Helping you grow vegetables from seed in your home & allotment garden
Based in Cambridge (UK), I a rented a house with a 0.1 acre garden which I've converted to no-dig garden beds and I'm trying to grow even more of my fruit and vegetables than last year. I produce a range of videos on how to sow seeds and you'll see more how to grow guides as the season progresses. I'll also be trying to review items that can help you lengthen your growing season and make gardening easier (and the not so good items you might want to think twice about) and I'll be documenting the growth of my own garden throughout the year.
So if you have access to a garden or balcony, hold an allotment or are toying with the idea of growing your own food, then this is the channel for you.
#gardening #growyourownfood #seedstarting
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The problem I have with using any kind of mulch is that I like for my seeds to sprout naturally. I prefer no mulch in my containers. It allows me to re seed and also to notice any issues with the soil.
This is actually a really good video
I use grass clippings to mulch my 30litre potato containers. best free water retention material there is. Was surprised at how ineffective home made compost was.
i was thinking about buying one of this BUT after watching this, i would say NO . I am in Northern Ireland and it would last one day
is that because hemp mulch has less big pores compared to barks/chips? so water is not easily loose through small pores?
They were good tips. Thank you.
careful the grass clippings don't reduce nitrogen content in the soil... dry them out first
Interesting findings! I always felt it odd that it seemed when after applying bare compost to pots it would drain out faster, glad to see there’s further evidence to that!
Very useful experiments! I'll definitely give perlite a try. I had some success surrounding plants with comfrey leaves, the slugs and snails seemed to prefer eating them over the plants.
Great video! Can you clarify what the hemp is? Is it seed or the hull? Thank yoU!
I'm not absolutely certain but, to me, it looks like they've chopped up or shredded the dried stems. They are very flat, very small rectangular pieces. I've been using AubiChick which is meant to be organically grown and used for chicks and chickens rather than the larger pieces they make for horses. They state they use the 'core of the plant'
Hello, dear grower, I also grow microgreens, but with substrate, (Carolina Soil, earthworm humus, vermiculite and perlite, etc., together with coconut fiber, I mix everything, I don't use coconut fiber alone, because in my country (Brazil), people who use them, use them in hydroponics, and add nutrients to the water. Do you add macro and micro nutrients to the water because it is an inert substrate, I don't know how it works, I would be grateful if you could help me? .
Interesting question. I've never tried hydroponics, but I'd be surprised if you'd _need_ to add nutrients. For these ones I harvested them while they were really really young so you can rely on the energy stored in the seed. I grew them in the surface of pure coir. I think if the plant takes more than a week or two to go from germination to finished or you want more nature leaves, I'd consider a nitrogen source. But for these and for things like bean-sprouts, a sterile environment and moisture is all that's required. I'd expect similar behaviour in water (but happy to be corrected if someone else sees this or if you want to try it and report back)
I’ll have to try these out for my fruit trees! Thank you!
No worries, just be sure to give them a lot more water - either a long drawn-out watering over hours (potentially) or maybe doubling up the soaker hose. It depends on the watering requirements of the tree and your soil type & structure. If it helps, I get through about 5L of water a minute over a 75m length
I use a mixture of grass clippings and leaves which I shred with my weed whacker in a large bucket, works great
Would love to use soakers but they are stupidly expensive, so will have to wait a while..
Yeah they are quite the investment. I slowly bought mine over time (and one was given to me - by luck, not by the company) or anything) but I think they'll last long enough to be worth it and I suspect more cost effective than a drip system if you have dense plantings. Not cheaper than manual or a sprinkler though (sadly).
Very entertaining! 😂
that took me by surprise! I wasn't expecting grass clippings to do such good job
It's an amazing result. I unpacked the experiment not long ago and, while it has rained a bit since, there was so much moisture still in there. Still felt like wet clay on the top and stuck to my hand. Hemp was great too but it isn't free.
I generally use geotextiles for weed control, but depending on the type, they don't always prevent water loss, particularly in the cut open planting spots, so this year i use that and a layer of straw on top. I can say for certain that straw/grass seem very effective at retaining moisture in the soil beneath it, as well as maintaining good soil temperature...interestingly enough.
That's really cool. I guess you still get decomposition and nutrients permeating through the fabric and into the soil too.
Cool, thanks!
What a nice video. I thought I was soooo great for using compost to mulch. 😂
Same. 2022 was all no-dig beds at half thickness and called it done, but turns out it's very soil-like. Deeper compost will help (water takes a long time to move, especially in clay) but yeah... Compost with grass clippings on top is the way imo
❤❤❤love this. Excellent work.
Thanks Rebekah!
Finally! Some science to measure which is best! Thanks again Alex great info! ❤ Now I just need to find that hemp…
Thanks Mark! Imo grass is probably better anyway tbh. It's free and doesn't blow away as much or breakdown as fast. No pesticides either
@@alexgrowsfood ha, but no grass clippings around here. Grass lawns take up too much water and we live in a desert so everyone has artificial turf 🥵
Wow, you made your point quickly and efficiently… thanks for respecting my time, more people on KZread should take a page out of your book. I’m subscribing now
Thank you so much! It's hard to make videos this condensed so appreciate the comment
Great scientific approach. I wonder how hay/straw would perform... Probably, in terms of volume, cost, and water retention, a mix of hay, grass clippings, and bark would perform best. What do you think?
Thank you! I imagine hay would be a lot like grass, I imagine straw wouldn't be too similar but my guess is they pack less efficiently by volume and allow more air flow to/from the soil (and any soaking up of moisture to be faster and more coherent) so I'd guess a little lower. I doubt there is much in it though and it'll depend on exactly how it's cut up. My guess is a mix would promote more evaporation than pure grass/straw (more gaps, darker overall surface colour) but layering might do a better job. In reality you'd probably have something like compost over a bed, with grass/hay on top and using straw in pots and a thicker layer of bark/woodchip on the paths and around trees. Think this is a standard picture and it sort of makes sense really.
Thank you for replying! I am more interested in mulching around the trees, so mix or layering seems like a better option. Would you mind telling which program you have used for plotting your data? I know a few but do not recognize this one :)
@@artur_pinski No worries. I use matplotlib in Python for all my plotting. I have lots of snippets of code lying around from my PhD days. I swapped the font and use other default/custom parameters so it's not the easiest to spot. The line animation was a crop effect in the video editor though.
Using transparent bowls destroys this experiment.
Not really - the relative rates of evaporation are unaffected. There are lots of limitations (moisture levels in the mulch, destruction of soil structure, being in bowls at all) but the bowls being glass isn't at the top of the list
Very good information. Thank you.
Thank you, very welcome!
Useful video.
Thank you! Glad it was helpful
matplotlib... nice.
The comment I was waiting for. Had a ton of code lying around from a phd. The best imo
Im a big fan of R but python is a fine language and more general purpose than R.
Really enjoyed your research project here. Interesting stuff.
Yeah, the syntax is just really nice to work with. I went Fortran->Python->C++ but Python feels natural. I did an R course and you can definitely feel how it was designed for a given task, never really managed to displace Python for me but super high uptake in biology and researchers without programming backgrounds
Could the reason that the wood chips performed worse than the hemp and grass clippings is because of the larger size of the wood chips?
I think so. I spent a lot of time studying how things pack together and my expectation would be that the large and long pokey shapes pack together inefficiently with a lot of holes in between and that allows more air to flow so evaporation should be much easier. It was very windy too and I expected a high airflow effect. Additionally the bark came with lots of dust/dirt which is probably partially broken down bark, but I imagine that soaked up water and helped it wick to the surface too. Lots of people have also pointed out the dark colour causing a heating effect. Some mentioned using 6 inches of bark for good mulching and that makes sense for all of the above imo. Just some thoughts. Imagine if you could get more spherical or more regular cubic shaped wood chips, they'd do a lot better.
There's so many interesting videos about mulch, but I haven't found another video that does this sort of of comparison testing of mulches. Comparison testing videos are one of the most interesting and informative types of videos, so much so that there are plenty of KZread channels that are only about comparison testing different products. I just thought I mention this because clearly it has something to do with the healthy amount of views this video has received. Well done. You're testing not only demonstrated some really good info, but also inadvertently raised so more interesting questions. Like, why exactly was the the hemp and straw so effective at preventing evaporation? They're both fibrous materials, presumably designed by nature to be effective at wicking moisture, and the hemp in particular was finely ground, close in consistency as the typical potting soil. Therefore, one would think that the hemp would have preformed as well as the compost, quickly wicking moisture up from the soil. So there's another factor in this picture, regarding the inherent wicking efficiency of the material used, that I would like to see explored.
Thank you again. I definitely have my theories - water moves faster through soil through pores and so does air, so a loose compost probably has little effect while hemp is solely through moisture absorption and transfer between the plant material (probably cellulose, which I expect should bind strongly with water molecules) so be very slow. Other people have rightly commented on the colour and heat absorption. It's probably a mix - the heat helps when the moisture gets high enough to evaporate. Not sure when (or how) it could all be tested for sure but I suspect it's something along those lines.
Quite funny
Thank you! Es-cargo still cracks me up
Good job on this. Great idea and thanks for sharing it. In Zambia I also have access to rice hauls, peanut shells, leaves and other things I use for ground cover. I wonder if you can do more comparisons with these things as well as plastic, and other items people use to cover the ground (old roof tiles), etc.
Thank you! Honestly these were just the materials I had lying around. I'm not sure where I'd get some of those tbh but I've heard good things about the rice hulls. Plastic sheet might be fine but be careful not to heat the soil too much or limit oxygen transfer and imagine that one would be the most soil type dependent of the bunch.
But when it rains the rain is going to do the same thing anyway if its a heavy rain 😂 so even if your trying to prevent those things from happening mother nature always finds away lol. Maybe better to use inside a green house so you can control everything better
It's a game of probabilities really. Less coverage is less likely to incur problems. In the west I sort of take your point (I actually think the repeated light rain is a bigger problem) but I live in the driest part of the country and there really isn't much rainfall at all, even this year it wasn't that extreme
Bravo Alex, great info well timed as here in Melbourne Australia quite cold atm am keeping soil bare after tidy up weeding etc... for planting new round of veggies and herbs and will use grass clippings as we have it a lot here without any toxic additions. Cheers.
Thank you! Honestly it's such a win that a homegrown item like this is so good. Forget the compost, straight on the ground for organic goodness at no cost but a weekly mow. Sublime result
'This'-Bloke's Absolutely-FANTASTIC ... He-'Had'-Me @-Those-GRAPHS ... Nothing-Like [R}-Good-Ol'-Fashioned-GRAPH To-Separate The-'Men'-From-The-BOYS So-To-Speak ... 'Moor'-PLEASE ... "I"m-'Still'-Not-SAITISFIED!!!??? >(*U^)< (Joke) *Wink*
Thanks mate. You almost got a graph of the gradients of the time series, would have been sweet but uber nerdy
@@alexgrowsfood Well ... It-[All]-'Started' With NEWTON's-Fluxions ... The-'Greatest''-DOODLES of [All]-TIME So-To-Speak!!!??? >(*U^)< (Joke) *Wink*
how about 1 inch deep of pee pebble stone (gravel), 1 inch deep of sand, and a plastic liner?
Assuming that's bottom-up, I guess the sand would trap the moisture. Top-down, you could probably skip some of those as I imagine the plastic does a neat job. Just be careful with restricting airflow and not overheating the soil and consider alternative ways of feeding the soil, including adding carbon.
@Yogi Hollow Farm interesting.
This is great!!!😊
Thank you so much!
Interesting. Would be nice to see this experiment again where you add the water on top of the mulch (this experiment was more of a "evaporation prevention" experiment, would be nice to see if the results would differ from a precipitation-soakthrough-evaporationprevetion experiment)
Yeah I very much wanted to measure evaporation rates to support some hydrology simulations I was running. It's also an easier setup because watering the bowl and waiting for it to seep into the soil is dependent on the mulch but also the soil type and structure and it could be quite slow and differ a lot between areas. We then probably want to look at moisture build up and then it matters how often and when in the day I water the bowls. Agree it would be cool to know the net effect of adding mulch from a top water scenario but I very much chose the simple option (just measuring evaporation for an irregular bottom watering scenario). Might follow up though on water content if I can get my simulation working and apply it to different soil types.
@Alexgrowsfood how is sand in comparison, could u please test it ❣
I'm not sure about sand. It gets quite hot and is quite small so good at restricting airflow but it also soaks up water. My guess would be it doesn't do as well as the top two and it won't feed the soil. If I do another set I'll write it down but it would have to be a complete set to account for the weather which is the main driver.
love the video, mate. I recommend another long form experiment using the same materials but analyzing water content IN THE GROUND with a moisture meter. Cheers! Keep it up
Thanks Vin. Tbh it would depend so much on the soil and distance from the water table and my patch of ground isn't consistent enough. I was really just after evaporation data for some simulations I was running. If I get them working I'll see if I can do something on water content and try and apply it to different soil types
Great content! I've been using grass clippings since the 80s and they have always been the best option for my garden. Gardening is expensive these days so free grass and less watering is a win/win. It's also good to find a KZreadr that isn't trying to sell us something we don't need. Best wishes for you and your garden.
It's amazing how good the free option is, isn't it? I had expected compost I bought in to do the job for me when I set up the garden but it was a tough year. I'm not the greatest at making my own compost so this is the perfect use
I just chop and drop
Love it! I've just lost my drying area so I'll probably be doing the same too. Saves a step...
It's not a coincidence that the best performance came from the finer ground materials. I use double ground mulch in my beds and it's about 3 inches thick, you do need to look at PH values as tanick acid from bark can be a problem but a bit of lime will help. Enjoyed video.
Thank you so much! Possibly... The compost was a weird mix of sizes really but parking that for a moment, with the true mulches it seems like you're right. Better packing factor and reduced airflow to the soil.
Grass will clump and stop water infiltration…
Possibly, especially if packed densely. Although significant water application should still seep through and the other materials have their own issues with top watering too. I recommend watering underneath anyway
I think the light color of the two winners has a lot to do with their success. I grow cover crop over the fall winter and spring and then chop it down and leave it in place and it turns a light tan color and have noticed an improvement in water retention even over the shredded leaves that I used to have in place (I still put the shredded leaves on but they get covered by the cover crop) The light color reflects the sun. Based on my casual observations I think you would see an even greater difference if you were measuring how fast plants used up their water with different mulches. I saw a dryland farmer YT video and I no doubt have these numbers wrong but it was something like once the SOIL gets over 80 degrees 70% of the water the plant uses is just to cool itself - similar to us sweating. I suppose this might be a downside for certain crops that like really hot conditions or in some areas where it is cold but most crops like their soil cooler than it is in most places in July and Aug. I do notice that I have to pull the 2 or 3" of shredded leaves off to top of the soil in the spring to get early spinach going but I can usually pull it back around as soon as they are 6 inches tall.
I could believe it. I specifically decided not to put plants in it to simplify things but my understanding is most water loss is via transpiration. I would like to see how a living mulch compares but maybe that's one for later. Agree colour probably has some impact here although the grey soil and black compost did quite similarly in terms of gradient (evaporation rate) later on so I think much of it is down to the materials ability to transport water. I did try to do a test with water but I made a mess of it but it looked like the heating effect on the soil and compost was present, I just can't confirm for sure. A test in the shade would probably be the easiest way of finding out
It probably makes a difference how thick the layer on top of the soil is.
It definitely should. It would act to amplify the differences I suspect (assuming evaporation is mostly/entirely at the surface). I tried to keep them similar here but for bark some people suggest about 6 inches is good. My guess is compost would still struggle unless it was very stodgy. But all of them will depend on the exact composition and material anyway (and probably the same for the soil underneath too)
Short, concise, with data & graph. I love seeing science & gardening hand to hand. Keep up the good video. Would've love to see more materials tho. Its counterintuitive that hemp (a very absorbent material) performed amazing as mulch. I thought it would've wicked the moisture
Thank you so much! Agree, it's kind of weird. Initially I thought it was best at limiting airflow. I've noticed before that hemp doesn't massively spread moisture - when the chicks knock the water over, only the corner of their pen gets wet. I presume it simply locks water in place (I guess it's cellulose or similar and there is some attraction with the water molecule) rather than spreading it about (I guess compost doesn't bind with it in the same way and instead it creates a suspension which allowed for faster water movement upwards). Just guessing really, I've not really looked into the microscale processes And yeah, these are just the ones I had lying around. Straw and leaves/leaf mulch would have been a nice way of rounding this off.
Wow. This us exactly the sort of experimentation I want to see in videos. Some very surprising results (now thinking about getting that hemp for the new ducklings, when they hatch, and the chickens afterwards). Other channels usually only go so far as recommending bark for the most part, then telk their audirnces they get it for free(I can't!) I've never seen anyone test different mulches before in this way. Would like to see more experiments in the future.
Thank you! I'm not perfect but try very hard not to just repeat things I've heard because it's not as fun for you or me and sometimes the received wisdom isn't correct - the slug barrier test I did in April/May is the best example of that. And I also don't have a supply of wood chips and I try to limit to organic too which only makes it harder to get free stuff. Very glad grass did as well as it did. Hemp is great bedding. Totally worth trying. I've not had any mite issues (in a Nestera coop) and it's quite nice to clean out. And does a good job of absorbing the moisture that the birds leave behind. I've not tried others but they look messier or have other issues. Not the cheapest way of doing it and a little dustier than I'd like but pretty versatile.
Thanks for creating & sharing this @alexgrowsfood 🌱 I have a stubborn family member, set in their ways, who is anti-mulch!? Their garden soil is as dry as talcum powder 😵 Perhaps your video can help . . .
No worries. There are a few limitations with this experiment which may affect applicability to your garden - being in a bowl, using my clayey soil, breaking the soil structure to test, initial moisture content of mulch and soil etc. but the relative evaporation rates (the gradients on the graph) should hold true, especially towards the end of the experiment. The best thing to do is a side-by-side test. Find a 1m patch and cover it with grass, wait for a sunny forecast and then water it and check the moisture each day. There will be some water transfer horizontally under the ground but the difference should still be pretty compelling a few days in. You can use a moisture sensor or you can dig it up, weigh it, bake it till dry and weigh it again, or I suspect even just touching the surface and a few cm down will be enough.
Crucial error in this test is using water loss by weight as the main tracker without first correcting for the moisture levels of the mulches. Compost is already damp so it will lose a lot of its own weight, skewing the data. This can be evidenced by the moisture meter clearly showing the soil is more moist than the bare soil.
I used chopped straw last year and it was great. I used a new bale this year and it's driving me nuts with wheat seeds germinating in it. Not sure what I'm going to do next year.
Sounds like the farmer messed up when harvesting. It's tough to source things well. Probably worth considering elsewhere next year. I try to use on site where possible but appreciate it's not always an option and the timings aren't perfect