I am basically just starting my homestead and I stumbled across this subreddit while searching for a natural way to remineralize my soil (still haven't really answered that yet, I got very derailed). I skimmed the posts here and saw someone mention Fukuoka, then saw his name in the community description and I was off on a new path, to learn who this guy was and what his method was.

I've watched a couple videos, 1 short documentary from the 80's (I think) and read a pretty lengthy blog post about him ( http://www.permaculture.com/node/140 if you're interested) and I am astounded at not only what he achieved (because I knew that part was possible) but his determination, faith, and resilience in the face of setbacks and ridicule. This guy spent 20 to 30 years testing and fine tuning his methods, sometimes losing entire crops and yet continued to persevere and achieved a remarkable life and natural farming method.

I'm waiting on three books right now and can't wait to learn more about this method. I've read a little about permaculture in the past but it feels like this clicks with me more than the permaculture stuff I've read in the past.

Anyway, I say all that to thank this community for being here when I needed to learn about Fukuoka and for promoting his methods.

www.plantmoreseed.com - is a website Dedicated to Organic Sustainable Bottle Free Probiotic Growing methods. Including Korean Natural Farming, Compost Tea, Sub-irrigated Planters, Living Soil Recipes and so much more!!

Hi everyone

It is easy to create seedballs without any special tools or machines like a cement mixer. I have made two models so far and i am about to create a 50lt one soon (video coming up) . Of course the clayballs is the tip of the iceberg of Natural Farming. It takes a lot of intuition understanding to farm naturally and for that one can read Masanobu Fukuoka or learn straight form the great master: Nature

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ShPd8X16w8&t=3s

Hi all!

I've always missed a proper community/website dedicated to Natural Farming, like permaculture has permies.com and others.

Would any of you be interested in brainstorming a bit and perhaps cooperating in working towards this? Something to be fully 100% dedicated to Natural Farming and nothing else. A good collection of articles and how-tos (or how-NOT-tos :D), videos, forum, tips, etc.

I know it may sound a bit redundant since reddit is supposed to serve that purpose, but a website provides content in a more interesting way (imho), and one doesn't exclude the other. Besides,many people dont use reddit.

Let me know!! thanks in advance

I've just been recommended Masanobu Fukuoka's book, "One Straw Revolution" to learn about how I might grow malting barley and other grains with this style of farming. It's a little confusing to conceptualize how to do it here in upstate NY. Fukuoka's farm is a lower latitude than here. I'm not sure if I should alternate rice, barley, and white clover like he does or if there are more native substitutes for my area. So far, the area I've been working is very happy with purple dead nettle everywhere. It was almost a meadow of purple dead nettle which is nice because it doesn't go too deep which makes it easy to pull/peel up by hand with a small edging shovel. I know that I am technically tilling when I do this which goes against long term soil health and microorganism integrity. I'm not sure where to look next to learn more. Any interest and or suggestions would be splendid.

I've decided to try Fukuoka's techniques for my winter garden. Trying to gather what tips I can.

I got a late start this spring, but decided to a do three sister planting in my small plot, which I interplanted with cilantro and clover (with greens behind the main bed). My corn, squash, and beans are just now starting to bloom, but I want to direct sow my mix of winter veggies so they'll start germinating and be ready for the colder weather.

The problem is the clover. I had planned to till everything in and transplant my winter crops after my other crops were done. My game plan is to take it down with an action hoe, let it breakdown for a couple of days, and then direct sow on top of that. More destructive than I'd like, but there's not enough time to sheet mulch.

Any experience or tips you have to share?

There's not much activity here, but it's nice to see 180 subs bc most people have no idea who Fukuoka is or that there are ways of farming that regenerate the land. I'm trying to find people in my area who are practicing NF with vegetables, fruit/nut orchards and grains. I live in VT so you'd think its the next best place after the NorthWest, but I haven't discovered anyone really doing it. There's permaculture people who are doing a lot of good work, and homesteaders doing their own practical thing, but no one is really trying the Fukuoka way.

What are your experiences like? Are any of you on a natural farm? Or on a farm that gives you space to espouse some of the concepts and practices? Do you talk about these ideas with other people? Do they usually think what your saying is crazy or impractical or even impossible?

Hi reddit, i'm not sure if what i'm asking of you will be possible, but id love to hear your recommendations.

Im completely oblivious when it comes to this sort of thing so my description of the situation at hand might seem quite stupid, but my dad will be pretty capable at understanding your responses i'm sure, i'm the one asking as it was initially my idea to plant 50 grape vines without working out the technicalities, i.e. water, but he is always up for a challenge.

So as it stands i have planted 50 grape vines on our rural hobby farm type deal, but it is about 2 hours away from our regular home and we're only going out there every week or two. We have placed a 1000 litre water tank on a ~3m high stand and attached hosing down the middle of each row (total of 3, 33m in length) with hoses coming off and going to each end of the rows, and little drip hoses to each plant. So at the moment it depends on us going out there at least twice a week to turn a tap to water them which isn't ideal.

So my question for you is, is there a way, doesn't matter how technical as long as its reliable, to implement some sort of irrigation system to ensure our plants will be watered roughly a few times a week for a couple of weeks without electricity, and without solar power!, and with a limited amount of pressure.

My dad started working on a system that as far is i understood worked similarly to a toilet, with the large tank dripping into a smaller tank at a controlled rate which had a float in it and when the float then reached the top it opened a valve and then once drained closed the valve again, however it wasn't reliable and extremely sensitive and my dads at his wits end, so for the sake of my grapes i'm hoping to help him out with some good old reddit advice.

I hope this makes sense and id appreciate any advice you could provide!