So interesting about the seeds initial evaluation of the soil. Makes me wonder about those seed starting mixes with no nutrients at all that so many garden channel recommend.
The trade off is that growing in live soil means higher likelihood of fungal diseases, and root eating pests. If you are a commercial grower, you are likely going to make the safer known choice, than potentially losing plants to pests or disease. I've never had that happen to me here, but its worth mentioning that this is what the trade off is. I'm going to pin this comment for exposure. It would have been nice to mention this in the video.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacyIt is hard to understand that a sprouted seed can determine how big it will grow and how many fruit it will set based on the soil it is in in its first week (12:20). The roots of a sprout are maybe an inch long, but even if that plus the planting depth round up to two inches, I find it hard to believe all my tomato and pepper seedlings that are started in a sterile mix would be more productive if it was not sterile, that the top 2" and first couple weeks dictate a seedlings future potential. Is there any research you can mention that backs this up? It was mentioned that there was, but that was it. And, respectfully, this seems like a feedback loop where something was mentioned and OP here says that sounds like an an interesting concept and a feedback loop starts. The cons of a fertile starting mix are mentioned well. It is just hard to imagine that so much is determined from the top couple inches of "soil" and that the environment it grows in and the type of season (hot, dry, humid, etc.) in the months after the first week doesn’t have a bigger impact. Granted, the claim was that the the first week’s environment sets a destiny or ceiling, not that the following months have no impact.
I can't seem to find the exact research but I have found something, from the same authors as I originally found. It was during a podcast, I believe a John Kempf podcast, and the interviewee was a seed researcher. I remembered they were from Germany, and these names sounded familiar, so I believe it is the same research: www.jstor.org/stable/25173245. I can't seem to access the whole article, but it appears to be linking various traits of longevity to the fertility of the soils the seeds started in, and they controlled for 120 plots and 75 species of plants. I do think that there is a high likelihood that more research needs to be done in the area before we can confidently conclude anything, but there is certainly evidence for it.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy I’ll be more specific. At 12:34 a plant determines in the 1st week "how many fruit it will set, how early, and how big it will grow" from the fertility of the soil in the first week. I start seedlings in a sterile medium and do not up-pot them into a larger pot for 4 weeks (tomatoes) and a good 6 weeks for peppers. These plants do well in the garden, despite having no nutrients from the soil or starter fertilizers for these 4-6 weeks. And they do somewhat better than the "volunteer" cherry tomato and tomatillo plants that inevitably pop up from fruit that fell to the ground and started late the next year when the nutrient rich soil warmed up enough for them to start. Despite having nutrient rich soil for not just week 4-6 onwards, and not just week 1 onwards, but from the previous fall onwards, the volunteer plants do not produce more. It is impressive how the volunteers do considering that they start growing weeks later that indoor seedlings, but they at best match those that started in sterile mix. A lot of good content here, but 12:15 to about 14:40 doesn’t jive with my observations. And at 12:00 you do start by saying a seed has all the nutrients it needs to get started. I think the comments in the couple minutes after that understate how self sufficient a seed is for a good month, aside from water and light needs. See how your experience plays out. I definitely have never had a tomato plant produce only a single tomato (and early) because it started in infertile soil.
In the complex topic of epigenetics (different actual outcomes from the exact same genetic sequence, depending on initial environmental conditions), there is an observation that apple seedlings, for example, will activate specific sections of their genetic library for drought tolerance, deep rooting etc based on their initial germination conditions (as you described about veggies, which I don’t know much about). You get hardier, more stout apple seedlings by giving them tough initial conditions, which then results very rapid initial growth when these seedlings are placed in more fertile soil. It isn’t clear whether these trees are permanently tougher or not (it may be that the genes for tough conditions eventually get turned off when the fertility improves).
Thanks for sharing, very interesting! Epigenetics in humans is finally getting more recognition... For too long everyone has been blaming their genetics for their diseases and obesity. Epigenetics is so fascinating, what genes do you want to switch off by lifestyle!
For sure. The best years I ever had was the Gilmore years. I feel like this team finally has the ability to win a cup, we just keep choking in the playoffs. This could be the year.
Thanks for mentioning peat and also not to start seeds too early. As MG in Minn, zone 4- we get questions in Feb to start plants. All of us are anxious to start plants, we understand, but we start in late March and April for most seeds. And Yes, don't put out plants too early. Air temp is one easy thing to watch, but soil temp is more impactful on plants, especially those warm season plants.
I do agree that Peat releases carbon into the atmosphere but I will not use coco coir. They cut down rain forests to plant coconut trees and they use thousands of gallons of fresh water to remove salt from coir. Then dump the water back into rivers. I don't know what the answer is
Indeed, that's more of an alternative for someone where you can get it locally, and in a sustainable way. Always use whats local. For me, that's manure, compost, leaves and wood (biochar or shredded chips)
Grizzly, yes that is a concern. We need to use what we can and keep researching for good alternatives like leaf mold and good compost etc. I don't have the answer Ieither and the more I learn I see how precarious and yet strong nature is. We humans have to work harder to be working with (not against) nature. Stepping off of my soap box now. smile
Salal is a native where I live in Oregon, USA. I have a wild one that grows up through a Rhododendron bush. I think the Rhododendron protects the Salal from being eaten by the deer. I just have to be careful that I don't damage the Salal when weeding around or pruning the Rhododendron.
Thanks for the input about peat moss. I've had much success with peat moss in the past. It works great for busting up heavy clay soils. I had already stopped using it because it got too expensive but now, I have an even better reason to not use it. Plus, there are better ways of breaking up clay soil.
Try daikon radishes for busting clay. Just plant them, let them grow and leave them in the soil over the winter for worms to eat. A very effective natural solution that also builds fertility.
Peat mining . . . ok. Peat's off my list for purchasing starting now. Thanks for the heads up. I'm hoping that seaweed will become available (if anyone on the southern coast has enough sense to utilize the billion tons of sargossa weed washing up on the coastlines that is).
Always love to think about seed starting. I have started too early in the past. My starts always grow much faster than the packets predict, perhaps due to my grow setup.
Good to know other people learn the same things from the same mistakes! Hopefully this video will help someone avoid having to do the mistake to learn from it!
Last frost here (Pacific Northwest) is next week. I already put in radishes, started lettuce, and spinach, hardened off enough to plant. Salal does take cold, but definitely needs some shelter from wind and deep cold (-25°C). Peppers, tomatoes, those won't be planted out for another 2 weeks, frost becomes erratic with the change in the polar winds. I never have used peat, substituted coir the last years. I do have vermiculture compost, make an extract for watering everything. I try to keep the foods etc as balanced as possible to get a full range of nutrients. I still need to find black currant bushes for winter boost especially jam and compote.
@@Double0pi Do you mean Burnt Ridge Nursery (they sell at Olympia on a weekly basis but are based a bit south) I really like their collection of perennial edible plants.
@@PNWgardener033 I'm talking about Eastside Urban Farm & Garden. They have a pretty decent selection of currants, as well as gooseberries, elderberries, and all sorts of other stuff you don't normally find in nurseries. All adapted for this climate!
I've been using local sheep's wool pellets instead of peat or coconut coir due to the environmental consequences of peat and coconut coir. It's been great, but holds water really well so I had to be careful not to overwater. I think Topsy Farms in Ontario sells small and larger bags if you want to experiment with it once your bag is empty!
April Fool's Day for a Seedling start date is funny. When May comes around we get to experience April fools all over again. "Looks like I can use this weekend to plant." Cue may snow Nature: APRIL FOOLS
Self seeded plants are some of my favorites just because they're sooo easy (almost like perennials). Our Orach seedlings are up all over the front yard (hope to see Swiss Chard soon). Some of these plants are really rugged, too. Just gotta watch some of the crosses, like stuff in the carrot family I wouldn't bother with if you have a wide variety of stuff growing and blooming. For seed starts, my best starts have had good light, good air circulation and aren't kept too wet. This year we're trying a seedling heating mat with a thermostat to get our pepper starts going a little more reliably (if it works well for our annuums and baccatums this year, I'll do chinense this way next year). We're reallly careful when we're bringing our seedlings outside. Our spring winds will shred leggy starts almost immediately. A strong breeze over the plants when they're starting really helps. But, yeah... I wouldn't want to put them outside on a day where we're having 50-60 mph winds. Our springs can be rough 😅
Leaf mold can hardly be used as the soil loosening medium. When it dries it becomes hard as stone, a rare plant has energy to get through it. Anything that is not completely decomposed like woodchips (or manure if it’s not a rabbit manure, and if it’s an aged manure it’s called compost) will capture nitrogen from soil for its own decomposition and making it unavailable to plants. You may say that seed doesn’t require any nutrients to germinate, it’s true, however a plant does require nutrients to get to the transplanting stage unless you are willing to transplant it twice.
Great stuff, as always. Happy Spring! Though.... I literally gasped at the lupin seeds! lol Pretty, I enjoy them, my yard is naturally of them and they're everywhere along the roadside.... HOWEVER, sweet mercy! They're Aphid magnets. Perhaps worse than anything else that I know of, but they're bad, real bad 👎 or, does that mean they keep the aphids that would come to the yard anyway off other plants?? Hmm interesting, that hadn't occurred to me til now 🤔 A bit of both?
Yeah, aphid magnets are a good thing, provided you have other things that attract insects that eat aphids. Green lacewings and ladybugs for example. It's a good thing these attract the aphids.
There's really not much to talk about. I can try to think of it in the fall though. Basically, once the plant flowers, I don't pull it out of the garden. I let it flower then seed, and the plant then drops the seeds in the fall. Sometimes I collect them if I want to spread them somewhere new, but I really just act super lazy and never pull my plants out, until the very last minute in the spring when I plant my new plants. This way the plant gets to go to seed and replicate itself, effort free.
I own some bogland so I just harvest live sphagnum moss sustainably for my uses, to replace peat moss. That means grabbing a hand sized patch and loosening the surrounding moss so that the hole is covered, and moving on to the next spot. :)
This is a great way. A very very minor methane impact, likely less than what people do if they compost and forget to turn their pile for a month. Very sustainable, I'm sure it regrow in a few weeks.
I also use coconut for, worm castings. I brought my pepper plants in last fall and already have a pepper growing on one; April in Minnesota. Not sure but I think rabbit manure doesn't have to be aged to use on plants.
Gaultheria Shalon!! Mine didn’t do well… I think it hates my alkaline soil, even though it has a ton of mulch rotting away around it! Hope yours does better!!
You always have great points and an abundance of information balanced with wisdom and experiential examples. Love it. Once i learned about the process of extracting peat moss, i also switched to coco coir and biochar- and the plants like it better! It just doesn't have that 'hexus' red tape attached to it like so many other things. I was just discussing peat as an example with a friend when talking about the ethical concerns of kangen water machines as well. (shungite works great but still has to be mined from the earth but there are some decently ethical sources out there) My latest change this year, regarding the subject of seed starting has been to not use paper towels as a method of germination anymore. I just use rooting cubes soaked in RO water-diluted clonex mix and ph according to the specific seeds needs. I actually stopped using paper towels all together after i learned that dioxin and furans are produced in the process of bleaching with chlorine plus formaldehyde and they actually are disgustingly contaminated- brand new paper towels right out of the, just as insane- plastic wrapping. Hemp paper seems like a viable alternative but is a lot less supplied.
You are always challenging my ways of planting! Haha! I'm still thinking on your plastic video and I switched to soil blocker mostly because of it. Now, the peat moss. I know it's not a good eco friendly thing. But man, other things are not cheap! I do have a lot of compost at home. I could prepare few container of it for sowing inside. As I have a short growing season, I have to sow a lot inside or the veggies won't have time to grow and produce.
Wow. What an informative and inspiring video. I'm wondering how you innoculate the biochar that you use for your potting soil. Thanks so much for your awesome work
To innoculate it, I used to just put it in the compost pile, pee on it, I've added flour and water before, I've dumped coffee, etc. Now I use the methods in my recent video where I discuss egg shells: th-cam.com/video/Dhcb3sA3tgY/w-d-xo.html I.e. I innoculate it inside the chicken!
I'm very curious to see if you can get salal to grow! I'm transplanting myself from western Washington to Michigan in a couple of months and would love to grow it after the move. Salal is such a great understory plant. I love grabbing berries to eat as I walk through the forest.
Getting it to survive the winter is going to be the big challenge. I may pot a few up so I can bring them inside, just to act as backups. I'm hoping I can get a couple to survive until fruiting age, after which I can use indoor salal plants to act as a seedbank for attempts to get them established. Maybe one day one of the seedlings will be super cold hardy and I can create a cold hardy variety on my land.
Great video, as usual. I ran into some bad compost about 3 years ago. I can’t think of any other reason I suddenly couldn’t grow things at the level I’d been successful in the past. Two years ago I found someone local to spot me some red wiggles. The vermicompost turned my soil around and I was able to grow again where the bad compost had stunted my garden. I brought them indoors this winter (my husband could have left me he was so mad I brought worms into the house). I can’t wait to see how it works in my food garden this year. But now I’m wondering, based on what you said if it could be too much?
Worm castings are extremely non reactive and cool. There is no way that it was too much. Something else was going on. Very odd. The worm castings will help neutralize and buffer whatever was happening. Keep at it, it's working.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy very true! I recently learned from my colleague that Calgary's city compost program allows us to get free compost instead of buying it from the store. But you have to go get it yourself which can be a lot further than the store depending where you live.
I brought some seeds of yellow chili native of Peru and want to know when should I be seeding it? I guess I should start it indoors right? Is it good to plant fruit trees in a pot? Since I am renting I would like to take them with me if I move.
Also I am new in Canada and live in Coquitlam. I had a food garden in Peru but the climate here is super unpredictable so its kinda hard to figure out when to start
About 10 weeks for the peppers. Look up your last frost date in Google and then count back 10 weeks. As you know, much of gardening is about trying, learning and adjusting for next year. Many guides for planting in my area say that the May 24 weekend is our last frost date, but we are up on a hill a little bit, and we function almost a zone colder than even my sister in law who is one street south of us. As far as trees in pots, I don't like doing that but I know many people do. It's just more work because they will try up quicker. Also, if they get too big, the taproot will hit the bottom of the pot and circle back upwards, and can really hamper the tree in the longterm.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy true, I don't like fruit trees in pots either but since I'm renting it would be a way to take them with me if I move somewhere else. We live in Coquitlam but on the lower side, which is still a bit colder than Vancouver.
Yo, what kind of mushrooms are you cooking up there with your asparagus? I found those growing wild here but wasn't sure if they were edible or not (apparently they are!). Very interesting looking for sure!
Those were foraged morels. If you search my channel for "morel" you will find an identification guide. False morels can be deadly, but are very easy to identify if you know what to look for.
I never managed to germinate ramps successfully. if it works for you please give me some pointers. ( i got some bulbs transplanted that are still there but I need more, they are delicious, and bulbs are expensive.)
Not for a while. Winter is just too busy with kids hockey. Extending my season isn't going to do anything for me, it will just have me killing plants from neglect because I won't have time to tend to them. But maybe once the kids get older. I want a walipini.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy that makes sense. I like the idea of having one to grow citrus. I had never hear of a walipini before. I just looked it up and it seems very interesting
I think you are off base on the peat moss. There are millions of peat bogs in Canada, and yes it is harvesting which is the process you described. However the relatively small sparse trees removed and the small foot print compared with the large area of destroyed rainforest for coconut coir.....WOW!....
I would encourage you to look into this because he's right. On the one hand, coconut coir isn't a great option when you're thinking about larger scale monoculture plantations. The other thing to consider though is that it's a waste product from coconut production, so it's not really the core problem. The idea though, is to use locally available resources. Ideally biochar and compost that you make yourself from your own waste streams.
I wouldn't buy coconut coir myself, I'm using biochar. I always believe on being conscious of where you aquire resources. I certainly would never support deforestation for coconut monoculture plantations. However for many people, they can access this material for free from coconuts along highways and such.
It's not a small impact at all. Here is a cross functional study of 87 studies on this topic: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5513236/ It shows that even using best practices, peat harvesting is devastating to our environment and climate. Definitely not a small thing whatsoever.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Yes.... But that' was not portrayed. Certainly, we can make almost any product at a very small scale, environmentally. But once it is scaled to the mass production of peat moss, the whole environmental equation changes.. that includes biochar. Sorry to pick your video to react to, but, it is now becoming pervasive. The green path is darkened with many such shadows and blind ignorance. Environmentalists make pronouncements without research, nor context. The green path is darkened with many such shadows and blind ignorance. The environment will suffer most if we are poor. I expect my appreciation, respect even admiration does not come thru my comments...sorry.
I've been experimenting with leaf mould in my seed mix. Seems to be working. I've heard it ties up nitrogen but haven't seen signs of that so far in my experience.
Yeah, WRT saving seeds, regardless of any other issues, the seeds you buy have been developed to grow somewhere else, not in your garden. Not going to agree with the biochar idea. Setting out a process with the express goal to produce biochar is a mass CO2 release and unsustainable at a rate that would make a significant difference. A good peat alternative may be composted popular branches. I have a pile of Aspen branches that I'm going to see what the broken down part looks like this summer.
That's not true for the biochar. Wood that is not char'd will release 85% of its carbon back to the air as CO2. Biochar locks up between 30 to 60% of the carbon, depending on how well the process is timed, especially the quench. If the goal is purely to avoid CO2 releases, turning wood into biochar is the single best thing you can do. So big that it's a part of project drawdown. A really good source for more information is the biochar subreddit if you use reddit. That subreddit is one of the most science based subreddits on the entire platform. It's basically nothing but research papers. It's fantastic.
You are somewhat incorrect about peat in Canada. Gardening in Canada channel did a good video on it last year. Coconut coir is actually quite bad for the environment too. Takes lots of salt processing plus shipping.
Ya, something like only 0.03% of the peatlands are in production and First Nations take a part in planning and regulating most areas. Canadian peat is critical to vegetable production in the US.
The Gardening in Canada video is basically just a conversation with a Canadian peat industry lobbyist, which I discovered after I tried to go actually look up her org and seek the stats and info (esp about First Nations) that she references. In my search, I found their registry as lobbyists and the fact that they rep the vast majority (like 90+% if memory serves) of the Canadian peat manufacturers - but I especially could not find any real data, info, or transparency to back their claims. The First Nations claims especially felt like a ploy to me - an effort at redirecting a losing argument as "well [a few] indigenous people say it's fine [work for peat industry] so that must mean all the ecological concerns aren't real/can be overlooked"... Which is a big reason I went to actually look into it. Ymmv but I personally found no reason to trust basically anything claimed in that video and every reason to expect the claims are biased and misleading. Would love to know if you find the same or different.
So I did more research on this. That video you mentioned is so full of bias it's unreal. She interviewed the president of the CSPMA, which is a peat moss lobbying organization. They have extreme bias!! Nothing said here was referenced. This organization has a financial incentive to convince the public that their product is safe and ethical. This is like interviewing president of Exxon Mobil on why we need more oil fields. Harvesting peat is devastating to the peat bogs. It takes 1000 years to grow a peat bog. Harvesting it releases 1000 years of methane into the environment (which is 30x worse than CO2 for a greenhouse gas). Using peat moss is the single most devastating thing home gardeners do to the environment. Nothing in this video constituted any kind of peer reviewed science. Here is a cross functional study of 87 other studies www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5513236/ It shows that even using best practices, peat harvesting is devastating to our environment and climate. Thanks for the link to the video, but if anything it just reaffirmed my understanding of how terrible peat moss harvesting is for our planet.
I will try to remember which side of the camera I'm shooting out when there is writing on stuff. As far as fixing this one, it would take just as much effort as putting out another video, so I will just chalk it up to a lesson learned.
Always use what is free and local For me that's manure, compost and biochar. :) Lots of options there. Leaf mold, sea weed, shredded wood chips, etc. Something for everyone. Always source free and local. Tap into waste streams.
My understanding is that coco coir is very energy, chemical, and water intensive and kind of just as bad as peat, but in a different way. It makes me think that indoor seed starting isn't really a resilient or sustainable way to grow food if it, by and large, relies on some sort of ecological destruction. Maybe we're not REALLY supposed to be growing tomatoes and eggplant up north afterall!
The coconut coir was really meant for people where this is a natural local waste product/resource. I certainly didn't mean to buy from far, as you are likely promoting deforestation and monoculture by doing so. It's so hard to mention everything, there's always something I wished I said, or elaborated on more, but then my videos end up 30 mins long or more, and retention drops and people dont stay for thebkey video points. So tough to balance! Great comment, thanks to elaborating on this, its very true..
So interesting about the seeds initial evaluation of the soil. Makes me wonder about those seed starting mixes with no nutrients at all that so many garden channel recommend.
The trade off is that growing in live soil means higher likelihood of fungal diseases, and root eating pests. If you are a commercial grower, you are likely going to make the safer known choice, than potentially losing plants to pests or disease.
I've never had that happen to me here, but its worth mentioning that this is what the trade off is. I'm going to pin this comment for exposure. It would have been nice to mention this in the video.
Yeah, nature doesn't do that. Seeds sprout where they fall, we should do the same, just advance the warm temps a bit, no?
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacyIt is hard to understand that a sprouted seed can determine how big it will grow and how many fruit it will set based on the soil it is in in its first week (12:20). The roots of a sprout are maybe an inch long, but even if that plus the planting depth round up to two inches, I find it hard to believe all my tomato and pepper seedlings that are started in a sterile mix would be more productive if it was not sterile, that the top 2" and first couple weeks dictate a seedlings future potential.
Is there any research you can mention that backs this up? It was mentioned that there was, but that was it. And, respectfully, this seems like a feedback loop where something was mentioned and OP here says that sounds like an an interesting concept and a feedback loop starts.
The cons of a fertile starting mix are mentioned well. It is just hard to imagine that so much is determined from the top couple inches of "soil" and that the environment it grows in and the type of season (hot, dry, humid, etc.) in the months after the first week doesn’t have a bigger impact. Granted, the claim was that the the first week’s environment sets a destiny or ceiling, not that the following months have no impact.
I can't seem to find the exact research but I have found something, from the same authors as I originally found. It was during a podcast, I believe a John Kempf podcast, and the interviewee was a seed researcher. I remembered they were from Germany, and these names sounded familiar, so I believe it is the same research: www.jstor.org/stable/25173245.
I can't seem to access the whole article, but it appears to be linking various traits of longevity to the fertility of the soils the seeds started in, and they controlled for 120 plots and 75 species of plants.
I do think that there is a high likelihood that more research needs to be done in the area before we can confidently conclude anything, but there is certainly evidence for it.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy I’ll be more specific. At 12:34 a plant determines in the 1st week "how many fruit it will set, how early, and how big it will grow" from the fertility of the soil in the first week.
I start seedlings in a sterile medium and do not up-pot them into a larger pot for 4 weeks (tomatoes) and a good 6 weeks for peppers. These plants do well in the garden, despite having no nutrients from the soil or starter fertilizers for these 4-6 weeks. And they do somewhat better than the "volunteer" cherry tomato and tomatillo plants that inevitably pop up from fruit that fell to the ground and started late the next year when the nutrient rich soil warmed up enough for them to start.
Despite having nutrient rich soil for not just week 4-6 onwards, and not just week 1 onwards, but from the previous fall onwards, the volunteer plants do not produce more. It is impressive how the volunteers do considering that they start growing weeks later that indoor seedlings, but they at best match those that started in sterile mix.
A lot of good content here, but 12:15 to about 14:40 doesn’t jive with my observations. And at 12:00 you do start by saying a seed has all the nutrients it needs to get started. I think the comments in the couple minutes after that understate how self sufficient a seed is for a good month, aside from water and light needs.
See how your experience plays out. I definitely have never had a tomato plant produce only a single tomato (and early) because it started in infertile soil.
great video. thanks for including the footage of peat mining, very impactful
One way to avoid that would be winter sowing. Less babying of the plants, plants already hardened, may not be as big, but significantly stronger.
Oh my, that peat moss clip was heartbreaking.
Thank you for the video man, great one.
PS : 10:19 cheers for talking about it ;)
Indeed. I hate seeing large scale ecosystem destruction like that.
In the complex topic of epigenetics (different actual outcomes from the exact same genetic sequence, depending on initial environmental conditions), there is an observation that apple seedlings, for example, will activate specific sections of their genetic library for drought tolerance, deep rooting etc based on their initial germination conditions (as you described about veggies, which I don’t know much about). You get hardier, more stout apple seedlings by giving them tough initial conditions, which then results very rapid initial growth when these seedlings are placed in more fertile soil. It isn’t clear whether these trees are permanently tougher or not (it may be that the genes for tough conditions eventually get turned off when the fertility improves).
Thanks for sharing, very interesting! Epigenetics in humans is finally getting more recognition... For too long everyone has been blaming their genetics for their diseases and obesity. Epigenetics is so fascinating, what genes do you want to switch off by lifestyle!
Go Leafs Go!!! So excited for this year's playoff run. nice hat!
For sure. The best years I ever had was the Gilmore years. I feel like this team finally has the ability to win a cup, we just keep choking in the playoffs. This could be the year.
Thanks for mentioning peat and also not to start seeds too early. As MG in Minn, zone 4- we get questions in Feb to start plants. All of us are anxious to start plants, we understand, but we start in late March and April for most seeds. And Yes, don't put out plants too early. Air temp is one easy thing to watch, but soil temp is more impactful on plants, especially those warm season plants.
I do agree that Peat releases carbon into the atmosphere but I will not use coco coir. They cut down rain forests to plant coconut trees and they use thousands of gallons of fresh water to remove salt from coir. Then dump the water back into rivers. I don't know what the answer is
Indeed, that's more of an alternative for someone where you can get it locally, and in a sustainable way.
Always use whats local. For me, that's manure, compost, leaves and wood (biochar or shredded chips)
Grizzly, yes that is a concern. We need to use what we can and keep researching for good alternatives like leaf mold and good compost etc. I don't have the answer Ieither and the more I learn I see how precarious and yet strong nature is. We humans have to work harder to be working with (not against) nature. Stepping off of my soap box now. smile
Salal is a native where I live in Oregon, USA. I have a wild one that grows up through a Rhododendron bush. I think the Rhododendron protects the Salal from being eaten by the deer. I just have to be careful that I don't damage the Salal when weeding around or pruning the Rhododendron.
I love it!
Great video. I’m a lurker here, just wanted to say I hope yours Leafs do well this year, for you and my husband lol.
❤️ The leafs and I have a very abusive relationship 😆 🤣 Constant one sided emotional damage.
Great video!
Thanks for the input about peat moss. I've had much success with peat moss in the past. It works great for busting up heavy clay soils. I had already stopped using it because it got too expensive but now, I have an even better reason to not use it. Plus, there are better ways of breaking up clay soil.
Try daikon radishes for busting clay. Just plant them, let them grow and leave them in the soil over the winter for worms to eat. A very effective natural solution that also builds fertility.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy i use daikon here n there, but also burdock; can't beat roots that go 4+ft deep! 🌳🕊💚
Peat mining . . . ok. Peat's off my list for purchasing starting now. Thanks for the heads up. I'm hoping that seaweed will become available (if anyone on the southern coast has enough sense to utilize the billion tons of sargossa weed washing up on the coastlines that is).
Always love to think about seed starting. I have started too early in the past. My starts always grow much faster than the packets predict, perhaps due to my grow setup.
You're right! I've made so many of those mistakes and seen the exact outcomes you mentioned.
Thx for sharing your experience!
Good to know other people learn the same things from the same mistakes! Hopefully this video will help someone avoid having to do the mistake to learn from it!
Last frost here (Pacific Northwest) is next week. I already put in radishes, started lettuce, and spinach, hardened off enough to plant.
Salal does take cold, but definitely needs some shelter from wind and deep cold (-25°C).
Peppers, tomatoes, those won't be planted out for another 2 weeks, frost becomes erratic with the change in the polar winds.
I never have used peat, substituted coir the last years. I do have vermiculture compost, make an extract for watering everything. I try to keep the foods etc as balanced as possible to get a full range of nutrients.
I still need to find black currant bushes for winter boost especially jam and compote.
Don't know where you are in the PNW, but there is a locally owned nursery here in Olympia that carries all sorts of currants.
@@Double0pi Do you mean Burnt Ridge Nursery (they sell at Olympia on a weekly basis but are based a bit south) I really like their collection of perennial edible plants.
@@PNWgardener033 I'm talking about Eastside Urban Farm & Garden. They have a pretty decent selection of currants, as well as gooseberries, elderberries, and all sorts of other stuff you don't normally find in nurseries. All adapted for this climate!
I've been using local sheep's wool pellets instead of peat or coconut coir due to the environmental consequences of peat and coconut coir. It's been great, but holds water really well so I had to be careful not to overwater. I think Topsy Farms in Ontario sells small and larger bags if you want to experiment with it once your bag is empty!
Interesting!
April Fool's Day for a Seedling start date is funny. When May comes around we get to experience April fools all over again.
"Looks like I can use this weekend to plant." Cue may snow
Nature: APRIL FOOLS
LOL true
Self seeded plants are some of my favorites just because they're sooo easy (almost like perennials). Our Orach seedlings are up all over the front yard (hope to see Swiss Chard soon). Some of these plants are really rugged, too. Just gotta watch some of the crosses, like stuff in the carrot family I wouldn't bother with if you have a wide variety of stuff growing and blooming.
For seed starts, my best starts have had good light, good air circulation and aren't kept too wet. This year we're trying a seedling heating mat with a thermostat to get our pepper starts going a little more reliably (if it works well for our annuums and baccatums this year, I'll do chinense this way next year). We're reallly careful when we're bringing our seedlings outside. Our spring winds will shred leggy starts almost immediately. A strong breeze over the plants when they're starting really helps. But, yeah... I wouldn't want to put them outside on a day where we're having 50-60 mph winds. Our springs can be rough 😅
Fantastic comment. As I was reading the first paragraph I was going to mention carrots and then you mentioned them! Perfect stuff. Squash is similar.
Leaf mold can hardly be used as the soil loosening medium. When it dries it becomes hard as stone, a rare plant has energy to get through it.
Anything that is not completely decomposed like woodchips (or manure if it’s not a rabbit manure, and if it’s an aged manure it’s called compost) will capture nitrogen from soil for its own decomposition and making it unavailable to plants. You may say that seed doesn’t require any nutrients to germinate, it’s true, however a plant does require nutrients to get to the transplanting stage unless you are willing to transplant it twice.
Indeed! This is why I don't use non sterile mixes, and also why I don't use pure leaf mold. It's just a component of the mix.
Excellent video
Always take to heart your ideas
This year we are planting lots more perennials.
Cool Man! I'll add a little compost to any sterile potting mixes from now on!
Great stuff, as always. Happy Spring!
Though.... I literally gasped at the lupin seeds! lol Pretty, I enjoy them, my yard is naturally of them and they're everywhere along the roadside.... HOWEVER, sweet mercy! They're Aphid magnets. Perhaps worse than anything else that I know of, but they're bad, real bad 👎
or, does that mean they keep the aphids that would come to the yard anyway off other plants?? Hmm interesting, that hadn't occurred to me til now 🤔
A bit of both?
Yeah, aphid magnets are a good thing, provided you have other things that attract insects that eat aphids. Green lacewings and ladybugs for example. It's a good thing these attract the aphids.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy interesting, I guess I'll not pull them this year as planned. Thank you for the reply. Cheers
I’d love a video on the spinach and kale that reseeded, I’d love to do that
There's really not much to talk about. I can try to think of it in the fall though. Basically, once the plant flowers, I don't pull it out of the garden. I let it flower then seed, and the plant then drops the seeds in the fall. Sometimes I collect them if I want to spread them somewhere new, but I really just act super lazy and never pull my plants out, until the very last minute in the spring when I plant my new plants. This way the plant gets to go to seed and replicate itself, effort free.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy I’ll start a spot and let them go to seed, thanks
I own some bogland so I just harvest live sphagnum moss sustainably for my uses, to replace peat moss.
That means grabbing a hand sized patch and loosening the surrounding moss so that the hole is covered, and moving on to the next spot. :)
This is a great way. A very very minor methane impact, likely less than what people do if they compost and forget to turn their pile for a month. Very sustainable, I'm sure it regrow in a few weeks.
Thank you for talking about the negativities of peat moss!!!!!!
I also use coconut for, worm castings. I brought my pepper plants in last fall and already have a pepper growing on one; April in Minnesota. Not sure but I think rabbit manure doesn't have to be aged to use on plants.
Gaultheria Shalon!! Mine didn’t do well… I think it hates my alkaline soil, even though it has a ton of mulch rotting away around it! Hope yours does better!!
Another great vid! Thank you!
I’d use shredded/ground bark in potting/soil mixes, not wood chips.
Indeed, fluffier and less carbon heavy, less N tie up.
You always have great points and an abundance of information balanced with wisdom and experiential examples. Love it. Once i learned about the process of extracting peat moss, i also switched to coco coir and biochar- and the plants like it better! It just doesn't have that 'hexus' red tape attached to it like so many other things. I was just discussing peat as an example with a friend when talking about the ethical concerns of kangen water machines as well. (shungite works great but still has to be mined from the earth but there are some decently ethical sources out there) My latest change this year, regarding the subject of seed starting has been to not use paper towels as a method of germination anymore. I just use rooting cubes soaked in RO water-diluted clonex mix and ph according to the specific seeds needs. I actually stopped using paper towels all together after i learned that dioxin and furans are produced in the process of bleaching with chlorine plus formaldehyde and they actually are disgustingly contaminated- brand new paper towels right out of the, just as insane- plastic wrapping. Hemp paper seems like a viable alternative but is a lot less supplied.
I've been following your exact path for the exact same reasons! 👍 💯
You are always challenging my ways of planting! Haha! I'm still thinking on your plastic video and I switched to soil blocker mostly because of it. Now, the peat moss. I know it's not a good eco friendly thing. But man, other things are not cheap! I do have a lot of compost at home. I could prepare few container of it for sowing inside. As I have a short growing season, I have to sow a lot inside or the veggies won't have time to grow and produce.
And I love that you are always open to new ideas and challenges! Honestly the people in this community are just such solid folks. Love as always.
Wow. What an informative and inspiring video. I'm wondering how you innoculate the biochar that you use for your potting soil. Thanks so much for your awesome work
To innoculate it, I used to just put it in the compost pile, pee on it, I've added flour and water before, I've dumped coffee, etc. Now I use the methods in my recent video where I discuss egg shells: th-cam.com/video/Dhcb3sA3tgY/w-d-xo.html
I.e. I innoculate it inside the chicken!
Mixing it with manure would do it; maybe he mixes it up a month or two earlier?
I'm very curious to see if you can get salal to grow! I'm transplanting myself from western Washington to Michigan in a couple of months and would love to grow it after the move. Salal is such a great understory plant. I love grabbing berries to eat as I walk through the forest.
Getting it to survive the winter is going to be the big challenge. I may pot a few up so I can bring them inside, just to act as backups. I'm hoping I can get a couple to survive until fruiting age, after which I can use indoor salal plants to act as a seedbank for attempts to get them established. Maybe one day one of the seedlings will be super cold hardy and I can create a cold hardy variety on my land.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Good idea! And maybe just try laying frost cloth over some for a few years till it's established deeper roots.
Great video, as usual. I ran into some bad compost about 3 years ago. I can’t think of any other reason I suddenly couldn’t grow things at the level I’d been successful in the past. Two years ago I found someone local to spot me some red wiggles. The vermicompost turned my soil around and I was able to grow again where the bad compost had stunted my garden. I brought them indoors this winter (my husband could have left me he was so mad I brought worms into the house). I can’t wait to see how it works in my food garden this year. But now I’m wondering, based on what you said if it could be too much?
Worm castings are extremely non reactive and cool. There is no way that it was too much. Something else was going on. Very odd. The worm castings will help neutralize and buffer whatever was happening. Keep at it, it's working.
Coco coir is a great alternative to peat moss
Especially if local. Always best to tap into local "waste" streams. Free stuff, plus no ecological footprint.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy very true! I recently learned from my colleague that Calgary's city compost program allows us to get free compost instead of buying it from the store. But you have to go get it yourself which can be a lot further than the store depending where you live.
I brought some seeds of yellow chili native of Peru and want to know when should I be seeding it? I guess I should start it indoors right? Is it good to plant fruit trees in a pot? Since I am renting I would like to take them with me if I move.
Also I am new in Canada and live in Coquitlam. I had a food garden in Peru but the climate here is super unpredictable so its kinda hard to figure out when to start
About 10 weeks for the peppers. Look up your last frost date in Google and then count back 10 weeks. As you know, much of gardening is about trying, learning and adjusting for next year. Many guides for planting in my area say that the May 24 weekend is our last frost date, but we are up on a hill a little bit, and we function almost a zone colder than even my sister in law who is one street south of us.
As far as trees in pots, I don't like doing that but I know many people do. It's just more work because they will try up quicker. Also, if they get too big, the taproot will hit the bottom of the pot and circle back upwards, and can really hamper the tree in the longterm.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy true, I don't like fruit trees in pots either but since I'm renting it would be a way to take them with me if I move somewhere else. We live in Coquitlam but on the lower side, which is still a bit colder than Vancouver.
Yo, what kind of mushrooms are you cooking up there with your asparagus? I found those growing wild here but wasn't sure if they were edible or not (apparently they are!). Very interesting looking for sure!
Those were foraged morels. If you search my channel for "morel" you will find an identification guide. False morels can be deadly, but are very easy to identify if you know what to look for.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Great! Thanks a lot! Hopefully I can find some more! I'll check out the video to be sure 👍
I never managed to germinate ramps successfully. if it works for you please give me some pointers. ( i got some bulbs transplanted that are still there but I need more, they are delicious, and bulbs are expensive.)
They are notoriously difficult
Starting my seedlings next week. I little late but I've been too busy.
Do you have plans to get a greenhouse or use cold frames in the future?
Not for a while. Winter is just too busy with kids hockey. Extending my season isn't going to do anything for me, it will just have me killing plants from neglect because I won't have time to tend to them. But maybe once the kids get older. I want a walipini.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy that makes sense. I like the idea of having one to grow citrus. I had never hear of a walipini before. I just looked it up and it seems very interesting
Any tips on starting good king Henry from seed, I have tried 2 years in a row now. Nothing seeds just aren’t sporting. I am in Canada zone 5
I've never done it. I bought mine (plantsl from Richters herbs, and they have done fantastic. I've never started these from seed.
I've gotten some started. It takes a long long time to germinate. Dont give up, keep trying
Is that an avocado plant behind you?
Lemon tree 🌳
I think you are off base on the peat moss. There are millions of peat bogs in Canada, and yes it is harvesting which is the process you described. However the relatively small sparse trees removed and the small foot print compared with the large area of destroyed rainforest for coconut coir.....WOW!....
I would encourage you to look into this because he's right.
On the one hand, coconut coir isn't a great option when you're thinking about larger scale monoculture plantations. The other thing to consider though is that it's a waste product from coconut production, so it's not really the core problem.
The idea though, is to use locally available resources. Ideally biochar and compost that you make yourself from your own waste streams.
I wouldn't buy coconut coir myself, I'm using biochar. I always believe on being conscious of where you aquire resources. I certainly would never support deforestation for coconut monoculture plantations. However for many people, they can access this material for free from coconuts along highways and such.
It's not a small impact at all.
Here is a cross functional study of 87 studies on this topic:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5513236/
It shows that even using best practices, peat harvesting is devastating to our environment and climate. Definitely not a small thing whatsoever.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy
Yes.... But that' was not portrayed. Certainly, we can make almost any product at a very small scale, environmentally. But once it is scaled to the mass production of peat moss, the whole environmental equation changes.. that includes biochar. Sorry to pick your video to react to, but, it is now becoming pervasive. The green path is darkened with many such shadows and blind ignorance. Environmentalists make pronouncements without research, nor context. The green path is darkened with many such shadows and blind ignorance. The environment will suffer most if we are poor.
I expect my appreciation, respect even admiration does not come thru my comments...sorry.
I've been experimenting with leaf mould in my seed mix. Seems to be working. I've heard it ties up nitrogen but haven't seen signs of that so far in my experience.
It only does if it's fresh and not decomposed. Ideally it's either the carbon source in compost, or if it's dedicated leaf mold it's 2-3 years aged.
If you have extra soil, you should give some to your mom to start her seeds.
Haha! You are welcome to it. We have lots.
🧡
Yeah, WRT saving seeds, regardless of any other issues, the seeds you buy have been developed to grow somewhere else, not in your garden.
Not going to agree with the biochar idea. Setting out a process with the express goal to produce biochar is a mass CO2 release and unsustainable at a rate that would make a significant difference.
A good peat alternative may be composted popular branches. I have a pile of Aspen branches that I'm going to see what the broken down part looks like this summer.
That's not true for the biochar. Wood that is not char'd will release 85% of its carbon back to the air as CO2. Biochar locks up between 30 to 60% of the carbon, depending on how well the process is timed, especially the quench.
If the goal is purely to avoid CO2 releases, turning wood into biochar is the single best thing you can do. So big that it's a part of project drawdown.
A really good source for more information is the biochar subreddit if you use reddit. That subreddit is one of the most science based subreddits on the entire platform. It's basically nothing but research papers. It's fantastic.
You are somewhat incorrect about peat in Canada. Gardening in Canada channel did a good video on it last year. Coconut coir is actually quite bad for the environment too. Takes lots of salt processing plus shipping.
I will have to check that out, I'm always open to having my opinion changed
Ya, something like only 0.03% of the peatlands are in production and First Nations take a part in planning and regulating most areas.
Canadian peat is critical to vegetable production in the US.
The Gardening in Canada video is basically just a conversation with a Canadian peat industry lobbyist, which I discovered after I tried to go actually look up her org and seek the stats and info (esp about First Nations) that she references. In my search, I found their registry as lobbyists and the fact that they rep the vast majority (like 90+% if memory serves) of the Canadian peat manufacturers - but I especially could not find any real data, info, or transparency to back their claims. The First Nations claims especially felt like a ploy to me - an effort at redirecting a losing argument as "well [a few] indigenous people say it's fine [work for peat industry] so that must mean all the ecological concerns aren't real/can be overlooked"... Which is a big reason I went to actually look into it. Ymmv but I personally found no reason to trust basically anything claimed in that video and every reason to expect the claims are biased and misleading. Would love to know if you find the same or different.
So I did more research on this. That video you mentioned is so full of bias it's unreal. She interviewed the president of the CSPMA, which is a peat moss lobbying organization. They have extreme bias!! Nothing said here was referenced. This organization has a financial incentive to convince the public that their product is safe and ethical. This is like interviewing president of Exxon Mobil on why we need more oil fields.
Harvesting peat is devastating to the peat bogs. It takes 1000 years to grow a peat bog. Harvesting it releases 1000 years of methane into the environment (which is 30x worse than CO2 for a greenhouse gas). Using peat moss is the single most devastating thing home gardeners do to the environment.
Nothing in this video constituted any kind of peer reviewed science. Here is a cross functional study of 87 other studies
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5513236/
It shows that even using best practices, peat harvesting is devastating to our environment and climate.
Thanks for the link to the video, but if anything it just reaffirmed my understanding of how terrible peat moss harvesting is for our planet.
Love your videos, but if you could just mirror this one back, so the writing is actually legible, it'd help a lot :)
I will try to remember which side of the camera I'm shooting out when there is writing on stuff. As far as fixing this one, it would take just as much effort as putting out another video, so I will just chalk it up to a lesson learned.
Cococoir is insanely expensive
Always use what is free and local For me that's manure, compost and biochar. :)
Lots of options there. Leaf mold, sea weed, shredded wood chips, etc. Something for everyone. Always source free and local. Tap into waste streams.
If you don't have enough windows, you could always cut more!!! OK, that was a joke.
My understanding is that coco coir is very energy, chemical, and water intensive and kind of just as bad as peat, but in a different way. It makes me think that indoor seed starting isn't really a resilient or sustainable way to grow food if it, by and large, relies on some sort of ecological destruction. Maybe we're not REALLY supposed to be growing tomatoes and eggplant up north afterall!
The coconut coir was really meant for people where this is a natural local waste product/resource. I certainly didn't mean to buy from far, as you are likely promoting deforestation and monoculture by doing so. It's so hard to mention everything, there's always something I wished I said, or elaborated on more, but then my videos end up 30 mins long or more, and retention drops and people dont stay for thebkey video points. So tough to balance! Great comment, thanks to elaborating on this, its very true..