a leading cause of compaction – mind-blowing!!
Now that we have the soil covered and we are taking advantage of all in the list above, we can increase water infiltration in our soils. This means that we are increasing water efficiency. So, in times of heavy rains, we are not having our water and soil run off, as it is infiltrating which is allowing our plants to take full advantage of the available rainfall, far beyond the immediate time in which it fell. Likewise, in dry periods when having the soil covered we can reduce the soil temperature and reduce dew evaporation, allowing us to take advantage of even the smallest amounts of moisture that would otherwise be lost in a traditional system.
As we continue to increase the health of our system and soils through better microbial activity, we achieve better nutrient solubility, water efficiency, water infiltration, etc. We can continue to stimulate other microbial communications that further drive the synergistic nutrient cycling and symbiotic plant communications with the soils, making our soils and plants healthier.
Here at Vitalize Seed, we have come up with two mixes and plans for planting these mixes that help to drive all of these systems and soil health benefits. We fully believe in transparency and research and want to continue to share information about soil health, to allow our growers and customers to choose the best methods for their slice of heaven.
Thank you for considering Vitalize Seed as you cover crop seed source. We believe in diversity with a purpose.
Albert
- 5,250
- 159
Stressless
Active Member
I've been looking at adding Ag gypsum to my no-till methods. To use as the subsurface root zone method to reduce the acidity for my now all legumes plants and give a Ca boost. It is supposed to have higher yield with the leaching results to lower acid and increase ion transfer past where lime isn't incorporated with 'no-till' methods.
Like to hear your thoughts on no-till and gypsum as a sub surface acid soil adjustment when you have a min.
Like to hear your thoughts on no-till and gypsum as a sub surface acid soil adjustment when you have a min.
- 5,250
- 159
At this time, I think using gypsum for PH-altering effects is unproven and somewhat dependent on the colloid structure. I am sure that if you have H on the soil colloid and the CA is pushing it off, allowing it to react with some type of carbonate in the soil to give you a neutralizing impact on the soil profile- you could see some impacts on PH. However, you are relying on H reacting with something already in the soil to create a neutralizing solution. Lime works so well because it is made of CA and carbonate - allowing the H to have a readily available focal point for neutralization, in the carbonate.
As for gypsum leachability vs. lime - again, I think there is a lot that depends on this, even geographical regions would have an impact, on soil structure, base saturation, etc.
Now on the positive side of things - I think gypsum is a good source of CA, without needing to alter the PH (much or at all). I think that by getting our CA base saturation correct, we can drive MG to a correct level - equating to better overall soil porosity. This again is all relative to the CEC of the soil. I often see soil tests with good PH,but not nearly enough CA - this is when gypsum can easily be added to a PTO spreader.
Lastly - I don't worry much (at this point in my life) about the toxicity level of other cations. Aluminum (as discussed in the article) is often not bio-available in soils. The only time we have to worry about it is if we have a huge PPM of bio-available aluminum, relative to a low PH - forcing higher plant uptakes. I actually spoke to a soil scientist about this at WARD LABS recently, the amount of AI showing in the soil test was VERY high - however, he wasn't concerned at all. Not all of the PPM would be available at once, the OM was very high, as was the CEC allowing for more AI holding capacity, and the PH was fine - further driving down fears of toxicity.
Personally, I think sometimes we worry too much sometimes about these microcosms of soils. If we have a safe PH (6+), have solid base saturations, and practice the 6 soil health principles to the best of our ability on our slice of heaven - we will see increased C02 respiration, fungal populations, and healthier plants, all through natural nutrient cycling.
That is my 2 cents (maybe 5 cents, lol).
Stressless
Active Member
Thank you very much man - delay due to wedding and health, and yes I had to go lookup the 6 principles of soil health 
. I think I'm gonna try to apply Gypsum to help the Ca as you mentioned - I didn't get too into the AI part. I'm mostly interested in applying to both field and pond where I need to raise the alkalinity (5# /surface acre increases ppm by 1 in water) - it appears to support a neutralizing factor of the acid lower than the first inch or so I get with harrowing in the spread lime. My soil is so hot, 4.7 to 5.5 pH to start with I'm sure by visual and testing that I'm only getting reaction within the 1"-2" spreading lime either Ag or Pelletized. Soil tests will validate my experiment and I'll be back with where it started and afterwards.
I added the 6 principles that I found and seemed to match your guidance.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Principle 1: Context
The first and perhaps the most important aspect of soil health is knowing what type of natural conditions your soil is supposed to be in. This doesn’t mean what the soil looked like when you were growing up on your farm 40-50 years ago. The question you want to ask yourself is what would this soil look like in a natural state with minimal human contact? In many cases, you will have to understand the ecology of the area before humans permanently settled it or used it in a way to harvest a particular resource. What plants, animals, and natural events happened on your soil? The Midwest and North Dakota was once a large grassland with a herd of around 75 million buffalo migrating the northern plains with large populations of elk, deer, and prong horned antelope following the herd in a very similar way we see the wildebeests, zebra, antelope, and gazelles roaming the African savannah. Tall grass kept the soil from blowing, and upland birds lived in the grass and wetlands in the hundreds of millions. Thunderstorms, tornados, and brush fires were common on the prairie and long cold winters were common with deep snow.
Knowing your context is important because it allows you to set realistic goals for your garden, your cattle operation, or your fields. Knowing how much water you need or can survive on and planting the right crops that can grow in your environment makes sure that you have a better chance at a successful harvest and doesn’t have you scrambling to find water for your livestock because you put too many on your land.
Principle 2: Minimize Soil Disturbance
Soil works best when digging or tilling your soil as little as possible. North Dakota loses around 5-7 tons of topsoil per acre per year. One ton of soil on an acre is only as thick as a piece of paper. It’s not easy to see immediately. Microbes and other living things need the soil to stay intact as much as possible because they live in the pore space between the clay and organic matter that the soil is made of. Water and air trapped in the soil goes away when soil is tilled. Keeping your soil intact will decrease the amount of erosion or leaching that happens to your soil each year.
Principle 3: Living Root
At the same time, it is important that you have a living root in your soil whenever possible. The Living root creates the space where bacteria, insects, and fungus that make up your organic matter in the soil live. Roots also connect the soil with small fibers that keep it firmly locked in place. Roots can keep a crust from forming on the soil and are essential for absorbing water when it rains. With a well-developed root system, your soil will stay firm to walk on and more resistant to seasonal flooding.
Keeping a living root in the soil is a difficult task when your operation requires harvesting a crop but there are some methods to overcome this. First, determine how your land will be used and what crops you’ll be planning on growing. Cover crops should be planted as annuals if you are doing a traditional harvest during the fall in North Dakota it would be best to use a cover crop that is an annual plant rather than a perennial. If you are grazing your land or putting a cover in an area with some trees, you might want to consider a perennial plant that will come back every year.
Principle 4: Soil Armor
Cover crops are important because they make sure that soil isn’t disturbed and the living roots provide nutrients for the ecosystems they contain, but they have a third function. Cover crops ensure that soil is shaded from the sun and keeps the soil cool. On a hot day concrete can easily get to 140 degrees Fahrenheit and soil is no different. Cover, even if it is dead organic matter, is better than no cover for keeping your soil healthy. When plants make a canopy covering the soil effectively this soil armor can make the area much cooler than a barren landscape. The day and night-time temperatures stay much more stable and produce more consistent rainfall than areas that do not have significant cover. If you have livestock, they will also tend to be more comfortable, even in the heat of midday.
Principle 5: Diversity
Nature does not like it when there is only one plant grown in one area. This is known as a monoculture and it is a staple of commercial farming. Weeds are nature’s attempt to repair soil that has been planted with one crop or soil left bare. In North Dakota, for example, there are over 250 species of native grass and flora that grew in the soil. Amazingly, most of these plants are still here. Underneath our feet is an enormous seed bank of native seeds that are waiting to be regrown. If you have ever seen a cottonwood tree growing by itself in the middle of the prairie, that is an example of a plant from the seed bank growing.
Plants and insects in nature do not overtake each other because each plant and animal has a role to play in the ecosystem. When you have nothing but elm trees planted, it makes it easy for dutch elm disease to spread because there are many potential plants to infect. Pest insects can eat crops in large numbers because there is plentiful food available and no predator insects around to keep them in check.
Cover crops are a great solution to this problem but when you plant cover crops they too need to be many diverse species to work properly. If planting row crops, a mix of several cover seeds are recommended for maximum effectiveness. Nature needs as many different plants growing as possible.
Principle 6: Animal Disturbance
Most of these principles of soil health alone will improve your soil drastically and do well to conserve it. But if you want to truly regenerate soil, Animal Agitation is the keystone of regenerative agriculture. Animal agitation and waste give plants nutrients and new places to grow. In every context, there is some form of herd animal that can agitate the soil. Agitated soil can bring water to plants or allow roots to grow more easily. Nutrients that plants and Fungi make get cycled through the animal and through its waste get put into new areas. This in turn gives seed in the seed bank a chance to grow.
- 5,250
- 159
Thank you very much man - delay due to wedding and health, and yes I had to go lookup the 6 principles of soil health
I added the 6 principles that I found and seemed to match your guidance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Principle 1: Context
The first and perhaps the most important aspect of soil health is knowing what type of natural conditions your soil is supposed to be in. This doesn’t mean what the soil looked like when you were growing up on your farm 40-50 years ago. The question you want to ask yourself is what would this soil look like in a natural state with minimal human contact? In many cases, you will have to understand the ecology of the area before humans permanently settled it or used it in a way to harvest a particular resource. What plants, animals, and natural events happened on your soil? The Midwest and North Dakota was once a large grassland with a herd of around 75 million buffalo migrating the northern plains with large populations of elk, deer, and prong horned antelope following the herd in a very similar way we see the wildebeests, zebra, antelope, and gazelles roaming the African savannah. Tall grass kept the soil from blowing, and upland birds lived in the grass and wetlands in the hundreds of millions. Thunderstorms, tornados, and brush fires were common on the prairie and long cold winters were common with deep snow.
Knowing your context is important because it allows you to set realistic goals for your garden, your cattle operation, or your fields. Knowing how much water you need or can survive on and planting the right crops that can grow in your environment makes sure that you have a better chance at a successful harvest and doesn’t have you scrambling to find water for your livestock because you put too many on your land.
Principle 2: Minimize Soil Disturbance
Soil works best when digging or tilling your soil as little as possible. North Dakota loses around 5-7 tons of topsoil per acre per year. One ton of soil on an acre is only as thick as a piece of paper. It’s not easy to see immediately. Microbes and other living things need the soil to stay intact as much as possible because they live in the pore space between the clay and organic matter that the soil is made of. Water and air trapped in the soil goes away when soil is tilled. Keeping your soil intact will decrease the amount of erosion or leaching that happens to your soil each year.
Principle 3: Living Root
At the same time, it is important that you have a living root in your soil whenever possible. The Living root creates the space where bacteria, insects, and fungus that make up your organic matter in the soil live. Roots also connect the soil with small fibers that keep it firmly locked in place. Roots can keep a crust from forming on the soil and are essential for absorbing water when it rains. With a well-developed root system, your soil will stay firm to walk on and more resistant to seasonal flooding.
Keeping a living root in the soil is a difficult task when your operation requires harvesting a crop but there are some methods to overcome this. First, determine how your land will be used and what crops you’ll be planning on growing. Cover crops should be planted as annuals if you are doing a traditional harvest during the fall in North Dakota it would be best to use a cover crop that is an annual plant rather than a perennial. If you are grazing your land or putting a cover in an area with some trees, you might want to consider a perennial plant that will come back every year.
Principle 4: Soil Armor
Cover crops are important because they make sure that soil isn’t disturbed and the living roots provide nutrients for the ecosystems they contain, but they have a third function. Cover crops ensure that soil is shaded from the sun and keeps the soil cool. On a hot day concrete can easily get to 140 degrees Fahrenheit and soil is no different. Cover, even if it is dead organic matter, is better than no cover for keeping your soil healthy. When plants make a canopy covering the soil effectively this soil armor can make the area much cooler than a barren landscape. The day and night-time temperatures stay much more stable and produce more consistent rainfall than areas that do not have significant cover. If you have livestock, they will also tend to be more comfortable, even in the heat of midday.
Principle 5: Diversity
Nature does not like it when there is only one plant grown in one area. This is known as a monoculture and it is a staple of commercial farming. Weeds are nature’s attempt to repair soil that has been planted with one crop or soil left bare. In North Dakota, for example, there are over 250 species of native grass and flora that grew in the soil. Amazingly, most of these plants are still here. Underneath our feet is an enormous seed bank of native seeds that are waiting to be regrown. If you have ever seen a cottonwood tree growing by itself in the middle of the prairie, that is an example of a plant from the seed bank growing.
Plants and insects in nature do not overtake each other because each plant and animal has a role to play in the ecosystem. When you have nothing but elm trees planted, it makes it easy for dutch elm disease to spread because there are many potential plants to infect. Pest insects can eat crops in large numbers because there is plentiful food available and no predator insects around to keep them in check.
Cover crops are a great solution to this problem but when you plant cover crops they too need to be many diverse species to work properly. If planting row crops, a mix of several cover seeds are recommended for maximum effectiveness. Nature needs as many different plants growing as possible.
Principle 6: Animal Disturbance
Most of these principles of soil health alone will improve your soil drastically and do well to conserve it. But if you want to truly regenerate soil, Animal Agitation is the keystone of regenerative agriculture. Animal agitation and waste give plants nutrients and new places to grow. In every context, there is some form of herd animal that can agitate the soil. Agitated soil can bring water to plants or allow roots to grow more easily. Nutrients that plants and Fungi make get cycled through the animal and through its waste get put into new areas. This in turn gives seed in the seed bank a chance to grow.
Let me know how you make out.
Just keep in mind that gypsum itself will not alter PH - you need the H to interact with carbonate to create an acid. Gypsum is more soluble than lime and why it can help increase CA levels faster and in lower parts of the soil profile. It could be an option to cut lime with some gypsum, just to see if you notice any impacts on PH and CA base saturations, faster.
Keep up the great work!
- 5,250
- 159
Soil Health Friday – Soil Structure?
One of the keys to understanding soils and nutrient cycling is understanding what gives structure to the soil. Often, we see CEC referenced on our soil samples results but the grower might be unsure of how to apply that information. We also might hear the words aggregates, base saturation, sandy, tight, clay, loam, etc. to describe our soil conditions, but what does it all mean and how can we implement an approach for the best plan on that particular field? Let’s dive in!
We must start by recognizing the complexity of soils and structures of soils, these are very complex, and very few fields will even be homogenous throughout their entirety. Soils are variable and the biological component in them is fluid and forever moving, living, respiration, and changing. The goal is to allow our biological aspect of soils to best work for us, through reduced disturbance, diversity, constant roots growth, and all additional the soil health principles.
To ensure our soils have good structure, we must start by looking at base saturations and our ideal targets for these, based on the CECs of our soils.
Let’s assume we have a very low CEC, which is typically indicative of sandy soil. We will want to ensure that this soil structure is tighter than say a higher CEC (more clay) type soil. Therefore, we are going to aim for a higher MG base saturation in this soil to hold the soil tighter. The inverse of this would be a high MG soil, in a higher CEC soil type. This soil might need more CA to increase the porosity and formation and spacing of the IONS on the soil colloid, also driving out the MG for a more porous structure. Simply by managing our base saturations, often can be accomplished with lime, we can enhance our soil’s structure. This is the foundation, in which we can build our soils and microbes homes.
Now that we have enhanced our soil structure through an adequate base saturation focus and adjustment. We can now switch our focus to our biological processes and planting methods. With Vitalize Seed we use a One-Two system that is designed to help with nutrient cycling, ideally through no-till systems. Due to the vast amount of diversity and balanced C: N ratios of our mixes, we are optimizing microbial communications in our soils and cycling nutrients so that one crop planting is feeding the next.
As we continue with these systems not only are we cycling nutrients, and adding OM through above and below-ground biomass. We are (more importantly) leading our systems to more fungal-dominated systems, over time. As we increase our mycorrhizae (and other fungal networks) in the soil and communicate with these networks through root exudation, we will increase our fungal enzyme releases and glomalin (biotic glue) production. Glomalin works as a “glue” for the soil and aids in the formation of soil aggregates. Soil aggregation is extremely important to the structure of the soil, the CEC of the soil, the water infiltration, and the microbial communication and transferability through the soil profile, and up into the plants. Aggregation is very susceptible to tillage, and tillage will damage or destroy the aggregation that our microbiome worked so hard to create.
In the end, if you are growing on beach sand to Appalachian clay – by following these above steps, over time – you will be able to create a better soil structure. This will help you with plant growth, microbial communications, water infiltration, root structure, erosion control, and much more.
As always, I hope this is useful, and thank you for considering Vitalize Seed as your source for balanced, cover crop seed mixes.
One of the keys to understanding soils and nutrient cycling is understanding what gives structure to the soil. Often, we see CEC referenced on our soil samples results but the grower might be unsure of how to apply that information. We also might hear the words aggregates, base saturation, sandy, tight, clay, loam, etc. to describe our soil conditions, but what does it all mean and how can we implement an approach for the best plan on that particular field? Let’s dive in!
We must start by recognizing the complexity of soils and structures of soils, these are very complex, and very few fields will even be homogenous throughout their entirety. Soils are variable and the biological component in them is fluid and forever moving, living, respiration, and changing. The goal is to allow our biological aspect of soils to best work for us, through reduced disturbance, diversity, constant roots growth, and all additional the soil health principles.
To ensure our soils have good structure, we must start by looking at base saturations and our ideal targets for these, based on the CECs of our soils.
Let’s assume we have a very low CEC, which is typically indicative of sandy soil. We will want to ensure that this soil structure is tighter than say a higher CEC (more clay) type soil. Therefore, we are going to aim for a higher MG base saturation in this soil to hold the soil tighter. The inverse of this would be a high MG soil, in a higher CEC soil type. This soil might need more CA to increase the porosity and formation and spacing of the IONS on the soil colloid, also driving out the MG for a more porous structure. Simply by managing our base saturations, often can be accomplished with lime, we can enhance our soil’s structure. This is the foundation, in which we can build our soils and microbes homes.
Now that we have enhanced our soil structure through an adequate base saturation focus and adjustment. We can now switch our focus to our biological processes and planting methods. With Vitalize Seed we use a One-Two system that is designed to help with nutrient cycling, ideally through no-till systems. Due to the vast amount of diversity and balanced C: N ratios of our mixes, we are optimizing microbial communications in our soils and cycling nutrients so that one crop planting is feeding the next.
As we continue with these systems not only are we cycling nutrients, and adding OM through above and below-ground biomass. We are (more importantly) leading our systems to more fungal-dominated systems, over time. As we increase our mycorrhizae (and other fungal networks) in the soil and communicate with these networks through root exudation, we will increase our fungal enzyme releases and glomalin (biotic glue) production. Glomalin works as a “glue” for the soil and aids in the formation of soil aggregates. Soil aggregation is extremely important to the structure of the soil, the CEC of the soil, the water infiltration, and the microbial communication and transferability through the soil profile, and up into the plants. Aggregation is very susceptible to tillage, and tillage will damage or destroy the aggregation that our microbiome worked so hard to create.
In the end, if you are growing on beach sand to Appalachian clay – by following these above steps, over time – you will be able to create a better soil structure. This will help you with plant growth, microbial communications, water infiltration, root structure, erosion control, and much more.
As always, I hope this is useful, and thank you for considering Vitalize Seed as your source for balanced, cover crop seed mixes.
- 5,250
- 159
Few update pics on the NitroBoost this Spring.
Feeding deer and soil - getting ready for the fall plantings!
Feeding deer and soil - getting ready for the fall plantings!
- 5,250
- 159
Habitat Podcast #183 - Fall Food Plots with Al & Jared
Podcast Episode · Habitat Podcast · 06/23/2022 · 49m
podcasts.apple.com
For anyone that cares - I got to be on Jared’s podcast Habitat Podcast - talking about our fall mix and our one-two system. Also what we strive do offer as a company that helps us stand out from the crowd. Happy Friday!!