Look into living soil. I don't know of any direct companions, but people grow cover crops like clovers to keep the soil alive between cycles.
If you're not doing living soil, just forget about it.
this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2024
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I've only had a year experience with growing crops but learned a lot about how important "living soil" is from having a bioactive terrarium.
Bioactive refers to making an active ecosystem with plants, insects and even microfauna. In mine I had plants, isopods (land shrimp) and springtails. The isopods break down fruits, veggies, poop and decaying matter like fallen leaves. The springtails eat fungi and mold that forms from constant moisture. The plants thrive off the nutritious bug poop.
Learning about this cycle was important to me understanding that creating a garden means creating a home for all the insect and microfauna first, the resulting crops were the tasty bonus.
Clover is amazing for ground cover. The roots will help losen soil. Along with underground insects, this helps create air pockets in the soil for all plant roots to breath. It helps prevent moisture loss, keeping enough moisture for roots to gather nutrients with less watering. The roots also act as a home for bacteria, fungi and anything considered microfauna really. The flowers attract pollinators which is so important for both crops and local pollinator populations. It may also bring nitrogen into the soil providing food for other plants or crops. I'm recalling most of this from memory so there may be outdated or slightly misremembered info but that was my take away from my initial research into healthy, living soil.
My first year of crops grew amazingly and I hope for more of that. This year I'm adding walking planks and a few large stones to my garden. Between the clover ground cover, stones and wood, that should give even more protection for my tiny insect\microfauna friends. I even went as far as to add a layer of fallen leaves over the soil to help protect it during the winter.
I can never look at "traditional" western farming practices the same again. Soil health is just not given the attention it truly needs.
Also a tip for living soil: utilize natural hormones and enzymes.
Alfalfa: veg growth hormone and nutrients (gigantic leaves)
Malted barley: enzymes that speed up maturation by up to 30% and flowering nutrients
For some crops, living soil also provides the necessary CO2 supplementation. I've read reports of people who only slow down the exhaust and reach the same CO2 levels as people who pay to pump it in.
Soil health is just not given the attention it truly needs.
Not being able to till or use synthetic fertilisers makes it a lot harder to scale up production.
Not being able to till or use synthetic fertilisers makes it a lot harder to scale up production.
This is exactly why I believe we need to start relearning soil health care among many other things. This is why we need to bring food back locally into everyone's yard's and parks. This is why we need this knowledge now to help future generations.
It's hard to imagine another way of living life but we'll never know if we don't collectively try.
I've personally drawn a lot of inspiration from Australian indigenous peoples and their approach to land management which is why I feel so strongly about learning soil health.
I remember watching some farmer testing different growing methods in separate plots (couldn't find it again). Permaculture, notill and similar methods work great for small gardens. But try to 3 sister a hectare of land and you'll curse everyone who ever mentioned it to you. You simply can't spend a lot of time on each set of plants to make sure they're actually helping each other instead of for example creating optimal conditions for pests and diseases. That means you get less produce than if you monocropped it.
This is why we need to bring food back locally into everyone’s yard’s and parks
I agree, but I don't think these methods are good for that without extensive support from local "experts". My first real grow was in my apartment, and I had a bunch of cooking herbs, peppers, tomatoes, and other vegetables in 0.5l plastic cups with coco coir. Mixing up the feeding solution taught me about plant nutrition and how to recognize specific issues (too much/little of a nutrient for example). Since the nutrient composition of the substrate changes with every feeding, you can quickly recognize what the plant wants and needs.
If it was living soil, I seriously doubt I'd get anywhere close. You not only need to be really specific when sourcing fertilizer, that you use in ways that require highly specific knowledge, but you also need like 200l beds to get anywhere. And you can get into weird situations like your plants showing N deficiency after you fed N mulch like 2 months ago. The cause can be something really tricky like using mulch with too much cellulose/lignin, and so the microorganisms had to use N in order to later release more of it later on.
I’ve personally drawn a lot of inspiration from Australian indigenous peoples and their approach to land management which is why I feel so strongly about learning soil health.
Check out Koreans. KNF and JADAM have pretty cool methods to feed different levels of soil, organic pest control, and stuff like that. I've even seen KNF used to create pig sties and chicken coops that don't smell.
I think I meant gardening instead of farming in my first comment. I'm drawing comparisons from the majority of my life in the suburbs. I have strong feelings about industrial farming that I'm not interested in going into at the moment.
I do believe it's important for us to learn how to rejuvenate our land as a step towards a sustainable future which is why I'm interested in learning and sharing such things. Food is quite important to our lives.
Def check out knf then. If nothing else, it's going to be a pretty fun experience to try out.
I grow with a cover crop that's like a bunch of different clover plus some other things like cow peas and flax. They fix nitrogen really well, which is nice on account of the fact that cannabis is so nitrogen hungry. They also look really pretty when they get established, which is always a plus.
Another good one is basil or lavender, which helps cover the smell from your square-ass neighbors (looking at you, Julie, you fuckin fed!)
full disclosure i do not grow - but i do consider myself an avid gardener/nature enjoyer.
assume you’re talking about outside - i’ve heard good things about pest repellent plants to keep…more important…things safe. things like cilantro, parsley and dill are supposed to have pest repellant properties. edit to fix typos
flowers like chrysanthemums and marigolds attract ladybugs and other pest killers.
things like chives also allegedly have antifungal(?) properties.
if you’re talking not outside, i agree with shareni - cover crops are great. i buy a 1lb bag of mustard seed every year and sprinkle that shit everywhere and then let it grow/die/fertilise the soil.
It's also good to plant accumulators nearby. Some plants like nettle actually draw in a lot more nutrients than they require, so they're great as fertilizer, while they also keep nosy humans and animals away.