Take a look at the above image. These are both suck cuttings of a plant knowns as Longevity Spinach and it is very easy to root as a cutting. Since it dies below freezing I take cuttings from my garden in fall and grow a few plants indoors for set out in the following spring.
Which one of these plants would you want to plant in your garden? If you were buying plants at a store or nursery and they were sitting next to one another which would you buy? Not even a hard question is it? The one on the left!
Well, they were both stuck on the same day, they have both been watered exactly the same and they both grew about 4 inches apart. There are actually 6 of these plants, three of each and it is the same story with all of them.
Guess which one was stuck into my bioreactor compost. Again the one on the left.
But, did I stack the deck? What is the one on the right stuck into? The answer is Fox Farms Happy Frog Potting Soil. Now look if you had to buy a potting soil that or Fox Farms Ocean Forest is what I would recommend. These two soils are used by micro green growers, organic plant propagators, the cannabis industry and may others. Why? Because it is an outstanding soil for something you can buy off the shelf.
It is why I used it for the control in my experiment. And why the night and day difference is so dang impressive. Note that the total size of the leaves is not the only thing to look at. Look at the new growth specifically. There is about double the mass of new growth on the compost plant vs. the potting soil plant. Neither have been given any fertilizer and the Fox Farms soil definitely has more NPK then my compost. The difference maker is biology and the fungi to bacterial ratio.
On my segment of today’s show I talk about this further but if you want to know how to do this the first thing to learn is how to make biologically active and fungal dominant compost. This is why my first course at Home Food Systems is the Bioreactor Compost Course. This type of compost takes two real thing, knowledge and time. Hence now is the time to gain the knowledge.
Nicole “Awesome-Sauce” is at it again. She has put together a five-day, FREE webinar revisiting past sessions from the Self Reliance Festival. It’s packed with knowledge to help you along your journey toward building a durable life.
From March 17-21, for an hour each evening, you can learn about homesteading, building soil, finding community, and more. You won’t become an expert overnight, but you’ll get great tips and ideas to start with. And here is the special “Sauce” – Nicole and a special guest will live host this each evening with Q&A and active discussions!
Grab your spot to learn with others who want to see systematic change just like you.”
Plus, this webinar gives you a great taste of what happens at the Self Reliance Festival from the comfort of your screen.
This isn’t just another boring online class. It’s a chance to hear from people who’ve walked the walk. They’re living the life: growing their own food, building their communities, and making a future while our economy transitions. And they’re going to show you how you can start doing the same.
Learn from the Legends: Each day, a new expert will share how they succeed in living a life that’s true to their values. They’re the real deal, and they’re here to teach you.
Homestead Tsunami: Don’t miss the session from Joel Salatin called “Homestead Tsunami.” It’s all about getting back to basics and opting out of the “Rat Race” through homesteading.
Get Connected: It’s not just about listening; you’ll get to ask questions, interact, and maybe even win some cool stuff. Plus, everyone who joins in gets access to bonus content, exclusive offers, and insider tips.
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This webinar series is completely free, and it’s an opportunity you don’t want to miss. Mark your calendars for March 17-21, and get ready to kickstart your journey to self-reliance.
Today’s Item of the day is Galvanized Raised Garden Beds by Vevor. There are many options here but the two I feel TSP’rs will be most interested in are standard 4×8 dimensions at two different depths…
Today we have a brand new type of item of the day. Up until now all Item of the Day reviews have been for items you can get on Amazon. Recently Vevor reached out to me about working with them and we came to an agreement. I will be receiving some free products in this agreement for review for disclosure I will tell you when ever that is the case. It is the case here but this item is so great I also bought one myself because I want two for my coming project.
Here is the best part, this product is awesome and I am going to save you a lot of money on it. Retail on this product is 140 bucks, but if you use my links you can get it for a LOT LESS. Just by registering as a customer with Vevor through my link before you buy and your cost will go down to only 99.99 then at check out just enter code VVPROMO for an additional 5% off.
Now let me tell you about this product and why I love it. First I love raised beds for gardening and we all know why. You get space to build new perfect soil and things like ducks and dogs tend to stay out of beds at least 20 inches high and these are just a hair under 2 feet high.
Next last year I sold a metric ton of this product by Frezone. They are awesome and were costing you guys between 120 – 160 plus dollars a pop. Here we have what I consider a better product for less money. Why do I say it is better?
Painted – mostly aesthetics but they do look great
Rectangle vs. Oval – simply put this gives you more total square feet to plant
Horizontal Reenforcement – There are six reenforcing straps that prevent bulging
Heavy Steel – Most beds of this type are made with .01 thick steel, these are made with .04 thick steel
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Now in general since this form of garden bed showed up, all steel, shipped in panels so they can ship cost effectively I have been all in on them. You are talking a garden bed that will stand up to the test of time better than anything built from pressure treated lumber. And let’s look at the cost of building a 4′ wide x 8′ long x 2′ deep bed with lumber that will rot in time to one of these.
For each bed you would require…
16 2x6x8 pressure treated boards (at my local Lowes that is 120 dollars)
A box of good stainless or deck screws about 12 bucks
Likely some coroner reenforcing lumber we can call it 10 bucks
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All in building a 2 foot high bed with 4×8 dimensions with lumber at todays prices is about 140 ish bucks or for just under a hundred bucks, a box will show up at your house with every thing you need, bolt it all together and fill it up and just start growing.
And folks NOW is the time, spring is springing as we speak. You know those beds you were going to build but didn’t this winter, order today and by the weekend you can be assembling all the beds you want for the coming season. And the best part is these beds will LAST. I am not going to say forever but certainly 3-5X longer than a wood based bed that costs about 40% more to build along with a trip to box store hell on your weekend.
Yea look at it that way, you want to build your beds next weekend right? So you can get up early, go to the box store, blow 1-2 hours of your time, come home, then get to work. Or you can assemble one of these in about 30 minutes with simple hand tools while spending less money and getting a better product.
Remember you can get this deal in two different sizes depending on the depth you want. I went with 2 foot deep beds but they are pretty massive. I do this because it is a nice working height and because it keeps the ducks out of my gardens. The tradeoff is fill volume, a 4x8x2 box will hold just about 1 cubic yard. If you don’t want the higher working height or are not worried about animals the 1 foot tall option may be bette for you. Again the options are…
4Wx8Lx1D 65.99 less 5% with my special code VVPROMO
4Wx8Lx2D 99.99 super deal and you still get 5% more off with code VVPROMO
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So get registered as a Vevor Customer today and get this great deal and just know I will be bringing you a ton more or personally selected awesome products from Vevor as we move forward. But there is a reason I am leading off with these awesome garden beds, now is the time and this is one of the best deals I could find for you on the Vevor website.
Video Review of These Awesome Beds
Two questions were common when this video was released. They were about the supports and their location. To that one there are a total of 6, only two are installed here as we are going to reconfigure the beds as described. `
Next was is the top of the bed sharp? No it is rolled but there are edges on the corners so right where they panels connect you have some potential for scratches. Vevor does provide a top cover of thin material to cap the box with. We didn’t use it and have no plans to, but you may want to or to do something with the sharp corners.
P.S. – With this new partnership I will be expanding TspAz.com to include products from both Amazon and Vevor and will continue to recommend the best options regardless of source. As always anything I would not spend my own money on, I will never recommend to you. I will always continue to disclose any products I am given as samples, etc. Integrity is why you know you can trust my recommendations and that will never change.
* Note – This Item is available on Amazon but you will pay about 20 dollars more for it if you order it there. Still I wanted you to know about this in case you simply prefer to buy from that channel.
Join me at 13:00 CST as we continue our multi part series on redefining education. I thought about calling this series “redefining childhood education” and while we will come at it a lot from what we should teach our kids, I am betting most adults may have to learn over half of the things we will talk about in this series as well.
The truth is education is failing out children in so many ways. Kids are subjected to learning thousands of functionally useless facts, regurgitating them on tests and then 90% or more is fully forgotten in time. And I am not talking about stupid people here. Honestly many professionals that are highly successful in careers would fail to pass a 10th grade exam on many subjects. Why? Most of the things we force upon our kid are again, functionally useless.
Education should indeed focus on primary academic skills, the core being
Communication (reading, writing, speaking)
Mathematics (basic arithmetic, basic algebra and basic geometry)
Science (primary how the scientific method works and general awareness of scientific principles)
History (to understand context of our current world)
Basic Geography (where nations, people, things, are and how it has changed over time)
Logic and Reason (how to determine what is likely about what you don’t know from what you do know)
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Let’s be honest if you have that down in 2024 you can learn anything else you need to learn on the fly or chose to specialize in what interests you and take a path of intensive learning on that. But what is most missing here? A general knowledge of the world around you (local) and what we used to simply call life skills. You know cooking your own food, paying bills, doing laundry, etc.
Think about the fact that a child today will set in a desk 180 plus days a year, for 13 years, be told that what they are learning is “important” and the following things will be true after they graduate from K-12 education….
They will not know how to cook a meal
They will not know how to grow a plant
They will not know how to use hand and power tools
They will not know how to mend a sock with needle and thread
They will not know how to form a well reasoned and logical argument
They will not know how to identify a logical fallacy
They will not understand that there are thousands and thousands of career options
They will not know how to do taxes
They will not know how to actually fact check a claim by government, media, etc.
They will not know how to do a basic design and cost estimate for a project
They will not know how to design a decent natural diet
They will not know how to do about 1000 other things people in general could do just a few decades ago `
So what is the solution? Changing the educational system to make it better? Well you may as well plan on going to Washington, DC and talking senators and representatives out of taking lobbyist money and fixing our problems, because your chances of success are about equal.
Home school has taught me that the common argument in response to talk like this which is of course….
“Teachers work really hard, they are underpaid and we don’t have the time and money to teach all these other things.”
It’s a complete pile of bullshit and frankly a few logical fallacies put together to avoid the discussion. My grandkids are excelling as homeschool students. They do 1-2.5 hours of school work a day, my grandson is at an age where he’d be bringing that much work home by now after spending 8-9 hours a day “going to school”.
When we started homeschool and I saw this, my first question was, “what the hell is school really doing with our kids when 2 hours a day is sufficient for all the learning and work? The answer was of course “training them to obey the rules of the state and society and to not question authority”. Turns out when you get rid of that and simply require basic good behaviour while learning you have a metric ton of time to do other things.
In return for good behaviour and work ethics we give our kids a ton of daily freedom. They can play outside, do games, watch videos, etc. But we add in a ton of real world learning and that is where most of these things in this series come from.
Join Me Today to Discuss…
Remember – “The purpose of a system is what it does, not what it claims to do”. ~ Stafford Beer
Also Remember – “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” ~ Buckminster Fuller
And One More – “You can’t get a child to learn a thing they refuse to learn nor prevent them from learning a thing they want to know”. ~ Sue Laprise
10 Skills to Teach Kids and Adults Alike
How to do a basic take off (estimate) using Excel
Basic small livestock husbandry (rabbits, quail or chickens)
How to intelligently debate both sides of an issue
How to identify logical fallacies
Basic first aid
How to use Bitcoin (buy, sell, hold, self custody, pay, receive)
How to write a “sales pitch” for anything, to sell a product, to pitch an idea, etc.
How to make plants with cuttings (start with things that are easy)
How to plan a trip (pricing, travel, budget, where to visit, etc)
How to properly apologize when you are wrong, and accept an apology when you are right
The current system will only change if it is literally starved do death, it is how you kill a parasite `
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon.
Join the MSB Today
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Remember in addition to discounts to over 80 vendors who supply stuff you are likely buying anyway, tons of free ebooks and video content, MSB Members also get every edition of The Survival Podcast ever produced in convenient zip files in blocks of 24. More info on the MSB can be found here.
John Bush is at it again with a massive line up of amazing speakers for his Annual Exit and Build conference in Bastrop Texas which will run from May 17-19. This year you can meet me and folks like….
Nicole Sauce
Joel Salatin
Matt Powers
Of Course John Bush
And a ton more
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I don’t do a lot of events, you guys know that. I don’t really like to travel much but I love meeting folks. The reasons I do E&B every time John asks is that Bastrop is only a 4 hour drive for me and bluntly John just does an amazing job with events.
I really also really encourage you to consider upgrading your tickets to get access to things like awesome after hours meals and the amazing networking it provides. Along with things like the Farm tours on the 16th and 20th.
Today’s episode of Friday Flashbacks was originally Episode-565- Lessons from the Haitian Earthquake and was originally recorded on 12-7-10. In this episode Brandon Sheldon who had been on the ground as an independent relief worker several times since the Haitian earthquake joined us to talk about what true devastation is really all about.
The show notes for the original episode with all relevant resources can be found here.
Welcome to Friday Flashbacks, after 15 years and hundreds of interview shows we decided to run them as flash backs ever Friday, beginning with the oldest of them going forward.There is a tremendous library of wisdom in all the great interviews we have done over the years.So sit back and enjoy, whether this is your first or second time around with today’s episode I am sure you will enjoy today’s episode and learn a lot from it.
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon.
Join the MSB Today
Want all the Early TSP Episodes?
Remember in addition to discounts to over 80 vendors who supply stuff you are likely buying anyway, tons of free ebooks and video content, MSB Members also get every edition of The Survival Podcast ever produced in convenient zip files in blocks of 24. More info on the MSB can be found here.
Today on The Survival Podcast the expert council answers your questions on power outages, soil amendments, battery maintenance, diet, edible hedges, mapping tools for real estate, chicken systems and more.
Make sure if you submit content for an expert council show you do the following….
Email it to me at jack @ thesurvivalpodcast.com
Put TSPC Expert in the subject line
Ask you question and state the expert you have the question for in one coherent sentence
Hit the return key a few times and then give all the details you think are necessary `
Following that procedure makes it about 100X more likely your question will get though screening and sent on to one of our experts. All expert council members can be found on the Meet the Expert Council Page.
Join Me Today to Discuss…
Dealing with a hard wired fridge during a power outage – Tim “Tool Man” Cook
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon.
Join the MSB Today
Want all the Early TSP Episodes?
Remember in addition to discounts to over 80 vendors who supply stuff you are likely buying anyway, tons of free ebooks and video content, MSB Members also get every edition of The Survival Podcast ever produced in convenient zip files in blocks of 24. More info on the MSB can be found here.
Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.
Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Dynomyco Premium Mycorrhizal Inoculant. Mycorrhizal inoculant is a type of soil amendment that contains beneficial fungi that form symbiotic relationships with plant roots.
Adding mycorrhizal inoculant to your garden soil can offer several benefits for plant growth and health. Here are some of the main advantages:
Improved nutrient uptake: Mycorrhizal fungi help plants absorb nutrients from the soil more efficiently, including essential elements such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. This can result in healthier plants that produce higher yields. `
Increased resistance to stress: Mycorrhizal fungi can help plants withstand environmental stressors such as drought, heat, and cold. This is because the fungi provide a protective layer around the roots, improving their ability to absorb water and nutrients. `
Enhanced root growth: Mycorrhizal fungi can help stimulate root growth and development, leading to stronger and more extensive root systems. This can improve plant stability and overall health. `
Reduced need for fertilizers and pesticides: By improving nutrient uptake and plant resistance, mycorrhizal inoculant can reduce the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides in your garden. This can be beneficial for both the environment and your wallet. `
Improved soil health: Mycorrhizal fungi can help build healthy soil by improving its structure and increasing its ability to retain water and nutrients. This can create a more hospitable environment for plants to grow and thrive.
Overall, using mycorrhizal inoculant in your garden can lead to healthier, more productive plants and a more sustainable growing system. I have made it part of my core fertility program for a long time now. Unfortunately the product I originally found is no longer available. It was Endo Mycorrhizae Fungal Inoculation.
I spent the last two years looking for a replacement and honestly while you’d think this would be easy many mycorrhizal products are simply crap. I trialed quite a few options and the one with the greatest effect on aggressive rooting in started plants was Dynomyco Premium Mycorrhizal Inoculant.
There is something I want to point out. If you are starting things like tomato, pepper, egg plants, etc. for garden set outs, you do not need to use the recommended amount you can use a lot less.
For instance the 12 oz package says it will treat 68 plants and for 38 bucks that may seem expensive. However products like this are heavily marketed to the cannabis market. This is a very high dollar crop and most grown with a product like this are intensive grow operations.
Translation, they want maximum production and a dollar plant extra isn’t even a consideration during propagation.
In reality though mycorrhizal fungi are living things and they propagate once inoculated in soil. My results this year with treated vs. untreated root systems have been outstanding. I use about 1/4 tsp per plant and I am mostly using solo cups as starting pots as this time. This is about 1/4th of the recommended amount. It should make about 280 plants based on my application rate. That is pretty much my entire garden this year.
A few things about how to use this stuff. It really needs to contact roots to take off, if you sprinkle it on the surface you may as well just throw it away. The way I use it is one of two ways.
When making starts I put a quarter tsp in the pot with about a half inch of room left for more soil. Add my seeds and then cover with some more soil, again about 1/2″. This means that the seed will germinate in direct contact with the fungi. This stuff just doesn’t move much in the soil and it requires plant roots to grow. `
When setting out plants or seeds that were not started indoors or in a green house, I dig a hole, remove some some of the soil if it is a transplant and sprinkle about 1/4 tsp right on the root ball before I cover it. If direct seed I drill a hole for the seed, and put a pinch in the hole and cover over.
One other thing I have been adding to starts this year to also encourage more beneficial soil organisms I have been adding a tsp of Happy Frog Cavern Culture Organic Plant Fertilizer to the indoor starts as well. That product will be reviewed soon but it has a huge variety of additional mycorrhizal fungi species. Further this year I am doing about 10% by volume of biochar in my seed start mix.
I have never had plants with such aggressive roots as such a small size. I am talking I have peppers with only two sets of true leaves that have already fully filled out a 12oz solo cup with their roots. A review of the Happy Frog product will come soon.
Lastly the form that Dynomyco Premium Mycorrhizal Inoculant comes in is really great for shelf life and effectiveness. It is in small encapsulated beads. This protects the spores from light, which is their literal moral enemy. All in I am extremely happy with the product and it is now my number one recommendation for a mycorrhizal inoculant. So give this a shot this year and you may just have the best year ever.
* Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com
Chemistry and Biology are both wonderful sciences that have done many great things for mankind. Though like anything that is essentially a tool, some tools are right for somethings but not for others. When it come to taking care of soils, growing food, grazing animals, cycling nutrients and restoring ecosystems, biology is the right active tool.
I say active tool because it isn’t that chemistry isn’t useful at all in these scenarios, rather it is how it can be useful. Biology is full of chemical prodcesses. Hence chemistry can be extremely useful in understanding organic systems. However when we use chemical solutions to short cut biological processes in soils, that is where everything goes wrong.
Join Me Today to Discuss…
How did we turn away from biological solutions in the first place
The world took a Malthusian view even though it has always been a mistake to do so
Chemical solutions do “work” for a time and in the beginning they were extremely cheap
Humans have placed a great deal of “faith” in scientific, academic and state authorities
Monetary gain for everyone but the farmer took over
What did we do before chemical based solutions
We used fire, cover and time unless we used fire, mine and run which is just as bad
Cover crops were used 1000s of years ago in China and Asia, likely for longer than we will ever know
Washington and Jefferson lamented the failure of early colonists to use enough cover crops
A large land plot even 100 years ago was about 40 acres for one family, we understood the land better
The majority of people in the world just 100 years ago practiced some form of horticulture/agriculture
Almost all ag systems of the past incorporated animals
The rules for taking care of soil
Keep an armor on the soil at all times
Keep living roots in the soil a much as possible
Keep soil disturbance (discing and tilling) to an absolute minimum
Stop using the cocktails of the cides (cide means to kill like in homocide)
Use true diversity in your cover crops and primary crops
Integrate animals into your systems (even if you don’t “graze”)
Healthy Soil is Necessary for….
A complete carbon cycle
A complete water cycle
A healthy population of plants, animals, fungi, humans, all life on our planet
Nature knows what she’s doing, it is up to us to adapt to nature, not the other way around
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Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon.
Join the MSB Today
Want all the Early TSP Episodes?
Remember in addition to discounts to over 80 vendors who supply stuff you are likely buying anyway, tons of free ebooks and video content, MSB Members also get every edition of The Survival Podcast ever produced in convenient zip files in blocks of 24. More info on the MSB can be found here.
Our guest had technical issues today that were not able to be reconciled in a way to produce a show of sufficient audio and video quality.
I am not sure if I will come up with a topic on the fly or run a rewind just yet. Stay tuned there will be an episode of some sort today. We apologize for the disruption.