Doug McEvers

On our farm in 1993 we restored 160 acres back to tallgrass prairie. All of the grass seed used was local source (yellow tag, non-varietal) or an appropriate local cultivar if non-varietal was not available. All of the forb seed was collected from our burned native prairie remnants from the previous growing season. The species present now are so much greater than what we seeded in 1993, some came in from the native remnants interspersed in the 1993 seeding area. 3 orchid species are now present when none were planted originally, took about 13 years for the Small white lady's slipper to appear outside of the native remnants. Given a chance, nature will fill in the blanks, the seed dispersal mechanism for some of the prairie species is quite amazing. Also planted some Bur oak here in the early 1990's, native to this area but not this farm. My goal of having a bit of oak savannah is 35 years in the making !!

I find some of the mints in my moist areas, also have horsetail in the swales of our tallgrass prairie. Horsetail is almost pure silica I believe, find a use for it. I have thought about this.

Be careful with some of these cover crops as they can spread easily and become invasive, Birdsfoot trefoil for one. Can't go wrong with winter rye or oats, they break down and provide nutrients, soil improvement needs living roots. I will be early planting oats in all of my garden except where I will have potatoes. Did plant potatoes in an oat cover crop last year and it did work out quite well, yield was good and soil was improved. May have talked myself into doing it again ! The basic soil building premise is, keep a living root for as long as possible in the growing season.

Yes, Timothy Norton on Cornell Varieties

AI Overview

Cucumber Marketmore 76
Marketmore 76 is a popular, open-pollinated heirloom slicing cucumber developed at Cornell, known for its vigorous, disease-resistant vines (Scab, CMV, Mildew) and high yield of crisp, flavorful, dark-green, 8-10 inch fruits with bumpy skin, ideal for fresh eating or pickling when young. It's a reliable choice for home gardeners and market growers, preferring warm soil and full sun, maturing in about 60-75 days.

I have been planting Marketmore 76 for years after I found them in a High Mowings display at my food coop. Had friends take as many as they wanted this summer as they are very prolific. They said they were absolutely the best cucumbers they have ever had, don't know how they could eat so many. I do garden organically, good soil health brings out the flavor and density. Really like WI 55 tomatoes for our area. Getting to be known for our cucumbers, red norland potatoes and coffee cake.

Mary,

We use pelletized chicken litter here, have been using it since about 2001 on our grassland used for seed production. We are in our 3rd year of organic transition for our tillable acres and use the pellets for NPK. The 4-3-2 pellets are also about 8.5% calcium so that adds to the value. In time we will cut back on the amount used as our organic matter percentage goes up along with cover crops improving fertility. Our farm in western MN was farmed chemically since the GMO corn and soybean era started. We have good inherent soil quality with a CEC of about 30 but the OM was 1.8% when we started in spring of 2024. Not much soil life to start so we did a shotgun approach in 2024 to get things moving. Chicken pellets, hard rock phosphate, potassium sulfate, zinc, copper, liquid fish and soil alive. 2025 was pellets, mined gypsum and liquid humic/fulvic acid in row. A plant tissue test in the fall of 2024 on volunteer oats told us our soil was in quite good balance so we went for crop fertilization this year and no corrective fertilization. The gypsum in 2025 is new for this farm and will be part of our program in 2026. Have always had a really good response from gypsum in our garden so it stands to reason it would help our tillable acres. The improvement to our soil tilth in 2 years is very impressive, the soil is soft underfoot, like walking on a pillow.

Alexander said,

"Big scale is so different, spread as much good stuff as you can, but also don’t be afraid to do a few applications of P K when you get started. Bring some levels back up and then stop “mining” the soil, and it starts to cycle again. Keep in mind how abused most land currently is. You’re not starting from Step 1, you’re at Step -100."

I absolutely agree with adding some needed nutrients to start the soil rebuilding process, did the same on our farm in 2024. I would call this soil life starter fertilization. Get a jump start as quickly as possible and then let the soil do its thing. Try and do a soil balance fertilization within reason and it will get you to a living soil much sooner. So much is said here about organic matter being added to the garden to make it productive, where does this organic matter come from? If you are robbing another area of its vegetation this is not a long-term solution, you must grow your own fertility on site !!

Thom,

Your post on seeing results from rock powders brought something to mind. I would notice along the rail line to Minneapolis/St. Paul the big bluestem was very vigorous and colorful. It was growing not far from the rail bed as I recall.  Asked my prairie expert friend what he thought about it, could the fertility be from the granite dust from the rail bed? He said yes but it also could be from the coal dust that comes off the rail cars. Likely a combination of the two, black carbon from the coal and minerals from the granite. Humates are basically from lignite coal deposits as I understand it.

I have changed the soil lab I was working with to one that does more sophisticated tests. Active carbon is the new leading indicator for organic matter and soil fertility improvement. Typical soil tests are too slow to show organic matter improvements. For those of us working to improve soil on a farm scale we can't have too much information.  Beware of the washed-out farmer turned soil expert, consultant and amendment provider. Your soil will need what they conveniently have in stock at the time.

https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cornell.edu/dist/7/9922/files/2025/05/Active-Carbon.pdf

There is what is known as temporary dormancy. Prairie seeds are programed not to germinate when they shatter in the fall because they will not survive the winter. They are temporarily dormant for this reason, same with heirloom sunflowers I have found. The more days from the harvest the higher the germination rate of the sunflowers, also related to temperature as others have said. Also, prairie seeds have a certain percentage of dormant seed that ensures some seed will be viable in the next season due to drought or other weather related happenings.

Not a Three Sisters' Garden expert but what I remember reading was the garden location was moved often along the Missouri riverbank. With this came new fertility in the river sedimentation deposited along the shore. Fertility is what makes things grow well, in this case natural fertility in the form of silt and maybe a few dead fish !! I have a theory of what I call "accelerated growth", growth beyond what is thought to be average. If as nearly exact as possible the key fertility is available along with water a 90 day variety can mature in 75 days for example. Has a lot to do with growing degree days, have pushed some garden plants to maturity a bit faster than normal, I think. Red Norland potatoes in 53 days from emergence.
Back to the TSG, think of all of the fertility elements present in the silt from the river, essentially all of the elements on Earth. You could replicate this somewhat with fertility from the oceans, kelp or liquid fish. I have a book called "The Enlivened Rock Powders" and it tells how soils are the fragmentation of larger rocks, gravel, etc. and why they bring fertility when added to soil. The Law Of The Minimum can't be overstated.