[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by JJJessee

I'm late to the party, but I think I've read all your posts from previous years on the project.
Still, I have some questions and seeking some clarification.

Very happy to answer.

Originally Posted by JJJessee

In year year one, you applied various substrates to essentially "prime" the soil for conversion to crop production. Over this you rolled hay as sort of sheet compost and mulch. The primary objective being to increase biological life using inputs. Is this a fair assessment?

Yes. I mowed twice. Once at 2-3 inches and again 5 days later at ground level basically as low as my mower would go. The second mowing was only in the rows I would be covering with paper/cardboard/burlap and mulch. Next after mowing I sprinkled coffee grounds to keep the worms fed until the mulch started decomposing. Lastly I laid the paper and mulch, sprinkling the paper to keep it wet and not blowing away in the wind before the mulch got on it. Coffee grounds are free from StarBucks.

Originally Posted by JJJessee

How large of an area was actually focused on for year one?

Plot 1 was 1/10th acre About 1/3rd of that was used for crops and 2/3rd between rows left as grass.

Originally Posted by JJJessee

Were there any other inputs?

I make a "special soil" that is used only in the transplant holes. Basically a mixture of compost and soil that has a small amount of organic dry fertiliser like TomatoTone added. In some cases after I ran out of compost, I made do with just soil and some coffee grounds. When I water in the seedlings they get inoculated with Mycorrhizal fungi and the "water" is actually compost tea.

Originally Posted by JJJessee

Were any other crops besides broccoli attempted?

Brassicas, peppers, tomatoes. The brassicas are mostly broccoli, but I did have a few others like cabbage Kale collards. Also between each plant is herbs as companion plants. I grew basil, marigolds, tarragon, rosemary, bush beans, stevia, oregano, celantro etc.. between plants in the rows (mostly basils). I also planted sunflowers at the ends of rows.

Originally Posted by JJJessee

Did the storm decimate the entire crop or did it survive to yield a harvest?

Crop pulled through without problems.

Originally Posted by JJJessee

In you evaluation of the first year in year two, you noted that the the virgin sod seemed to be yielding better results than the area that had been enhanced in year one. That is surprising.

Surprised me too.

Originally Posted by JJJessee

What crop was that?

Tomatoes peppers broccoli

Originally Posted by JJJessee

Was the virgin sod directly adjacent to the year one enhanced area?

Yes

Originally Posted by JJJessee

Was there any indication the re-sodded area had been enhanced?

Sod came back thicker than it was before I started.

Originally Posted by JJJessee

How much decomposition did the cardboard, newspaper and burlap show after one year?

Mostly gone. Only a few traces left of the mulch and only in areas it was extra thick.

Originally Posted by JJJessee

In year two, you began using municipal compost. How many yards did your project use?

I only used about 6 garbage bags of actual compost, just for the "special soil" in each transplant hole. The rest was the free mulch. I used one front loader scoop of that and experimented using it instead of hay mulch on one row each both plots. It seemed to do a little better than the round bales of hay, but is a whole lot more work than just unrolling hay.

Originally Posted by JJJessee

Is it correct that the compost was made with sludge and ramial chip wood (that's typical of our area)?

Possibly. I didn't smell any sludge, but it is wood chips and leaves and there is a water treatment facility nearby so it might have some wastewater from that facility.

Originally Posted by JJJessee

Your project expanded to a new acre of very difficult soil and the primary crop was tomatoes.
How much of the acre was improved?

Too early to tell the improvement. There instead of 2/3rd sod and 1/3 mulch, I spaced it differently so it was about 50/50 over most the acre.

Originally Posted by JJJessee

Where any other crops, cover crops, employed besides tomatoes?

In plot 1 yes...see above. In plot two I didn't interplant basil and such, I regret that. I did grow a small area of peppers and sweet corn though.

Originally Posted by JJJessee

How many varieties of tomatoes and how many plants were planted.
How would you classify production, excellent, good, fair, or poor?

Plot 2 about 500 tomatoes 2 dozen peppers and a very small test plot of sweet corn. Pepper yields were poor, sweet corn good, heirloom tomatoes fair-poor, Rutgers determinate tomatoes good. I should note that although yields were disappointing, it still was profitable because inputs were so low. I suspect yields will improve as the soil gets healed. Remember, this was on land so poor that the farmer had to stop even growing hay. REALLY bad soil. And besides the mulch, a few coffee grounds, and the little bit of "special soil" in the transplant holes, I didn't add inputs.

Originally Posted by JJJessee

In year three, are you returning to the initial sod with any new inputs or treatments?

I did this year for the first time broadcast winter rye to get a cover crop. and in plot one I will again test the difference between moving the rows to fresh sod, or going over the same spot again. This time though instead of just going over the same row again, I planted winter rye and peas as a cover crop on those 6 rows. This is on the theory that the surprising results last year were due to not rotating crops. Hopefully a cool season cover crop will correct that issue.

Originally Posted by JJJessee

Are you doing any specific type of documentation of exactly what you are doing on a weekly basis?

I will be this year on the advise of the consultant.

Originally Posted by JJJessee

Do you have any time parameters (x) that you are expecting to see specific results (y)?

Not really. I am simply observing at this time without specific expectations. We will see. I don't want to bias the results. But as a overall general project goal, eventually I want the method expandable to full size commercial scale and a business model I can take to the bank and get a mortgage to buy a farm. I am starting this a bit old so I got to get the move on!

Originally Posted by JJJessee

I'm very interested in the permaculturing techniques. I started back to gardening in 2012 with a lot less of the concepts in mind you seem to already have. But generally, I've gardened on the organic side of the spectrum. I have about 1100 sf of raised beds built, and grew crop in 2014. Plus about another 200 sf in progress hopefully to plant this spring. I have another area about 60x100 that is being used for berries and tilled with cover crops and considerably fewer other inputs than the raised beds. I have grown potatoes, peppers and tomatoes in this area. All this ground has been in sod for many years. It's all clay, but pretty decent clay considering. I realize that I have a tilling addiction, and I may convert this area totally to berry production eventually. We'll see ;-) I use a camera prodigiously in the garden, it helps immensely when reviewing -a visually notebook I guess. I wish I had been more rigorous on input details. I'm starting to document from memory now and have mostly finished cataloging and organizing my seed database before it got T-totally out of hand.

Good luck for 2015!
It'll soon be tater time.