I have spent the last two days putting nutrients onto one of the fields we will be planting this week. Nutrients,you ask? Yes, nutrients. I have been feeding the soil......nurturing it.... building it....I mean.... adding elements to the soil that will not only aid in soil structure and development, but will create wonderful results in the area of vegetable growth.
Now next in line after the nutrients comes liquid feed (another "special blend" of Joel's consisting of seaweed and fish parts...which if left open on a hot day would tear your nose off from a 1/2 mile out!) then plastic mulch.
Regarding the nutrients: the farmer has his own "special blend" I call his "11 herbs and spices". One of the bags even has his name on it! Now that is rockstar! He had a custom mix done by the Amish in Pennsylvania and shipped directly to him. The nutrients are packed in 40lb bags and the contents of which come from all over the country. He was telling me about one product that came from a cave in Mississippi discovered by the Indians and used for all sorts of stuff as well as farming. His nutrients are all natural sources of things like calcium, sulfur, phosphates, carbon, key bacterias etc etc- the list goes on and on. He tried his best to explain what each component was and what it would do, but I suffered brain overload and stroked out.
It is pretty impressive, actually, the amount of nutrients he puts on his vegetable fields. On a side note: He does the same thing for his pasture land that his cows feed on. I would guess 90% at least of the farmers that I have spoken with or observed do not do half of what he does in field prep. Most farmers spread manure and hit it with some 10-10-10 fertilizer-if that-and call it good. Pulverize the soil, spread some crap and plant. It's the take take take method of farming. Take from the ground and never give back, really. It is unsustainable.
So, in one field (garden) Joel has 11 rows approx 300+ feet long and each row gets 4- 40lb bags applied by hand. In order to do this I'd cut a corner of one bag, throw it over my shoulder, start walking down the center of a row and then regulate, by hand, the amount coming out onto the ground....Needless to say, I am sore today.
