BRF anyone ?(cheap soil improvement solution)

Hello to all organic enthusiasts and others,

I was wondering if there were any BRF users here?
I haven’t seen anything related in the IC forums, and there is little information in English so hence this thread. I am a firm believer in the HUGE potential of this technique, for conventional veggie gardening and therefore for our hobby.

First , you might be wondering what on earth is BRF??

It is the abbreviation of “Bois Raméal Fragmenté”, a (Quebec) French acronym “invented” by Pr Gilles Lemieux (from Laval University, Quebec) that could be translated as “Fragmented Branch Wood». As probably everyone here knows the benefits of composted wood chips as mulch, I won’t be
discussing this point.

Ok, so what? nothing new under the sun?

Well no, indeed, nothing new, the basic material is known and the process is used by nature since the first form of life… and death.

Ok, let me put an end to the unbearable suspense. …We are just imitating (or trying to, in fast forward mode) the humus production process that is occurring in forests .The method involves a soil structure improvement, by recreating a whole living ecosystem/food chain, so one of the most important part is the no-till aspect of things. Here is a brief process sum up:

How?: by incorporating FRESHLY fragmented wooden chips in the soil, mainly from flexible branch material, loaded with lignin (Vs cellulose in the harder part of wood).Lignin is the dish of choice of fungi, an essential part of the equation…

Why? Not everyone has the chance (and $ , I hear/read Cali outdoor growers are buying complex soil mix by the truckloads every season!!) to have access to rich humic dark soil .The soil in many areas of the world is lifeless, exhausted by the intensive ferts, pesticides use, ruthless destructuration by mechanical tilling, plowing etc…Creating a rich, living soil will cut drastically on ferts, watering, toxic phytosanitary products use.Of course this is not achievable in 3 days!!

Pros: well, the soil has to remain untouched (after the spread/superficial mixing), means less work.Maintenance watering is unnecessary in most cases (yeah, you read well) , ferts (chemicals and organics) are no longer mandatory and the yields after the 1st transitional season are better, tastier.The plants are healthier and more resistants to pests, diseases.
The biodiversity and biological life will literally explode. Once a plot is “BRF ized”, the only maintenance consists of a fresh supplemental batch of chips every 3 to 5 years depending on a few factors (moisture level, average temps, structure of the native soil…).Works both in sandy soils and heavy clay soils.


Cons: It takes a bit of time. Benefits are not visible before a few months. There is a nasty” Nitrogen robbery” within the first weeks that can put off many gardeners. this is due to the massive N used by fungi to “digest” the wood. It doesn’t last long but it can be scary! that’s why fresh wood chips (uncomposted) are often seen as toxic by many gardeners…also, not all tree species are suitable for our purpose.

The BRF-ized patch is the microfaunas paradise, that includes snails and slugs: they just love the stuff.some gardeners have managed to develop their natural predators population enough to create a balance.

Also, not everyone has access to a chipper, or quality veg material (branches from hedges).But this rejects matter is easily obtainable.

Ok, now after all the theory and blah blah, I can speak from a personal point of view.the biggest mistake is to think this technique will solve any soil pb and turn a sterile gravel pit into a self watering rich dark humic soil in 1 month just by tossing a few buckets of wood chips .
I was aware of that before I started.There are a few things that should be done by “the books”, and combined with other techniques, plus, each soil is different. I have a patch that made the transition in my veggie garden (BRF was spread in December 2013, very clay-ish, heavy soil ).I can now push a thin stick 50 cm down without effort anywhere in the patch, the grainy structure (earth worms population has exploded) is amazing and it is teeming with life and diversity (yeah and these goddam slugs!!).
I have mushrooms popping here and there (healthy sign that the mycelium is doing his job) .Cannot comment much on the yield and taste of veggies as the patch has not an ideal situation (not much sun, damp and shitty 2014 summer, FULL of slugs), but the few things that the snails and Mildew forgot showed an amazing shape and vigor (Basil, strawberries, leeks, borage, lettuce …).

I wanted to combine it this year with a little Hugelkultur (proven raised beds/mounds cultivation technique) experiment but didn’t find the time…I did the Hugel beds but not the BRF, maybe next year…

That’s my little 2cts limited experience. There are plenty of larger scale (and longer term!) of amazingly successful BRF transitions made by professionals, and amateurs (very little resource in English OTH) several experimentations are being conducted in sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil…and that includes also wine production (Italy, France..), one of the less environment friendly monoculture!!

Ok, enough babbling, the potential is huge, I would LOVE to hear any weed-related experience if there are some, and maybe convert/pique the interest of some of you ganja growers, even indoors !!

Any questions just ask, and feel free to comment…

ooh I thought brown rice flour ...yes mushies love it..yeehaw

Cali growers are nutters about what they pay for soil

"But dood, I get dank flowers by the truckload".

I've read a lot, but nothing in practice. You'd enjoy Ruth Stout if you haven't tracked her down already. There's another, a German-Frank who's name I can't recall, who used woodchips for heat, humus and everything inbetween. Even captured and pressurized off-gasses for use as cooking fuel.

Almost jumped out of a moving vehicle yesterday when I spotted someone using a massive pile of wood chips to heat an imbeded reservoir

nice article but correct me if i'm wrong but leaf mold is far easier to collect then small diameter branches an also easier to work with.

High folks!

Here is a vid , sorry its in French but youll get the main idea, sometimes a pic is better than a long speech.

[YOUTUBEIF]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSRIX8zLy64[/YOUTUBEIF]

Thks Mikkel, I didn't know R.Stout's work
Process is slightly different here...the austrian Sepp Holtzer is a organic pioneer (might be the German Frank youre talking about . ), just like Masanobu Fukuoka.

nice article but correct me if i'm wrong but leaf mold is far easier to collect then small diameter branches an also easier to work with.

Click to expand...

Thanks Ranger, you're right, I put also a lot of leaves (as mulch) they decay real quick and worms are loving them.Leaves are decomposed by micro-organisms whereas lignified wood chips are fungi's paradise.The mycelium web formed in the earth is one of the key of the success of this equation, the symbiotic relationship between plants and mycellium/fungi is just being known

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgjtr3_paul-stamets-changer-le-monde-avec-les-champignons_tech

I'll try and track him down. Definitely not Sepp Holtzer, it's on the tip of my tongue. Bloody hell I'll figure it out.

Well that was quick. Jean Pain, actually a Swiss born Frenchman.

I haven’t seen anything related in the IC forums, and there is little information in English so hence this thread. I am a firm believer in the HUGE potential of this technique, for conventional veggie gardening and therefore for our hobby.

Click to expand...

I've long been a proponent of using Ramial clippings and I'm fairly certain I wrote a long post on the subject a number of years ago, however this is all a quick search revealed;

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=5270578&highlight=Ramial#post5270578

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=6603171&highlight=Ramial#post6603171

Cons: It takes a bit of time. Benefits are not visible before a few months. There is a nasty” Nitrogen robbery” within the first weeks that can put off many gardeners. this is due to the massive N used by fungi to “digest” the wood. It doesn’t last long but it can be scary! that’s why fresh wood chips (uncomposted) are often seen as toxic by many gardeners…also, not all tree species are suitable for our purpose.

Click to expand...

I believe I mentioned this somewhere recently but could have been another forum or email. The way to circumvent the N depletion is to be totally sure of keeping the 'chips' in the top one inch of soil. Surface fungal and bacterial species are adapted to using the nitrogen and oxygen fuel in the detritusphere to rapidly degrade lignin and cellulose.

Also one should be sure that sufficient composted (degraded) organic matter has been worked into the depths of the soil.

As you have discovered, this topdressing is highly beneficial but is not the stand alone solution some have declared. There should also be some balance with some N producing matter and diverse mineral sources are probably a good addition. It is an excellent remedy for those with irrigation water shortage.

It is an great technique for no-till systems.

Thanks Mikkel, yeah Pain's work is extremly valuable also (though he used pre-composted BRF fr gardening purpose)!!
Claude and Lydia Bourguignon have made really interesting work too...


Thanks for your input Microbeman, I guess I didn't search hard enough!!

I might have been limited with my english here, didn't know the word "ramial" , clippings etc

The way to circumvent the N depletion is to be totally sure of keeping the 'chips' in the top one inch of soil. Surface fungal and bacterial species are adapted to using the nitrogen and oxygen fuel in the detritusphere to rapidly degrade lignin and cellulose.

Click to expand...

Correct, this is the way to proceed : mixing freshly chipped ramial clippings to approx the first 10 cm.Going too deep with too much chips is counterproductive and can cause lockouts...
However even whith this method the N robbery cant be avoided.You just have to be aware of that.Planting leguminous (sp) fabaceas, peas is a good trick to reduce the N depletion effects.

I took the liberty to copy this link from one of your post (awesome website, loads of useful info, thks!!), very well explained in English IMO

http://www.snakeroot.net/farm/InPraiseOfChips.shtml

Do yo have experience growing weed in these ramial clipping beds Microbeman?

Peace

Alpen rock said:

High folks!




Thanks Ranger, you're right, I put also a lot of leaves (as mulch) they decay real quick and worms are loving them.Leaves are decomposed by micro-organisms whereas lignified wood chips are fungi's paradise.The mycelium web formed in the earth is one of the key of the success of this equation, the symbiotic relationship between plants and mycellium/fungi is just being known

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgjtr3_paul-stamets-changer-le-monde-avec-les-champignons_tech

Click to expand...

"Leaves are decomposed by micro-organisms whereas lignified wood chips are fungi's paradise"

actually no on that. leaves are mostly lignin and are decomposed by mostly fungus with minor bacterial decomposition occurring.

In my garden, fungi/mycelium are clearly visible on wood chips while the leaves remain untouched (this might have something to do with light/moisture), as leaves are only a surface mulch.) the microconsumers on the other hand are degrading them real quick...

leaf mold is far easier to collect then small diameter branches an also easier to work with.

Click to expand...

As written above fresh chipped/shredded clippings are very easily obtainable: landscapers, powerline maintenance operations, community workers are often happy to deliver it for free to you, while they would have paid to dump them... branch diameter is around 7 cm max cause a lot of shredders are technically limited by this factor.Best period is late fall to chip/spread the fresh uncomposted BRF.

Peace

Alpen rock said:

In my garden, fungi/mycelium are clearly visible on wood chips while the leaves remain untouched (this might have something to do with light/moisture), as leaves are only a surface mulch.) the microconsumers on the other hand are degrading them real quick...



As written above fresh chipped/shredded clippings are very easily obtainable: landscapers, powerline maintenance operations, community workers are often happy to deliver it for free to you, while they would have paid to dump them... branch diameter is around 7 cm max cause a lot of shredders are technically limited by this factor.Best period is late fall to chip/spread the fresh uncomposted BRF.

Peace

Click to expand...

i'm unsure what you see with the naked eye, but i would bet otherwise if you viewed it through microscopy.

i'm not putting down what you're doing btw as i think it's great, just adding other perspectives for those who cannot or do not have access to twigs. lignin is lignin and if it's close to 100% of what you have breaking down, then fungi will be the predominant organism responsible for that.

i'm surrounded by 1000 acres of forest and low growth so i have access to much, but it's still nice to just chop leaves and make leaf mold piles. either method will aid in soil building and that's what's important, good work on recycling what you can.

but it's still nice to just chop leaves and make leaf mold piles. either method will aid in soil building and that's what's important, good work on recycling what you can.

Click to expand...

Actually you've piqued my interest with the leaf mold, Ive started a pile to see what comes out

Road maintenance workers have left tons of shredded ramial wood lately, piles are the perfect size for a efficient precomposting period(temps will not get too high in the pile).You just have to bend over and collect the gold

Ill probably use it as a surface mulch after composting a little, as its a bit late for a fresh BRF spread, the N robbery will jeopardize this springs cultures.