For those of you that watched this video to then end. Thank You. You got the "message" of this video. For those that didn't.. The message of this video is to share OPTIONS (or different ways of growing). There are many ways to garden. Is the way I do/show best? I dont know. I do know it WORKS for me, and I encourage each person to do what works for them with their beliefs/budget and other factors... I share what works for me in case anyone wants to model what I do to get successful results.

@Vscustomprinting

4 жыл бұрын

as long as those option dont involve any creatures with limbic systems

@servantofgod5642

4 жыл бұрын

But the attitude he puts out is that using animal manure is CRUELTY TO ANIMALS! SO how is this not cruelty to worms? I aint no biologist but a little rodent in the bush is pretty close to the soil when he' taking a dump! So a chicken shits in the trees huh??.????.?

@Vscustomprinting

4 жыл бұрын

@@servantofgod5642 the difference, like i stated, is the limbic system. without a limbic system, you literally lack the systems necessary to understand pain.. oh who am i kidding, religious types are notoriously diffi"cult" to reason with. its just like human slavery, just shut the fuck up, and follow everyone elses lead- NO SLAVERY i know your religion has a problem not enslaving other creatures, even humans, against their will.. no one cares what you groupthink

@servantofgod5642

4 жыл бұрын

@@Vscustomprinting untill you free yourself of wilful disbelief, (and perhaps lay off smoking weird drugs) you will find the worms treating you badly and being very unreasonable. Depart from your perverted religion!

@Vscustomprinting

4 жыл бұрын

@@servantofgod5642 empty words from an empty man. you lack integrity.. protecting your bullshit ideology is a cover for either your insecurity, or your willingness to manipulate others... "indoctrination" need i say more about you lack of integrity? and how it fouls everything in your life.. how it curses 99.9% of us.. its funny, you mimicking the wisdom of religion. a primate shaking a stick at the sky LOL the truth is as much a religion as anything else.. getting high of fake facts or real ones.. waving your ignorance around like a flag, and deriding others for knowing your faults- your lack of critical thinking skills. your incumbrance and ineptitude the soil will be long gone when im dead.. there is no way all the meat eaters wont poison it in their fight to own it .. god or science. Gotta pick one or the other

Love, love, LOVE this video!! I have been doing veganic gardening to achieve the best quality of food since I don't raise my own chicken for manure. Most organic fertilizer that have chicken blood, bone, or manure are not truly organic. Industry uses non organic chicken matter to make these fertilizers. Thank you for asking if worm casting is veganic! I pondered about that as well! haha

@Vscustomprinting

4 жыл бұрын

generlly when it comes to insects, we care about their welfare, not their individual worth, which is a good thing, insects lack limbic systems, and the way we care about them needs to reflect that... we dont worry about stepping on ants, or swatting mosquitoes, we worry about destroying their populations by disrupting their environments... its a deeper caring we take for insects, but it isnt a moral stance.. we dont interject our insecurities about the unfairness and harshness of life on a creature that can understand them, this is just an exercise in narcissism.. insects are food for like 90% of all other life, especially primates, we have chinitase, an enzyme used to break down bugs and fungi, the only reason i dont eat them is because i dont have too, but they are a great source of fiber and microbiome enhancing stuff (compared to eating other animals), but if society collapsed, i would never fear going hungry- there is literally food all around us, and we are super industrious when it comes to capitalizing on that.. im not worried about the unethicalness of utilizing bugs, that comes when animals have limbic systems to have feelings.. we exploit insects when we do things like factory farming that require pesticides and insecticides, and other things we do like lawn blowers, and deforestation etc that disrupt the ecology they actually support utilizing worms is essential, and sence there is no chance of them "suffering" since suffering requires a limbic system to subjectively FELL anything, i wouldnt worry about them, on the contrary, its much more of a symbiotic relationship, than one of domininance.. it would be egotistical to think we have dominance over ecology, when (im sure you know) we are apart of it

@Vscustomprinting

4 жыл бұрын

although i wouldnt agree with some giant industry presence profiting off the backs of insects ... i feel, like mushroom farming/cultivation, massage, or the internet, its just inherent for our species to have, and is easy to execute in a sustainable (ego free) way, without strife- so that everyone has access to it.. i often wonder at how most people like to argue from a compromised position.. with advances in fermentation (precision fermentation techniques, like the ones that uses yeast to synthesize milk proteins without using cows), the potential for food to be 100x cheaper and requiring a fraction of the resources is within the realm of possibility in 50 years.. i wonder how communist russia would have done if food would have been free and abundent for all people.. everyone demands that everyone else cant have enough, and that everything should cost something, while driving the machine that is providing enough for all of us- straight off a cliff.. if a society refuses to give itself sustainability because an ego, how can you argue for it without compromising yourself. i love pointing out how ambition is our enemy now.. and the relativistic, duality of the battle to be active and lazy.. which fits in with our limited perception of the universe.. how something can both exist and not exist at the same time.. much like our lives, because surely we will be dead, if we are already dead, how is it that we are at all? these paradoxes mark our subjective paths, and the hard thng to do is to choose the right thing.. thats the developed frontal lobed thing to do, the easy thing is to choose complacency and willful ignorance and greed all this i think bout when i think about people who argue the ethics of exploiting bugs.. id say for most, it is just a distraction, especially if you refuse to see a bigger picture, and lack small and large perspectives..

@servantofgod5642

4 жыл бұрын

@@Vscustomprinting Sorry dear friend this is the first time ive read your comments apart from the thoroughly absorbing lectures of your spiritual master guru Rudolf Steiner back in 1924. I got very confused with biodynamics and Yin and Yang especially when lacking the interconnectednessfully demi semi interdependance and flexibility to continue to the higher levels of Hung Gar time and effort symbiostacolomity. And there was more than a vortex formed when the master spoke of the BD500 preparation for stimulating plant growth cycles when i started riding around the sacred commune on a Kawasaki KLE 500! So we are clear, are you demanding we stick vitamin tablets up our ass to experience the riding of nutrient cycles???

Around 10 thousand years ago much of North America had glaciers on it. This ground up much of the rock and hills where the glaciers were. This is why we have such rich soil and farming in the mid-west. Using rock dust is essentially the same thing. During winter you get a small glacier effect in the top soil when it freezes and the small particles of soil are ground together by the expanding ice. Making more micro-nutrients available for plant/microbial life forms.

Thank you for the video! Another thing to do is to grow the plants to use as compost. Grow your compost right next to where you need it. Part of my garden is veganic! It all is now, but there is a strip that had cow manure. Then, I stopped halfway through the planning and now don't use any animals parts. Yay!

While I am on a plant based diet myself (aka vegan), I do support using manure from animals. Its a very natural cycle. I have and continue to garden without manures, but that's only because I don't have the room to keep chickens or bunnies. If it was up to me, I would use chicken and bunny manure from my own pet chickens and bunnies to make compost and have the chickens loosen the soil and eat bugs at the end of the season. I eat a plant based diet, however I am not against using their poo! Although I do understand that we wouldn't want to use manure from factory farms, I definitely support using my own (if in had some) pets because I would treat them humanely and not use their eggs or flesh.

Yes... I watch a lot of his videos. I have not watched all of them. But I watch all the new ones that he does. Thanks! And good luck with your garden.

John, Thanks for your videos. I love your energy and info. Respect to Don Weaver. You two presented some good info and in a great way.

I've been doing animal free gardening for several years and it works well. Check out the Vegan Organic Network if you're interested - they have lots of resources about how to improve soil fertility with good composting etc. Love John's takeaway message of modelling nature as closely as possible.

I'm here in Missouri and as much as I would like to use any animal products in my compost, for its nitrogen content, I am afraid of all the persistent herbicide infested feeds and the hormones/antibiotics that seem to be how our livestock is raised out here. And these are the animal products we eat? I'll walk into a nursery asking for rock dust or even Mycorrhizal and I'll get a glazed stare and they'll say "We have chemicals". The mind set out here is pretty sad. "Spray, spray, kill, kill. John you got me started many years ago. This mind set is why organic/ biological gardening is so important. I believe the most important issue for the continued existence, and health, of mankind.

@Pix Casey: you've probably already sorted your compost problems out but just in case you haven't, maggots in the compost means that there is too much moisture. In the past, I've added some cedar bedding (used for guinea pigs, etc) to the compost pile to dry it out a bit and the maggots have died off quickly. You could add extra shredded paper, cardboard, dry leaves, etc to dry it out. One more thing, make sure that what you're looking at are in fact maggots, since soldier fly larva (which are good for compost) are short worms that could be mistaken for thick maggots.

I have tried to save enough "table scraps" to make compost and we just don't have that much waste In the end I had to buy organic compost and organic fertilizers as there was no way I could generate enough compost myself without raiding the neighbors clippings or leaves. Make it yourself, but don't be surprised if it falls short especially if you are trying to improve clay soil.

Great SOIL Video John!! Its so amazing to see that building good organic SOIL quality is really very simple.

We have lots of quarries in the Pacific Northwest where I live. Nurseries & big box stores don't carry rock dust. When I ask about it they don't know what I'm talking about. They have the commercially available calcium, (oyster shells) bone , blood meal bags. Best to try to use your own soil if its not contaminated. Minerals are very important! Thanks for sharing, very informative as usual.

Phew! I'm glad we've cleared that up, I was really struggling with the morality of using worm castings...

Thank you so much for covering this subject, John. Being vegan, I've had a very difficult time finding fertilizers devoid of animal products. Another awesome video.

I'm glad when asked the question about worm castings, he said they are fine, and that the CAFO animal composts are the bad ones, and it would be great to use poop from healthy animals. It's difficult to find respectable vegans these days, but here we have one! Thanks guys!

Great info. I love how they give informed options and encourage us to make our own educated choices. Great vid. Thank you! :)

I'm always interested to at least listen to and hear other perspectives and viewpoints. I've learnt and discovered many wonderful things by doing that and found that the world is full of interesting people and ideas I never would have considered otherwise. Thanks for this vid John. I am blessed to have easy access to front gate manure from hobby farms and now I will make sure to never buy the commercial packaged manures, now that my awareness has opened up even further from this vid. Thanks!

I just realized this video is 9 years old and John still looks the same so what ever he's eating is keeping him looking like he never aged.

try biochar, humic shale, granite dust (felsic potassium and silicon rich rock), mafic rock (iron, magnesium content) and various composts

I binged "don weaver" and found a blog that hadn't been updated since 2007. when I tried to subscribe, it asks you to name "the two words below," but there was NO two words. I tried clicking it anyway, and it took me to a mirror blog, that was better, but still incomplete. Don really needs to work on this, so people who are interested can get his information. Please let him know.

Nice one Stymye I agree you can have a thriving garden without rock dust!

You didn't watch the video? They covered using worm castings, and they don't like the manure because of the hormones, medicines, and other things fed to the animals. They aren't forcing you to use their methods, just offering another option.

great video. and if someone doesn't agree, just think of it as a good discussion regarding the food production in the country. putting that out there in a video is a good thing.

Thanks so much for making this vid! Don is an amazing wealth of info!

Just starting to build compost site and choosing to go veganic growing with a worm farm included. Great info from you guys, thank you :-)

Lots of great information. Thanks!

Amazing how many people didn't hear the part about the manure/bone meal/blood meal coming from the "feedlots" and just assume they mean any and all animals. Personally I'm a bit in between right now. Just getting my garden started so I did use "store bought" compost that supports the feedlogs. However, that being said, I'm now using composted horse manure from a local farmers barn, chicken poo from my own chickens and veggie/fruit materials from my own kitchen. I've also got a worm bin going.

John, I cant find rock dust near me when i prepared my soil. Listening to u talk about it in almost every video conviced me to buy some, how woud u suggest i apply the rock dust to plants that are already rooted and growing? or is it too late for this batch and i have to wait until next time around to mix the dust in the soil? Thanks.

i think the point they were trying to make is that worm castings are the only product of raising earthworms. Note: The earthworms are later not slaughtered for their meat. However, with cow/horse/chicken manure their manure is ONLY a by-product. Later they are slaughtered for their meat. Therefore, worm castings is better in terms of a VEGANIC lifestyle. Also if you are modelling nature as John said then there are plenty of earthworms and their poop but not much of the other manure.

I keep producing compost and i keep adding them into of my container garden. but the problem is, now all my plants in containers are full of composted soil and i cannot even apply more to them. and yet, i am still producing a lot of compost cause apparently my family is making tremendous amount of food craps each day and things are getting a little out of hand now. cause i don know whether i should move all my plants to new compost and discard the old one which have been nourishing my plant for a long time and that might be left with only little nutrients in the soil cause the plants have absorbed them over time. So should I move all my plants to new compost? and discard the old one? Please helppppppppppp cause i am running out of space to store my compost now...

Great video of two great friends.

Good job you guys - very comprehensive. Thank you.

Hey John I watched the whole video and read all the comments I could not believe people would get so riled up about you giving your own opinion based off personal growing experience I think people have to make there own educated opinions and you are sharing the knowledge you have gained people always look for black and white answers I say just enjoy your garden and keep up the great work oh and by the way cracking up when he said you eat cow manue

for years ever since i learned of hydroponics ive been trying to learn the knowledge of making all of my own nutrients, this guys information really is great its information that the whole world really needs to think more about when you realize what hes talking about it becomes even more important we start farming healthier livestock only then can we farm better produce aquaponics!

John, thank you for this video. I use horse manure from our horses that eat wheat and alfalfa. I did an experiment two years ago: one red cabbage planted in my squarefoot frame that had: homemade compost, horse manure a touch of cow manure, ashes, sand and perilyte and red cabbage planted in the ground with no additives. The cabbage in my squarefoot grew 3 - 4 times bigger than the one in the ground. I thought it was the manure, maybe it was my compost. Hummm, now I'm wondering

One of the issues is all the growth hormones injected into animals for quick results. To mimic nature, you have to eliminate all the secondary effects of manufactured chemicals that cause soil erosion. Its like using the wood chips to grow, it takes time to get results as compared to that synthetic stuff that is available to the plants the day it is put on LOL

One of the concerns of using manure from commercial animal operations is the left over antibiotics, pesticides, heavy metals, and other compounds. But, research shows that a proper healthy compost bin turned with the correct amount of water and oxygen, will break down "All" of these compounds by bacteria, fungal, and insect activity 'I.E. Worms". I have kept compost piles for years, and by turning the pile and proper aging using earth worms the result has been a bountiful healthy garden. .

what do you do with compost plant plants in it is it fertilizer what

My experience making compost is to use seaweed in place of rock dust. Sand comes w/it. Seaweed is very high in minerals naturally. Layering weeds, kitchen scraps- tossed on top, shredded mail, weeds, and previously screened compost matter that did not break down, and seaweed creates an environment that worms love, which when screened (harvested) provides beautiful compost rich in minerals every 2-3 months in the summer. Also compost tea twice a year. No animal anything. I'll make a video. Peace.

Thanks for this video. Its good to know that you can create a rich soil and garden without animal products. I would be on the end of the scale that would not use worm castings or a worm farm, nor manure from hand reared animals, etc. I've thought it wasn't possible to create an effective organic garden without manure. This assumption has been holding me back from getting into gardening for a long time!

John in my compost pile there are so many insects which I know is a good thing. Tons of sow bugs. My question is when I add them to my planter box with those insects hurt my existing plants? I though maybe the sow bugs are not good for the garden.

A lot of comments talk about it being silly to avoid animal manure, since collecting manure doesn't hurt the animal. I agree that the manure in itself is not the issue. The issue is supporting the farmers and industries that raise animals to be killed and exploited. I wouldn't have ethical issues with getting animal manure for free from a local horse owner or farmer, or collecting it somehow. But I wouldn't want to buy it to support the ones raising animals to kill them. Interesting video, thanks.

What concerns me is the social and and environmental impacts of getting that rock dust to your garden. Certainly, it's full of minerals, great for your plants. We agree. BUT, in my mind there are more sustainable and greener options for getting those minerals back into the food we eat! Great videos, keep em coming

Is rock dust the same as rock phosphate? I don't think I've seen the rock dust in the garden center?

Hi John-- Do you think Ironite will work well in our gardens? It is the only mineral supplement I have been able to find in my neck of the woods.

Great video, man. Thanks for sharing, gents.

No offence taken. I have my opinion about rock dust, and you have yours. Im TOTALLY fine with this. We can agree to disagree. Nothing wrong with that. People do not have to use rock dust if they do not feel it valuable. I feel it IS valuable, and I HAVE SEEN and TASTED the difference. I encourage people to try it and see how it is for them before making a judgement from a few things they read/watched online.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not hating or griping. I'm just saying there are many of us who don't have access to rock dust. I get horse manure for free. So I have easier access to it. :) I do however have my own chicken for eggs and the benefit is manure to add to my compost. I also have rabbits and use that manure for compost. And I just got worms and I'm really excited to see how those castings help. Thanks again!

Can you setup two raise bed plots side by side and to the rock dust test over the summer? I would love to see if there is any difference. Thanks for your great videos. Can you add some more aquaponics? I have started building a aquaponic system in my house, to grow basil, peppers and green for salads.

Moderation in every aspect

Great video guys, keep it up!

John, I am growing lettuce and garden peas organically and have noticed them infested with several aphids on the back of leaves. This is leading to slow and stunted growth. Any organic remedies that come to mind?

Thank you for spreading this message! I also promote veganic gardening in my area of Florida. Best thing to feed a plant is another plant!

@Vscustomprinting

4 жыл бұрын

im promote killing all domesticated animals and rewilding everything, ppretty much, switching over as much as possible to vertical farming, getting away from inefficent vanity legacy farming.. theres alot more less romantic, covercropping and managing type work that needs to be done.. as well as how everyone just needs to become glorified trash collectors.. sustainability is about removing ego, theres a want to conflate unsustainable ideas with new understandings, that dont pan out.. i see people taking advantage of a fractured landscape.. people are doing vanity animal farming with limited animals, even tho thats not a sustainable option on this planet... we are an unsophisticated, immature society we refuse to actuallyy address sustainability.. and theres alot of laid back, tan, fit, attractive women making the whole thing look very seductive- especially in the usa, where 3/4 vegans are womerns

Great show john

Great guest

@realphilippines8031

9 жыл бұрын

Andi Amador indeed... i hope he gets guests with that caliber more often. Kudos

Exactly. Buying locally doesn't just mean food. The extraction and shipping of rock dust is quite damaging in my opinion even when bought locally. But it is probably easy to find a farmer who raises animals humanely that you can buy manure from.

Azomite from Utah. Kelp from Norway. Glacial rock flour from British Columbia. Dug out with machines, pulverized with machines, shipped with machines. Compare that to deep rooted weeds drawing up minerals from the depths, composted or chopped and dropped, added to animal manures (or feather meals, etc) from my own property or trucked in from within a hundred mile radius.

what is the stuff called from Milwaukee?

Hey John, I'm not sure how all the Haterade got in the water on this video, but I really loved it. You've inspired me a lot. I have a koi pond and when I clean the sludge out of their filter, I use it for fertilizer. Seems to be working very well, and they're not being harmed. I was also thinking about trying to grow some watercress by dangling it into the pond, but for sure they'll eat any plant they can get to. Any ideas about putting a rain gutter along the inside of the pond wall?

I believe the problem with what Ray (Praxxus55712) did was he used an "uncertified" rock dust, that was being sold as rock dust, but Don and I both agreed, it was not a good quality rock dust. You can learn more about it at the video: watch?v=xywvVgafNss where we talk about it a little. Its important to get a bio-available, wide-spectrum rock dust. Not all rock dusts are created equal.

Don can rock dust benefit an acuponic system?

chiton is good too, kelp and lots of natural components are good as long as they do NOT have high concentrations of Phosphours or Nitrogen for unbalanced growth and affects on bacteria with high P

Decaying plant matter is the prerequisite to all other additives to the soil. Without mulch/compost, etc tilled into the first 6" of earth, there won't be enough fulvic/humic acids available to break-down the minerals for the plant's consumption. Adding minerals is necessary, of course, but there must be decaying plant material in the soil for maximum utilization of the minerals and fertilizers, and to allow beneficial bacterial/fungi colonies to develop. Mulch is king for quality topsoil.

What kind of plant is that, behind them ?

So ... Free ranging homestead chicken-poop and Bunny-pellets ? I say, "SURE" ... since I would have control over their diet and other conditions.

i have a question if anyone knows how would you restore out contaminated soil? i can only assume my entire back yard is most likely contaminated how would i "clean" my soil to where its organic and natural.

I thought rock dust was added directly to the garden soil. Sounds like a good idea adding it to the compost pile. But, how much and how often? (compost bin size reference:mine is made used pallets)

Have you tried it in your garden? or just believe everything you read? Even IF it really does nothing, but it works because I think it does.. Then it IS working.. Its the power of thought or placebo affect. I don't care as long as my plants taste better and yield more and wont cause any negative effects.

I think you can avoid maggots by not using any proteins in the compost pile. Stuff like fish, meat bones, dairy-cheese etc, meat scraps, or meat eating animal feces such as cat litter and so on. Maybe some proteins are getting into you compost by accident. I do put egg shells in my compost but I've never had maggots. Hope this helps as I don't know what other things cause maggots in compost.

Of course it is sustainable. Your minerals go back in to the soil via composting once you use them. Horse manure from local farms is my 1 ingredient too, however. Those horses are treated better than I am so no bad mojo from using that :-).

always good info....

I am a vegan organic farmer. I use a no-till method and all waste just gets put under the hay/straw mulch - so my entire farm is just one growing compost pile. I also make my own vegan fert and the plants are only foliar fed. I live in the desert and hardly ever have to water - even when its 112 outside.

I think it is just exploring another option that some people might want to explore...I think that's cool!

comfrey is also a good plant to grow for composting.

John, I'm new to Raw foods (I'm really trying to be 100%, I'm just not there yet be cause of mistakes and general knowledge). I was just reading that there are quite a few common raw foods that should not be eaten; potato, mushrooms, parsnips, spinach, grains, alfalfa sprouts, etc,. I don't expect to eat really large quantities of any of those, except maybe spinach. Do you have a list of foods that really are detrimental when consumed raw, even in a moderate amount?

This year my goal is to have an abundant garden without purchasing any fertilizers or soil amendments. I'm only using free resources like homemade compost and vermicompost, homemade compost tea, leaf mold, used Starbucks coffee grounds, mulch (leaves, comfrey, grass clippings, etc.). So far, the garden is the best I've ever had.

John I get you message. I see the theory of how rock dust can help to add minerals. However we do not have a local place that sells it. This is my first year gardening in our current home. We are starting from scratch. And our budget is bare bones budget. Like everything for the garden is coming from our current food budget and it is not that big. I can't afford to buy a bag and pay shiping. So I have to use what I have on hand and do the best I can with horse manure But great video

what ways would that be? I'm interested :)

I will still use worm castings instead of compost as compost tea, but most animal by-products can be contaminated with medicine residues, so i avoid that.As replacement for chicken manure i use Alfalfa, but not to much.Has anyone any experience with the use of Ghassoul as soil amendment.Great vid!!

this may not be possible, or you may have already done it,but if you really believe and have seen good results, that certain rock dusts are better then others, itd be great id you have a video talking about how to find and harvest/make your own high quality/proper quality rock dust, since sourcing it seems to be the main issue great video though, hope not too many people get stuck on the rock dust thing and miss out on the rest of the great info

if you have a small farm. If the cows eat off the farm. you use them only for manure. That will be a closed cycle?

So, If i have a family cow that is grass feed and not injected full of junk he would be ok with using that manure in his garden?

Is there any proof rock dust makes a difference? Ray from Praxxus55712 did an experiment comparing two identical plants (as identical as possible), and gave rock dust in the soil of one, and not in the other. The plant with rock dust did worse.

More on these topics "More Details" would be helpful

I tend to agree with the whole "model your garden after nature" as a general rule, but just because a given plant thrives without human intervention doesn't mean it's producing the fruits/veggies/tubers/whatever that people want at peak levels. If you can "trick" your plants into devoting more of their energy into food production, and do it organically, then go for it, I say.

I was told at school years ago you cant compost human crap,im now vegie so in theory i can use my crap in a compost bin. A good soil to use here in the uk is mole hills because mole's dig neutriant rich soil underneath the ground and push it outside.

I've used Azomite for 3 years now. You do get bigger fruits, more flowers, and the food does taste better. Will you have 14 inch corn? Not without the right seed, no.....

Some rock dust has high radioactivity and one would have to measure that oneself. It is not done commercially.

You can make your own compost... literally... by using a compost toilet!

@servantofgod5642

4 жыл бұрын

Yes but according to this bozo, that would make it a cruelty to humans offence! Bowel movements will not be tolerated!

@AA-po3hn

3 жыл бұрын

@@servantofgod5642 lets not insult him

@benbearkiller

3 жыл бұрын

@@servantofgod5642 everyone has the right to their own beliefs.

I never thought using animal poop was cruel.... But I never would have thought about them using it from those poor tortured animals.. lucky my dad is a great farmer that loves his animals and loves having a use fr all his poop!! Thanks for the heads up!!

i am a big fan of john's as well, i'm also glad this guy is having his own success, but i guess i'm just hung up on labels. veganism is silly to me, i don't mind if you don't want to eat meat(i don't eat that much of it), or use milk/eggs/etc, but we're on this planet with animals, animals poop, what's so bad about using that poop to help the soil? not all animals are raised in corporate confinement. if you protect(from predators) and feed animals in exchange for poop, who's losing?

Commenting negatively or critically on someones FREE youtube video seems like another self-righteous ego thing. The beauty of the garden is that it combines nature with people, and is customized to the people who cultivate it. Next time you want to criticize, get out your camera and make your own video. Great video John! I am a happy subscriber!!!!

I think I understand what you're saying, and I agree with you on the animal exploitation bit... This next bit should not be read as an attack on you personally, just a following of your stated logic; if we should not use ANY animals or their byproducts in gardening, then we shouldn't garden--that "explosion of microorganisms" that comes after you employ his products or methods, those are all animals too. And if you garden, you are exploiting their labor...

At the same time, isn't rock dust technically a byproduct of strip mining?

No, not all are, that's true. But the point is that the demand for using manure in gardens DOES help support the factory farm industry which often supplies the manure. Boycotting manure is another way to prevent reliance on a wholly manmade and unsustainable industry. Also, one might do well to remember that what the animals eat/consume comes out in their manure. That includes hormones and antibiotics fed to factory farmed animals. I wouldn't want to fertilize my plants with THOSE chemicals.

I have heard, soils are not lacking minerals and nutrients, but are lacking the soil biology to make the minerals and nutrients available to the plants.

Since I first heard him say rock dust minerals in one of his videos I have been looking and haven't found a single scientific study showing any improvements in the soil, plant growth, or nutrition qualities of any plant grown in rock dust. Everything has been unsubstantiated claims from people that sell the stuff. It's pretty clearly a scam and I'm sorry to see such a good guy like John fall for it.

Hey John, don't we eventually have to close the poo-cycle once there's enough minerals on our property? Else we keep buying rockdust and washing them through the toilet.. Love your vids!!

You're free to use it. I have no want or need for it. Industrially prepared does not sound like organic gardening to me. Actually the definition of organic is "without employment of chemically formulated fertilizers, growth stimulants, antibiotics, or pesticides". Thanks.