 Dave welcome to the forums. Thank you All right, so you're gonna have access to this when I get done So what I'm gonna try to do is just to hit the highlights and then leave some comfortable time for questions afterward and I think that Anybody that wants to can get a hold of me later on if there's some deep issue that you want me to explore So so here we go soils for your garden and containers. This is your best reference and maybe your Agents has access to that and it's really important one of the things to consider when you're putting out any kind of a garden is That don't just stick it in the corner someplace Where maybe the grass won't grow Needs and so putting it in a decent soil is a good first start and some soil testing Especially in areas in our state for salts is a good first step to being a success So a good garden soil needs some firmness for the supports of the plant It has to have the ability to hold water And we're holding on for a second Oh, no All right, we back on All right Has to have the ability to hold water But on the other hand it has to has good drainage to and the two are not It's not an oxymoron. You can do you can have a soil that does both and that's your goal Has to have the ability to exchange air because roots breathe and so it has to have air down there All soil is made up of minerals of different sizes or organic organic material That makes up about half of the soil volume the other half is the poor space and There has to be air and water in that for the plants to do well Minerals are sized as sand and silt and clay with sand the largest and clay the smallest and they're arranged by soil scientists and what we call a textural triangle and If you want to read this the left hand Edge is the clays and bottom is the sands and the Other side is the silt and then you just you read the read the percent sober for example Soil that's a third and a third and a third Would be classified and in the middle there is a clay loam Something was a little bit more sandy would be classified as a loam so forgiving easy to work with soil with good natural drainage is a Soil that would be in the textural class of a loam To a sandy loam on the loaming side and fortunately for most people in North Dakota for most of the area of the state many many gardens Have soil that's in this category Unfortunately, those of us in Fargo Grand Forks And most of what we call the Redvera Valley are in some really high clay soils and we have some Issues from time to time, but those of you Valley City, Jamestown, Bismarck different places You're already blessed with some loam and sandy loam soil. So you're kind of ahead of the games Don't forget the organic component of the soil because soil is a biological creation It isn't just invented in the absence of biology. It has to have biology for it to make it The minerals by themselves don't make a soil the soils are alive and you have to keep that in mind if they're not alive the productivity is going to be low and you're you're going to be Well, either we didn't going to be disappointed with the results or you're gonna have to manage them really really intensely to get All the productivity that you should out of them Here are some organic inputs You can use fresh manure. It's highest in nitrogen, but if you're in town someplace Maybe your neighbors would eject of that nice beef cattle smell that comes from your garden So be really really careful of that. The other thing is is that too high a rate of a fresh manure can Injure seeds and seedlings because they release quite a bit of ammonia and so it's often really not the greatest thing to do Unless you let you do it early in the spring, perhaps and then work it into the soil and an area that's not close to Neighbors that are offended easily Composted manure and compost in general is a good source of nutrients. So release slow degradation It's a really good source of biology if you go online and search for Compost manure a lot of times you come up with sterilized compost and I suppose if you're going to grow mushrooms in the basement that's a good thing and Maybe if you're putting it on for some seedlings coming out of the ground That's not a bad thing in a greenhouse, but but in a garden the compost itself Sterilization is is not recommended because you want the biology that's in the compost Compost usually has if it has a smell It's a very mild smell because it's a pretty decomposed material if it's if it's If it's composted correctly the heat of the composting process itself will be enough to kill weed seedlings and Nasty pathogens so no one the source your compost is important as well and if you maintain your own compost pile Going through and not neglecting it and making sure it's moist enough, but not too moist is Is important try to try to try to create that heat, but don't catch your house on fire Another organic amendment that I think is important is magnum peat moss in my mind It's a renewable resource if it's cultivated correctly has really excellent water holding capacity It's particularly important for containers non-self-watering containers because it holds water like crazy It aids in a ration. It doesn't have any smell And it also concludes some of the biology that I think is important to make a good soil This is an example of peat broad peat ball If you go up to northern, Minnesota a few vacation in parts of Wisconsin You'll see some of these and they're really pretty interesting places They're little lakes that have kind of what they've they've silted in and In this and when you walk on them, it's like walking on a waterbed but anyway, the peat is alive and people that harvest this will Will temporarily drain that area and they will carve maybe six inches or so off of the top And then when they get done the land is refluttered and the Pico's grows back for several years before another harvest So it's a renewable resource if it's handled right But if you're I have a mind that it's not a renewable resource and you kind of want things to be continually Nature and that's here. That's your prerogative an alternative to that which gives similar properties as a pro as a substance called core Which is derived from coconut husk and that's can be some more difficult to work with with the peat But it has some some of the same benefits of the water holding capacity Now in the Red River Valley and other towns and cities in the in the clay part of the Red River Valley that that high clay soil Has some problems with drainage. It's really hard to get good drainage on these soils So you may have to consider a raised bed strategy so here's some examples that I gathered from the from the net on raised beds and If it's really long like that one up on the upper left and some cross bracing is probably a very good thing I don't see any there, but it looks like those are pretty stout Will they be two by two by two by tens maybe 12 foot long or something like that. That's probably max more More likely if you're gonna use boards like that is is a smaller raised beds over in the lower right because they don't require as much cross bracing These are ones that I did I remember Lincoln Logs as a kid and so you know why not so I take Landscape timbers that don't have any harmful arsenic or anything in them And I just put them together with some metal stakes and the The cucumbers are growing across that trellis in the middle I'd make mine about 30 inches high so that we don't have to lean over too much We certainly don't have to kneel down to do anything They're very convenient to take some time to build but once they're built they last for about 10 years before you have to Redo them at least in our climate So you can grow all kinds of things in them some spinach and some lettuce Here's earlier in the season the same same kind of beds We're not I'm not the person that invented these things were over in China a few years ago and in this particular hoop that went over this for their gourds and And they were very big Was somewhere around 300 feet longer so in around 16 feet high So it's it's a nice way to grow your vines air gets to them. They don't have as much problem with disease All right So how to till the garden if you're gonna till it follows really the time to till it We have soils that kind of heal themselves over time. Most of our soils do especially the high clays so Tilling in the fall by the time spring comes the garden is Pretty well good to go if you take your hand as the soil is drying It's the soil becomes very loose Because the clays shrink and swell and create little particles So on the springtime less less tilling is is better. So less is more If you till a clay soil when it's too wet and I've had experience with this first year. I was here in Fargo If you till it too wet you get clods if you till it too dry You get clods you have to be out there like a two o'clock on the perfect day in order for it to do well So shallow tillage is really better than deep and those clay soils in the springtime One of the things that's been a hit in these Presentations in the past has been these self-watering containers You can find plans for this on the web But I'm gonna lead you through this really quickly and again You're gonna have these pictures and we get done So I'm gonna go from start to finish and show you how to do these peppers really like this green peppers red peppers chili peppers There's it's a there's a there's a reason why New Mexico is really big in chilies because Because peppers love warm roots and this is one way to get warm roots is in these self-watering containers And you can leave these things for a week and your plants will dry out which is really nice So here are the tools you need. Why do you need that piece of plywood? I had a question last year It's because do you really want to put holes in your grandmother's antique oak table? So that's why that piece of plywood is there. So when you're drilling holes, you're drilling into something that you're not gonna get yelled at So you go to the big box store or your local hardware store and you get this get this tub They're around 15 gallon and they have a lid on them and the lids important because that's that's gonna be your dividing line and they're mostly tapered from top to bottom and you want that because the What you cut out on the top is going to set down about halfway down in the middle. I'll show you in a minute so the top Before you do any cutting you drill a number of half-inch holes like that across the top and that's going to let water move up into the soil and Then you cut it out so that it lays about halfway down Into the tub So of course that the dividing line is not going to sit there by itself so you have to cut some three four inch diameter PVC pipe and And mark the places that are very close to one of the holes that you drill Because you want to drill holes in this and and have the wire to attach the PVC to the bottom of the diaphragm Before you flip it over and it's ready to take soil So here we are we've set it up and we've marked where the holes are going to be and then we drill the holes See how they're next to the holes on the diaphragm. That's what we want So you don't have to so the so the wire is easily threaded through there and then the wire threads through You're cutting the wire about six seven inches long or so and then you're threading the wire through just like that and then it goes into the hole in the diaphragm and you just Tie it tied on so when you get done This is what it's going to look like this is without it being laid into the tub that you can see how How the PVC supports the diaphragm and the diaphragm is attached to the PVC By the wires that you've cut and threaded through both Just like that Then there's another hole that you that you cut and that's going to be for the fill pipe See how the fill pipe is is cut at about a 45 degree Re-angle that's so when you plunk it down into the tub it doesn't plug Yeah, you need to make sure that it touches the bottom But you need to make sure that that water is going to flow through it and so that's why you cut it at 45 Just like that So here's the diaphragm. It's placed into the tub with the fill pipe into its little hole and Then you're almost ready Okay, so that's what it looks like Okay, so Also one more thing that you do is you you have to cut a hole in one of those pipes So usually the middle one, but it really doesn't matter which one But that's going to enable good soil to water contact When when you fill it up with soil and Put the water in so then you take a soil I use this but I'm not an endorser. You can use any kind of good garden soil that you want and You fill it up and this is what you look like when you get done So you have the fill pipe, you have the soil You have the soil handed down into that PVC pipe that you cut the hole into and then you fill it up with water and at the side Gosh, you can just barely see it And I'm not gonna be able to point but see on the left hand on the left hand Container on the right hand side of it about halfway down. You can see a little bit of a hole You drill about an inch hole right at the level of where the diaphragm is and so as you're pouring water into that Maybe once a week or once every three or four days whenever you want Then that prevents the soil from being flooded So you have water in the bottom, but you don't have excess water above the diaphragm any excess water Drain drains out that hole and that way, you know that it's filled to the level that needs to be filled So that's the last thing you do all right, so moving on for People that have a high clay backyard like mine. This is my favorite mix About a third of all any of our high clay soils and about a third of the volume using some kids play sands pretty coarse sand and about a third of the volume is Fagnum peat moss and then you mix that all up, which is quite the job in a raised bed, but But it's a good exercise, you know, I have to pay $20 a week to a gym So so that that works mix very thoroughly before you plant it because you don't want those things layered or or else Your garden is not going to be very good. So you have to thoroughly mix that thing and Maybe doing doing it in the fall of the year is probably the best best thing although. I've done it in the spring also And then soil mixes for containers that are not self watering you need to make sure You're going to get some potting potting soil You want to make sure that contains about half half the volume of peat moss or something similar because Unlike a garden You're not going to have the luxury of of say groundwater excess water percolating up through a container The container that's that's that's the home. That's all you've got and so you want to make sure that the soil will hold as much water as possible and And the peat moss or something like it will maybe look do that and then drainage is also important Don't use a pot that doesn't have a hole on the bottom Needs to have drainage because you get a heavy rain or something like that You're just going to be trying trying to grow a tomato in a fish bowl. It's not going to work You have to have the arrow remember So, you know the pots that are over there on the left. That's that's what I do I make sure that I have a good mix that has a significant amount of peat moss in it Because the Sun's going to bear down on that all day 12 14 hours in the summer and it and if all you have is Just soil in there. It's not going to take much to bake that out And especially if you have really tall tomato plants like I do they're on the left They take a lot of water too, so make sure that you have plenty of peat moss in there Fertilizing organic inorganic it's kind of up to you. I consider it a personal choice Alan went into fertilizers to some degree Whenever you're buying it, you're going to see a guaranteed analysis 10 10 10 means the first number is always percent Nitrogen second numbers percent phosphorus third numbers percent Potash and if has anything else it also appears on the bag So a lot of people are are used to fertilizing farm fields and it seems like That people put a lot of fertilizer on for for weed or for corn or a lot of our crops, but But our vegetable crops are raised far more Intensively than our field crops and so although we really don't Think about adding a lot of micronutrients and other nutrients store to our crops We put a lot of pressure on our soils to grow These vegetables so so using some type of What multi nutrient fertilizer might fill in some gaps that we really normally don't need for our field crop Cultivation so so consider that again. I don't I'm not an endorser, but that's just an example There's many fertilizers out there Foliar sprays generally aren't needed for a garden if it's well fertilized the exception of that would be tomato the end end end blight on the tomatoes that's normally caused by in inadequate watering Personal a lot of their tomatoes and it'll be okay for a day but then they forget to do it the next day and and so this infrequent watering and uneven watering really affects tomatoes a lot and the reason it does is because Calcium is really important in the seed coats of tomatoes and other fruits and calcium moves through the plant through the transpiration stream and If the plant is borderline wilting That's when you see these black spots But if you're really under intensive cultivation Maybe a dilute spray of gypsum, which is calcium sulfate might help this but the Regular system of watering is more most helpful even though this is a calcium deficiency that the biggest problem that results in this is the Unregular watering of the tomatoes So I'm gonna mention this because I need to mention this and I mentioned it in that circular too And we don't have a huge problem with this, but I would just want people to be aware We have some really good things about soils in the North Dakota We have plenty of selenium and in a lot of the state, which is a very healthy thing But along with the selenium we have this thing that called cadmium, which is a heavy metal and some Certain plants accumulate cadmium more than others and there's a part of our state that Has more plant available cadmium than any other and that's that it's kind of a triangle that starts at the north end of Devils Lake and kind of what these up It encompasses Langdon, O'Halla and so Things to consider is if you're you just have a garden in the backyard. It's not raised. It's native soil Leafy vegetables are going to be the ones that are most susceptible to cadmium If you you know if you just have a occasional lettuce sandwich and maybe a little spinach It's really not going to be a big deal But if you're a big canner you freeze a lot and this is where you get your broccoli or cabbage and Eat the stuff every other day for a whole year Maybe that's not a good plan Maybe the best plan would be to go to something like a raised bed import some soil from outside of the region and Then then grow these susceptible things the things that accumulate cadmium in in a soil like that So I'm just I'm just saying just so you can be aware So with that Okay, thank you Dave Of course everybody's amazed by your pepper system Now how about there's a question about to these bell peppers These tub systems here we're have problems mosquitoes No, no They can't take that Yeah We used to have trouble with mosquitoes because bushes around our patio and the answer to that was to make a screened-in addition How about the plants get root found in those cups? No, the plants have never gotten root found of course. You don't want to put six plants in there I I limited to two healthy plants of spaced You know evenly Across when I put the soil on another thing that I do and I didn't show that I guess I should But when I put the soil on about about half the soil in and then then I put a concentrated band of 10 10 10 So it's about what maybe four or five inches lower the sole surface is going to be And then I put a little bit more soil and then I put the plants in and I finish Finish the soil around that and that concentrated band to sort of fertilize it really gives them a nice boost when they start But I never find them root bound at all And I use so I can use those containers Yeah, they've had a life of around five five years or so After every year I clean them out So that any kind of contagion or something like that is washed out of that. That's ready to use again I don't use the same soil from year to year. I dump it in another garden patch And I put in fresh soil the next time is that a general recommendation of yours when in containers to Start with new soil over here. Yes You know not so much for the fertility because that's not the issue The issue is is some of the diseases that might propagate in the in the pots over time How about, you know, you mentioned cadmium Are there symptoms of? Cadmium poisoning what maybe even in plants. Can you tell if the plant is loaded with cadmium? Well, how do we be cautious around this? Yeah, so so any kind of a fruit crop is not a problem cadmium doesn't Accumulate to any degree and things like tomatoes and cucumbers and things like that It's only the green leafy tissues like spinach and especially the broccoli using cauliflower and those those kind of plants that Are a problem, so I wouldn't worry about any kind of fruit crop Sweet corn anything like that, but if if if you're into those green leafy vegetables Then just as a precaution, I would consider a raised bed with some imported soil There is a soil test for cadmium, right? There is Yeah, a lab-like advice could probably do that what the critical level is I'm not really sure one of the In other parts of the state, I don't think it's an issue It's an issue up in that area because the soils are so shallow from the surface to the shale layer And the shale is what the ancient shale that underlines almost all of North Dakota is the source of cadmium and when you if you're in that area and you till the garden you'll see these little pieces of Gray flaky rocks That's the shale and that's where the cadmium comes from it has some some nice agronomic Properties because it also contains Mineralizable nitrogen and our nitrogen fertilizer recommendations are less up there just because the soil acts like a slow release fertilizer But it but it also has an unfortunate property of having some cadmium. There's no Plants so Yeah, at any kind of levels we have in the state anywhere. They don't exhibit Cadmium toxicity at all. I mean something like that would have to be right outside of a Chinese battery factory or something Can a person use slough water slough SL Oh, you slu water water. I'm sorry. Can a person use slu water for watering When the rainwater contains systems run dry Yeah, I think you can to if it's in a let me see if a person Knows because it may be some of the vegetation around the slu Has some salt influences. I mean you can see sometimes the white effervescence More a lot of foxtail barley or kosher something like that growing around it Then I'd be reluctant to do it But if you don't see anything like that you can test the water It's not expensive to test the water for salts and if it looks like the salt content is fairly low Then there's no problem with using it Okay, here's a long question stay with me page two of that publication Indicates that well aggregated soils with bright yellow subsoil Are indicators of a well aerated? Subsoil, yes Person's never seen bright yellow soil and Fargo. No, evidently, they're enchanted by where do you where can we find that? Go Let me see. So where would you go? So go west of Fargo about 40 miles and you'll come to a Ridge with the windmill Well, I've worked in that area quite a bit and as soon as you get out of the valley as soon as you get out of the valley then Then a lot of the a lot of the hilltop side slope positions have that kind of soil How about You can handle this one, but let's me ask you what's your opinion on trimming back vegetation with fruit Maybe like your peppers are ripening You get a lot of leaf growth and it just breaks the plant Yeah, so Yeah, my those those pepper plants become pepper trees in some years And so I have to watch that so so what I do to prevent that is to Maybe harvest a little bit early or I mean it's it's sinful here We are in March and we're hoping for the first tomato But but sometimes Sending back a cluster of five tomatoes to maybe two to avoid those kind of things is something that you have to do You know in Taiwan, we would stake every pepper plant. We stake them just use a bamboo Oh, I do. Yeah, I stake them. Yeah If you just provide some support for the plants. Yes Yeah, you don't want to you don't want to have the plants fall over we we stick up all our tomatoes We stick up all of our peppers Okay Last chance for any questions. I did soon have a question that you wanted to type in Okay, let's we're gonna cut it off there. Hey, thank you for your welcome about swells It's always good to have you here at the spring fever form. Thank you No, we're gonna take another quick five minute break and we're gonna move on to prairie meadows everybody. Thank you