How to Best Build Soil to Increase Profit When Organic Farming

Posted on January 31, 2018 7:31 am by Joan Robertson

How to Best Build Soil to Increase Profit When Organic Farming


John from http://www.growingyourgreens.com/ goes on a field trip to Kingsbury Market Garden in Warren, Vermont to share with you how one farmer is building his soil fertility with low cost inputs to increase his profits.

In this episode, John will show you around this certified organic farm, and share with you some of the growing practices this farmer uses to increase his profit and at the same time, increase the health, size and nutrition of the crops he grows.

You will also discover many tips along the way that you can implement in your farm or garden to grow higher quality, better tasting, higher yielding fruits and vegetables.

At the end of this episode, John will interview the farmer, Aaron Locker and ask him how this one soil building nutrient: Rock dust has changed the way he thinks about farming and the benefits to his farm that have been derived from its use.

Learn more about the Kingsbury Market Garden at:

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  • Yes soil is important, but everyone’s soil is different. You should address your soils needs based on local conditions, and possibly a soil analysis, before just adding stuff at random just because you saw it on a YouTube video.

    Maybe this guy needed rock dust, but in Florida for instance they are on sandy soil and need to add organic material. Phosphate is mined by the shipload on the east side of Tampa Bay, in fact lawn fertilizers for Florida are formulated with no middle number for example 16-0-8 because they are sitting on literally tons of phosphate down there!

  • I’m a big fan of the hoop houses and green house. I’m also new to organic farming, so thanks for raising my interests. I’m thinking that the growing season can be extended by defending against those cold temps. Even if the cost of growing produce out of season is ridiculously high, there is not much competition in that local market when no one else can grow tomatoes, right? If you are the only one with fresh tomatoes, how much are they worth? Does importing produce into the US effect local market prices?

  • So after you harvest plants like peppers or tomatoes, do you just add more compost around the plant? How do you keep the soil healthy?

  • Heirloom seeds aren’t the only non-gm seeds. Heirloom is weaker than hybrid non-gm’s. Why didn’t you make this clear John? I love your videos John but confusion ensues when pros like you leave things out. Heirloom is great but they aren’t the only non-gm ‘s

  • What is the best way to contact you? I have an idea and want to start my own organic farm and raising grass fed free roaming animals with dignity to sell for food and expanding that into a sustainable community aimed at helping disenfranchised people, and I have no base or anything to help me run a successful crowd funding campaign and I deeply love your channel battling cancer myself I have so much respect for you and you’ve inspired me so much and I understand why you do what you do so others hopefully don’t suffer, and im hoping maybe when I get something going you could help by telling people about the campaign so I can get the funds to accomplish what I need to so I can start helping people and make food that’s as free of toxins as possible which it will be in a very rural area and make it affordable for people and build a community through that, and I have no idea who else to ask

  • really enjoyed this episode! thanks for what you do. I will incorporate rock dust in my gardening .thanks again , keep them coming. Lets grow organic!!!!!!!

  • You actually look younger than 3 years ago when first watching your videos!

  • this was a great video – informative, educational, and warrants consideration of non-water soluble nutrients like bio char and rock dust, thank you for making and sharing your videos!

  • Idk if people here know this, but if you live in an area that 1. Doesn’t have city ordinances against it and the noise resulting from it and 2. Doesn’t have zoning laws against it.. an outstanding source of nutrition for your soil and garden is duck manure and seems the best delivery is from the soiled water that you would be dumping from their pool, which you can get kiddie pools for them that are very inexpensive. Even better they eat slugs, snails and bugs! They are good weed eaters and normally do not eat domestic plants! (but you might want your lettuces, some micro greens and grasses off limits, and ice berg lettuce makes them very sick, and raw beans are toxic to them). The other obstacle is giving them a safe area to sleep. What you might do is is a multi level duck house to save on space and a small but space enough yard for them to use the bathroom but you have to lock it up well and never assume in states or parts of the world where raccoons are native that just bc you’re in a high population city there are not predators in fact it’s worse in areas that are crowded because your garden and ducks will be a utopia to wildlife than most people would rarely if ever see in the area. Also, for non vegans the eggs are EXTREMELY more nutritious than store brought eggs, and they are even healthier than chicken eggs. They are richer which usually people prefer but some don’t care for them. If you’re limited on space I recommend keeping your male or males separate from the females except in situations where they are still young enough to breed, but are getting old and you may need to have some new ones for when they pass or you decide to cull them and eat them. You can buy them online if you have to, but try for a farm that’s in or near your state to cut back on the extremely steep shipping fee. And certainly research raising ducklings first and work on getting the things you need ahead of time so it’s not a huge rush or financial strain to prepare, and research the breeds too. I’m getting Pekings because they are good layers and are friendly.

  • “…cuts his Labour cost to a minimum because he’s fully automated…”

    This isn’t do great because this reduces jobs when we need them AND uses much more oil which is less sustainable and send money overseas, mainly to the Saudis, i.e. the home of ISIS!

    This is two reasons why the organic certification isn’t really a panacea aiming with the use of hybrid seeds and ACCEPTABLE use of plastic, pesticide, etc Honestly I believe it’s really a scam because people don’t understand it and think it is as they would grow at home, which it isn’t.

  • Laziness is the mother of invention. I found a tiller to be a waste of time and energy for home gardening

  • Potting soil, cow manure compost and leaf compost…..is that good? I put powdered egg shells and coffee grinds in it too.

  • Yes! I’ve got a field that’s gone to sand over years of use and I’m planning on hitting it with a combo of wood chips and manure to help bring it back…

  • John I don’t wanna stomp on your ideals, but soil holds all the trace minerals. All of them I shit you not however they’re in mineralized crystalline form. Check a man on YouTube with a channel named “I am organic gardening” he is higher scale and can’t afford to use rock dust or full compost. He listened to great pioneers in the big scale agricultural industry like ray artuleta or Gabe brown and he showed me the way: don’t build soil GROW SOIL! That’s why most benefit from rock dust because they don’t have the fungi in cooporation with plants constantly to secrete organic acids breaking down rocks and pebbles into their mineral constituents. You touched on michorizzal fungi, but you don’t use them to the max. I understand you don’t have enough space to use soil and you have to use compost, but maybe try a bed. Look this guy up he’s a genius.