No worries. Nothing more anoying than someone banging on endlessly about their pet project and inserting it into every thread going. My bad xx LOL
Small scale demonstration of biodynamic farming, soil replenishment, cover cropping, crop rotation, permaculture, polyculture, and organic gardening
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Meadowlark
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I would suggest that most folks who use HK containers do not have access to great garden soil to change it out and if they do it can be very expensive as well as inconvenient.
My tests clearly show the top layer of soil in an HK container depletes with each crop...just like your garden soil does. How rapidly depends on the veggie grown. The other layers in the HK container are fine for a long time without intervention.
Continuous maintenance is not an option I want. I want to plant it and leave it except for watering and that can also be easily automated and the harvest of nutrient dense tasty veggies. No teas, no sprays, no treatments, etc. nothing but water and sunshine.
I'm hoping to show that with just 15ml of seed, a garden trowel and a trimmer (or scissors), you can completely restore an HK container topsoil .... using traditional gardening techniques that have been proven over and over for centuries.
Nothing more or nothing less.
On with the show!
My tests clearly show the top layer of soil in an HK container depletes with each crop...just like your garden soil does. How rapidly depends on the veggie grown. The other layers in the HK container are fine for a long time without intervention.
Continuous maintenance is not an option I want. I want to plant it and leave it except for watering and that can also be easily automated and the harvest of nutrient dense tasty veggies. No teas, no sprays, no treatments, etc. nothing but water and sunshine.
I'm hoping to show that with just 15ml of seed, a garden trowel and a trimmer (or scissors), you can completely restore an HK container topsoil .... using traditional gardening techniques that have been proven over and over for centuries.
Nothing more or nothing less.
On with the show!
Heirloom farmer1969
Year-round farmer and lover of all of nature
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Interesting!!
Look forward to seeing the results!!
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My only challenge was concerning crop rotation to minimise disease; I specifically stated that nutrients would have to be carefully watched.
Having said that, your posts are very interesting.
Meadowlark
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July
With my understanding of Headfullofbees challenges narrowed down to crop rotation's role in disease minimization and Skinyea having already demonstrated and reported on the feasibility of applying these techniques in his container gardening, in my mind all that remains is to determine how long it takes to complete a container's soil replenishment in situ using organic methods. It normally requires 12 weeks to replenish garden soil using Sunn Hemp. For this demo, I plan to start testing the Headfullofbees container at 6 weeks.
Meanwhile it has not rained one drop during this experiment, most days have been 100 deg F or higher, all nights except one have been 80 deg F or higher, and all days approach 100% humidity…but its “ideal conditions”, LOL.
The starting point for July is the regrown Sunn Hemp cover crop which had been previously subjected to manual “chop and drop” to add organic matter to the depleted soil. The Sunn Hemp quickly regrew to another dense stand of green matter as shown below.
On July 5, the next step in this demonstration, green manure application, was completed manually in the HK container. This step takes only about 1 minute to manually turn the green manure into the container soil using a gardening trowel as shown below:
By July 18, the green matter in the HK container soil was assimilated into the soil by naturally occurring actions. The soil testing sample was taken on this day exactly 6 weeks from inception and mailed to the lab for analysis.
Normally, I allow 12 weeks to complete replenishment in the full garden using Sunn Hemp but we’re going to test this HK container soil at 6 weeks and see what if anything has been accomplished.
With my understanding of Headfullofbees challenges narrowed down to crop rotation's role in disease minimization and Skinyea having already demonstrated and reported on the feasibility of applying these techniques in his container gardening, in my mind all that remains is to determine how long it takes to complete a container's soil replenishment in situ using organic methods. It normally requires 12 weeks to replenish garden soil using Sunn Hemp. For this demo, I plan to start testing the Headfullofbees container at 6 weeks.
Meanwhile it has not rained one drop during this experiment, most days have been 100 deg F or higher, all nights except one have been 80 deg F or higher, and all days approach 100% humidity…but its “ideal conditions”, LOL.
The starting point for July is the regrown Sunn Hemp cover crop which had been previously subjected to manual “chop and drop” to add organic matter to the depleted soil. The Sunn Hemp quickly regrew to another dense stand of green matter as shown below.
On July 5, the next step in this demonstration, green manure application, was completed manually in the HK container. This step takes only about 1 minute to manually turn the green manure into the container soil using a gardening trowel as shown below:
By July 18, the green matter in the HK container soil was assimilated into the soil by naturally occurring actions. The soil testing sample was taken on this day exactly 6 weeks from inception and mailed to the lab for analysis.
Normally, I allow 12 weeks to complete replenishment in the full garden using Sunn Hemp but we’re going to test this HK container soil at 6 weeks and see what if anything has been accomplished.
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Meadowlark
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13 days for the green matter to be assimilated into the soil? Yes, that definitely surprised me. I thought it would take longer.
I was also very impressed by how fast the Sunn Hemp regrew in the container after being "mowed". I thought the mowing might stunt the growth somewhat, but, on the contrary, it continued a 2 inch per day average growth even after mowing. Amazing stuff.
yes. 13 days for it to breakdown. must be the 100 degree heat.
Meadowlark
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6 Week Soil Test Results:
The soil test results for the 6 week point of the demonstration are in and show tremendous improvement in the initially depleted HK container soil named Headfullofbees. Of the 14 nutrients tested after 6 weeks, 12 were at or above optimal with only Nitrogen now slightly below optimal and Boron remaining Low.
Specifically, in the 6-week time period, nitrogen is up 682%, phosphorus up 69%, potassium up 1146%, sulphur up 33%, magnesium up 116%, iron up 1263%, manganese up 227%, and zinc up 54.%. Other elements were essentially unchanged. The nutrient density score increased by 83%.
These are outstanding results IMO demonstrating that indeed even a small container’s soil can be replenished in situ with the application of traditional techniques of compost addition, cover crops, crop rotation, chop and drop, and green manure application. Just a handful of seeds and time is all that is required.
This container’s replenished soil is now certainly more than good enough to grow any vegetable except perhaps Brassicas without need for any supplements. To grow Brassicas, the soil will need to be treated with a Boron supplement. This is standard procedure for me to treat any of my soil with a Boron supplement around any Brassicas planted because all my garden soil is always low in that element and I have not found any cover crop which adds it to the soil.
The demonstration was completely successful. It also showed me that I need to measure my usage of the home-grown composted cow manure in soil replenishment with high readings in Iron, Ammonium, Potassium, and Phosphorus.
I will complete another round of green manure application just to bump up the nitrogen level slightly further and perhaps achieve more balance in the soil nutrients. Simply by extrapolating the progression of the nitrogen numbers to this point, 8 weeks total should be sufficient to move nitrogen above the optimal level. I’m not inclined to run another soil test because it is totally unnecessary at this point having achieved soil replenishment.
The container is now covered in mulch while the soil incorporates another round of green manure. A shot of Boron and it is ready for planting some cabbage in the next experiment which will be “NO Dig vs Organic vs HK container” (including the Headfullofbees container).
The soil test data, in ppm is shown below for the initial and 6-week results.
The soil test results for the 6 week point of the demonstration are in and show tremendous improvement in the initially depleted HK container soil named Headfullofbees. Of the 14 nutrients tested after 6 weeks, 12 were at or above optimal with only Nitrogen now slightly below optimal and Boron remaining Low.
Specifically, in the 6-week time period, nitrogen is up 682%, phosphorus up 69%, potassium up 1146%, sulphur up 33%, magnesium up 116%, iron up 1263%, manganese up 227%, and zinc up 54.%. Other elements were essentially unchanged. The nutrient density score increased by 83%.
These are outstanding results IMO demonstrating that indeed even a small container’s soil can be replenished in situ with the application of traditional techniques of compost addition, cover crops, crop rotation, chop and drop, and green manure application. Just a handful of seeds and time is all that is required.
This container’s replenished soil is now certainly more than good enough to grow any vegetable except perhaps Brassicas without need for any supplements. To grow Brassicas, the soil will need to be treated with a Boron supplement. This is standard procedure for me to treat any of my soil with a Boron supplement around any Brassicas planted because all my garden soil is always low in that element and I have not found any cover crop which adds it to the soil.
The demonstration was completely successful. It also showed me that I need to measure my usage of the home-grown composted cow manure in soil replenishment with high readings in Iron, Ammonium, Potassium, and Phosphorus.
I will complete another round of green manure application just to bump up the nitrogen level slightly further and perhaps achieve more balance in the soil nutrients. Simply by extrapolating the progression of the nitrogen numbers to this point, 8 weeks total should be sufficient to move nitrogen above the optimal level. I’m not inclined to run another soil test because it is totally unnecessary at this point having achieved soil replenishment.
The container is now covered in mulch while the soil incorporates another round of green manure. A shot of Boron and it is ready for planting some cabbage in the next experiment which will be “NO Dig vs Organic vs HK container” (including the Headfullofbees container).
The soil test data, in ppm is shown below for the initial and 6-week results.
Nutrient | Initial Results,ppm | 6 Week Results,ppm | % Change |
| | | |
| Total Nitrogen (N) | 3.21 | 25 | +682% |
| Nitrate (NO3-N) | 1.64 | 4.8 | +196% |
| Ammonium (NH4-N) | 1.58 | 20 | +1150% |
| Phosphorus (P) | 45.25 | 76 | +69% |
| Potassium (K) | 6.87 | 86 | +1146% |
| Sulfur (S) | 9.8 | 13 | +33% |
| Calcium (Ca) | 460.86 | 319 | -30% |
| Magnesium (Mg) | 18.45 | 40 | +116% |
| Sodium (Na) | 15.69 | 27 | +72% |
| Iron (Fe) | 1.12 | 15 | +1263% |
| Manganese (Mn) | 5.54 | 18 | +227% |
| Zinc (Zn) | 0.52 | .8 | +54% |
| Copper (Cu) | 0.07 | 0.06 | -14% |
| Boron (B) | 0.09 | 0.04 | -55% |
| Other: pH | 6.6 | 6.5 | -1% |
| Other: Nutrient density | 51% | 94% | +83% |
Meadowlark
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I wondered about that also but haven't come up with anything.
The drop was actually a good thing, however, as it lowered a high reading of 461 ppm into the optimal range of 319 ppm.
Holy cow. I'm in wide-eyed wonder mode. I wanna run right out, put all my poor, sickly, disease-ridden plants into the trash, and plant a dang cover crop. Like today! But I'm trying to reign in my tendency to go with any gardening wind that blows (this was a pretty gusty
one!) and I'm gonna give myself a day to tiptoe around it and poke at it a little more first.
I wish you had a before/after pest and disease chart.
one!) and I'm gonna give myself a day to tiptoe around it and poke at it a little more first.
I wish you had a before/after pest and disease chart.
Meadowlark
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Just noticed this comment...for the record, the potato crop grown in the container that preceded this experiment was disease free and insect free with zero sprays. Likewise, the crop grown post replenishment in the container, was completely insect and disease free and required zero sprays.I wish you had a before/after pest and disease chart.