Ohio Farm Tours

[Buckhunter10]

When starting Vitalize Seed it wasn’t enough for us to just have a great seed mixes.

We wanted to go above and beyond from a customer service perspective and provide honest research both for our own learning and also to our customers benefit.

We have spent more money this year on testing than I care to admit but we find it is crucial to be able to look our customers in the eye and tell them how much we care and that we continue to strive to learn more to offer better advice and products for our customers.

None of this could be possible without our amazing partners @ward labs and our amazing customers.

In the picture here you’ll see a snap shot of a PLFA test. The test was pulled in the dormant season and yet the results are proof positive of the success of the 1-2 system. The microbial biomass, and bacteria to fungi ratio are fantastic!!

I plan to have a call with some of our partners @Ward and bring you all more in-depth analysis, again driving our desire to learn more and disseminate the information to our growers be it food plotters to farmers to gardeners.

The fact is - we are cycling nutrients with the Vitalize 1-2 system. This is allowing us to manage residues and growth successive crops with minimal inputs - all while driving soil health simultaneously. We will only get better results as we control deer browse and increase plant biomass below and above ground through this Spring NB planting and the following Carbon Load plantings.

Healthy soils = healthy food = healthy deer

Thanks for all the supporters!!

Albert

 

[Buckhunter10]

 

[Buckhunter10]

 

[Buckhunter10]

 

[Buckhunter10]

Sent in from a good customer and friend - “we are so happy with carbon load. We cannot wait to get our Nitroboost planted”.

We cannot thank you all enough for the continued support and friendship. You all are the best!!

 

[Buckhunter10]

I’ve always loved to grow things. Of course being on a tractor is a blast but working on soil health in my garden, saving seeds, growing seeds passed down for generations is also a passion.

Today I started my first phase of transplanting. Tomatoes can be transplanted very deeply and it allows them to get a very strong root system.

These were started with our seed feed on the seed. Now they’ve been transplanted to their necks. Next place will be my garden or friends/families gardens. This is about 1/2 of my heirloom tomatoes I’ve got transplanted so far. I plan to put them into the actual garden in another few weeks.

Our love for soil health isn’t solely driven by wildlife - it’s also driven by our own passions to grow food for our families. They just happen to go hand in hand, very often.

Thanks for following along and the support!

-Al

 

[Buckhunter10]

 

[Buckhunter10]

Before and after -

This year I wanted to get another cover crop growing, prior to putting tomatoes in the ground. With this unusually early Summer - I seeded our NitroBoost into the Carbon Load. I allowed it to get started and then mowed off the carbon Load to create a dense thatch.

I will allow this to grow for a month or so and then I’ll put weed matting down and get my tomatoes planted.

When food-plotting, farming, gardening - it pays to always be experimenting within the confines of the soil health principles.

Here is to a great growing season!!

 

[Buckhunter10]

 

[Buckhunter10]

“Some of the biomass is almost as tall as me” - not bad when the guy on the other end is 6’3!!!

The numbers of texts about the biomass the Carbon Load creates is far too great to even share. This will get planted with our NitroBoost very soon and all that above ground biomass will be converted to plant food for the NB. It will suppress weeds and the nutrient cycling will continue!!

Planting season is upon us!!

 

[SD51555]

You sure that one isn't nitro boost? There's a lot of hairy vetch there.

 

[Buckhunter10]

You sure that one isn't nitro boost? There's a lot of hairy vetch there.

Yes sir.

We don’t use hairy vetch in our NB (only did year one) but since we wanted to use it in fall. We use American joint vetch in NB. That way there is more diversity on a single field between the two plantings (very little species overlap).

Carbon load has 16 species - most make it through winter and the HV seems to do very well fall planted and leaps in Spring.

 

[SD51555]

How do you rotate out of hairy vetch? Whenever I've had it, it takes hold and I can't ever get it back under control again within the box of holistic land management practices. Mine would climb the rye and eventually cause it all to lodge resulting in a giant snag of snot that was very difficult to mow. And by the time it went down, every plant had produced hundreds of viable seeds.

And i'm not picking at you. I'm genuinely curious. I really like HV, I just can't get it to play nice in a blend, and then I've got to do things I'm not proud of to handle it.

 

[Buckhunter10]

How do you rotate out of hairy vetch? Whenever I've had it, it takes hold and I can't ever get it back under control again within the box of holistic land management practices. Mine would climb the rye and eventually cause it all to lodge resulting in a giant snag of snot that was very difficult to mow. And by the time it went down, every plant had produced hundreds of viable seeds.

And i'm not picking at you. I'm genuinely curious. I really like HV, I just can't get it to play nice in a blend, and then I've got to do things I'm not proud of to handle it.

So that depends on the growers goals.
I think the key to HV is how much and a little goes a long way!! I’ve kept it around 1-2% of total mix and it produces enough biomass without binding up a bushog. You throw a full acre rate out there - it’ll get thick fast. Because of that lower rate - mowing, crimping, light disc, I’ve even just drilled through it without issue or herbicide use has been highly effective for those who go that route.

I too love HV but I don’t like it at insane rates.

Similarly with our carbon load product. I love rye grain but I don’t like it at super high rates. That’ll cause a ton of nutrient tie up the following year and often why folks give up on no-till.

I believe with all species it’s critical to make sure the mix is balanced but also balanced to the subsequent plantings there after.

Great question. No picking felt at all!

Edit - add - checkout Rick Clark from
Farming green. He has amazing success with flail mower on HV in all organic system.

- Al

 

[Brian662]

The more I look into ways of terminating cover crops, it seems like a flail mower is the way to go versus a crimper. Studies I've seen show they are more successful at terminating (in percentages) and they also have some practical use outside of cover crops, unlike a crimper.

Does a flail mower have troubles cutting the crops after tires rolled over the crop? I know most of them are partially offset, but it seems like this could be a problem.

 

[Buckhunter10]

The more I look into ways of terminating cover crops, it seems like a flail mower is the way to go versus a crimper. Studies I've seen show they are more successful at terminating (in percentages) and they also have some practical use outside of cover crops, unlike a crimper.

Does a flail mower have troubles cutting the crops after tires rolled over the crop? I know most of them are partially offset, but it seems like this could be a problem.

So there is some extremely impressive USDA studies on flail mowers for multi species cover crop termination - I agree with you.

I just terminated my fall carbon load in my garden (seen above) with a push mower haha. Ill update progress today or tomorrow but it’s amazing the rate of term.

As for tires - I’d suspect that’s going to be determined by the timing of mowing, about of lignin in the crop, type of crop, etc.

No physical termination is 100% but we can sure get plenty close enough for really great deer plots, gardens, and smaller farming applications.

I hope this info is helpful to folks. I appreciate you all following along and commenting. Sometimes I’m not sure if the videos and pictures are helpful or not so getting a dialog going excites me.

Thanks all!!

- Albert

 

[SD51555]

The more I look into ways of terminating cover crops, it seems like a flail mower is the way to go versus a crimper. Studies I've seen show they are more successful at terminating (in percentages) and they also have some practical use outside of cover crops, unlike a crimper.

Does a flail mower have troubles cutting the crops after tires rolled over the crop? I know most of them are partially offset, but it seems like this could be a problem.

That was the big push behind my 2022 blunder with the front mounted ATV flail mower. I wanted a mower that went over the material before the tires. My whole thesis was you could eliminate the seed drill completely if you could flail mow a fully matured and dried rye crop evenly down onto broadcasted seed.

This was supposed to be the absolute pinnacle of throw and mow and it was destined to eliminate most other implements, costs, and passes over the plot.

I’m still pondering a capital-light solution to this problem, but it’s a year or two out given there’s other projects ahead of it. The latest is to buy the offset 3pt mower and rent the tractor. I’d have about two hours of mowing each year, but it’d finally be done right. At least a smaller offset mower could eliminate one side of the tires.

 

[Buckhunter10]

That was the big push behind my 2022 blunder with the front mounted ATV flail mower. I wanted a mower that went over the material before the tires. My whole thesis was you could eliminate the seed drill completely if you could flail mow a fully matured and dried rye crop evenly down onto broadcasted seed.

This was supposed to be the absolute pinnacle of throw and mow and it was destined to eliminate most other implements, costs, and passes over the plot.

I’m still pondering a capital-light solution to this problem, but it’s a year or two out given there’s other projects ahead of it. The latest is to buy the offset 3pt mower and rent the tractor. I’d have about two hours of mowing each year, but it’d finally be done right. At least a smaller offset mower could eliminate one side of the tires.

have you tried just staggering the mowing? I plan to try this with crimping. Crimp when planting and then crimp again a week or two later. Or even mow high a week or two later to hit anything that pops up. The young seedlings shouldn’t get damaged as they’ll be small and the results should be increased termination on the pesky stuff that pops back up. That’s my theory atleast!! I am looking forward to trying it.

 

[Buckhunter10]

Yall got me excited so I did a quick update on the mowing of garden crop.

 

[Buckhunter10]