Demystifying Vasectomies (Yes, Vasectomies!) + What About the Stuff Growing on My Soil Blocks?

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]Hey nerds, farmer Jesse here. Welcome to Growers Daily, your daily dose of ecological farming insight. It is Friday, May 15th, 2026, and today we're talking about the various stuff growing on your seedling blocks. We're going to talk about vasectomies, which isn't a metaphor. We're actually literally going to talk about vasectomies because people need to talk about them. And it is feedback Friday. So, let's do it.

[00:00:31]All right, happy Friday everyone and happy freaking 400th episode of this show. How is that possible? Assuming I have the number correct, which isn't always a given. Every time we hit a new century mark like that, I think of all the people who have not missed a single episode and how many times I've gotten up at 2:50 a.m. at this point. Thank you all uh for tagging along and helping steer this ship. You're the best, truly.

[00:00:52]Uh, and changing subjects, it's tournament weekend uh here. So, don't expect me to have much of a voice on Monday. But then after this weekend, soccer season is done more or less, which uh should take a little bit of the load off, I guess. Although, as much as I need a break to, you know, like focus on the farm and stuff, I will dearly miss it for the next few months. Love the kids. Uh, love teaching the game and the teamwork and all the things. But also, Hannah reminds me that it's sort of part of my like therapy routine, which isn't untrue. My life is farming and or writing about farming and or creating farming content for like 12 hours a day every day, sometimes more with little reprieve. So, when I can just uh hang out with the kiddos and play soccer and not think about farming for a few hours, I dearly welcome it.

[00:01:30]Then I come back to farming in the morning totally refreshed. I love the community of soccer, the friendships we've made, fully endorse it, all of it.

[00:01:37]Uh also, I fully endorse you all sending in your 20 second farm video clips via Dropbox or Drive or whatever works for you to farmer Mike at notobros.com.

[00:01:46]Loved the drone shots from Brian yesterday and everyone's contributions this week. Very fun stuff as always.

[00:01:51]Anyway, it is Friday, which means feedback Friday where we explore what you all were saying about this week's topics. On Monday, we talked about sweet corn and moving high tunnels. We specifically discussed profitability in sweet corn, of which there is not a ton, but I liked this from atteasting sweet corn right at the farmers market might be an option for some. End quote.

[00:02:13]Yeah, I like that idea. I don't think I've ever seen fresh grilled or roasted sweet corn, but I think that could work.

[00:02:18]That could be a nice little value ad if done right for sure. At Who's Your Pioneer wrote, quote, "In Indiana, there are many growers who grow sweet corn exclusively. I assume they make a profit or they wouldn't do it." End quote. And uh yes, the thing is they probably do make money, but just not very much for the amount of work. But also a lot of growers on big flat acreage like you find in say Illinois or Indiana or wherever inherit large farms with large equipment and don't have the overhead that many of us do. So profitability looks different in that context.

[00:02:46]Moreover, some people equate gross income with net and they are not the same thing once you subtract labor assuming they you know are paying a fair wage which isn't always the case with large scale growers plus fuel etc. All those costs uh there just isn't a lot of money to be made that's left over at the end of the day. Again, they may be making some profit and uh good for them.

[00:03:05]Somebody has to grow the world sweet corn, but especially on a small scale, it's always going to be a little bit hard to justify. On Tuesday, we discussed the complications with saving money on groceries by starting a farm and then starting a farm. Uh and we did a little Earthway Cedar breakdown. Lots of commentary on the saving money growing food stuff from all sides. Lots of commentary on all of it, but I'm going to focus on that. At Sprigen D4W wrote, quote, "What I feel is being left out of the savings conversation is fruit. My kids love fruit and it's so expensive. Luckily, in my climate, we can grow strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. They are largely perennial and take relatively little labor. We are also fortunate to have property with mature fruit trees."

[00:03:43]End quote. And indeed, fruit is not something I mentioned, but is also a big expense for us. We're increasing our fruit on the farm, which will help in like a few years. Uh, but in Kentucky, we are limited in what we can produce on the fruit front. We're just really humid and hot, and it's not it's not ideal fruit conditions for the most part.

[00:03:59]Watermelons, we can do those.

[00:04:00]watermelon, strawberries, a handful of things, but a lot of stuff doesn't love it. Here at Philoflam added, quote, "As for the quote unquote, does gardening save you money?" That question can go anywhere. If you save seeds, compost, have access to lots of biomass, don't buy lots of varieties of the seeds you buy, and make a commitment to buying as little as possible. Then absolutely, growing your own can save you money.

[00:04:20]Like, we eat green beans all summer long. I can't afford organic green beans if I don't grow them. I grow enough fingerling potatoes that we are eating off of them for months. I can't afford fingerlings. Yeah, fingerlings are ridiculously expensive. I built my chicken coupe off free pallets, but I see people buying $1,500 pre-fabricated coups. If you wanted to save money on that, well, I'll let you do the math on how many eggs you'd have to eat. But every year I notice a dramatic increase in my grocery costs come October once I'm not eating everything fresh from the garden. End quote. Uh, yeah. And there are lots of good ones like that. And I'm also going to read one from the other perspective, I guess, from Kellyisnow, who wrote, quote, "We have a massive garden, two chicken coops. We do foraging and hunting. I do not track all of it very closely most of the time, but whenever I do, it is wildly apparent.

[00:05:04]None of it financially makes sense.

[00:05:07]Chicken eggs at $5 a dozen barely covers the cost of feed, let alone the cost of infrastructure, raising the hens to laying age, or any vet visits, meds, whatnot. Even without factoring time, inputs into the garden outweigh production. I'm sure there are ways to sink even more time and reduce inputs enough to make it financially viable. I still love it and I will keep growing and pushing to grow, raise, and gather as much food as possible, but thinking you are bettering yourself financially with a garden or livestock is a delusion, albeit a delightful one." End quote. And like I said in that episode, there are other reasons to grow food that can't be bought at the supermarket, obviously. But also like at Asteria points out in that thread, quote, "Any food that can be bought and stored/preserved in bulk is basically never worth growing if cost is the main objective. You will never be able to compete with the economies of scale that modern agriculture has end quote." Yeah, bingo. Economies of scale. And to that point, when I think about this question of saving money by growing one's own food, my answer, which I sort of alluded to in that uh segment, has less to do with whether or not growing your own garden can save you money and more about acknowledging that it's a challenge of scale and community efforts. Basically, one person or one family can only do so much. But several farms, several families, several gardens banding together to produce food at larger scale brings the cost down and spreads the workload so one place is not trying to do 10 different types of products. and ultimately costing themselves at least as much money if not saving a little bit of money at the grocery store. Mini hands make light work, right? Maybe hands make lighter grocery bills, too.

[00:06:38]Also, one correction. I said my bill is up to $500 and it is, but that inadvertently included our dog and cat food, which itself has gone up a lot like in cost. I think it's roughly the same as uh food prices at like 30% or whatever. So, subtract another like I don't know $150 or so for pet food. We have a diabetic dog, so it's a little bit more expensive. many other great comments in throughout that thread.

[00:06:57]Really love that. Uh worth a read through. On Wednesday, we went live, which is always a hoot. Pine cone asked if we could do a show on Patreon membership and all it offers. And I don't think I could do like a whole show on that and make it very interesting. I mean, I could try, but I think it would probably be pretty boring. But in general, if you love this show, its entire existence is because we have people who are willing to support it. uh the concept of no till growers in general is to just keep growing information free and open to anyone and everyone. So although there are a few perks and discounts over there which you can you know read about on the site and obviously you get to ask questions that I read on this show and I can answer some gardening questions for you there in the show threads and other stuff like that. I hope this show also is part of the perks. If you watch it every day and enjoy it, thank a Patreon member. They are the ones who make it possible and so if that's something you want to be a part of, that's amazing. If not, if you can't afford it, that's all good, too.

[00:07:46]we we will just keep, you know, going for as long as we can until we can't afford it anymore because the one thing that we've fought against forever is payw walls, which includes the Patreon page. We don't want that to be a payw wall. I don't even do private consults because I view them as, you know, just another form of payw wall. Everyone should have access to good growing information, and I want us to help be a source of that. So, I suppose, or at least I hope that the biggest perk is helping anyone in the world to grow food more ecologically so that we can make a difference. And shouts to the nearly 1,000 people over there who are down with that. You absolutely rock. Then on Thursday, we talked about the stuff in the wood stove acting like biochar, converting compacted ground into productive soil, and where has all the sulfur gone. On the biochar front, several people mentioned using wood ash and charcoal in their compost piles to seemingly good effect. at Dave J mentioned the ancient black soils, terrapreta, found in areas in the notoriously poor soils of the Amazon that contained charcoal just being regular old charcoal. And this is true uh though how exactly these soils were made or how the charcoal was made and all that stuff is still up for a little bit of debate. There may have been uh some intentionality behind them, we don't really know. But yeah, food scraps, charcoal, uh sometimes broken pots piled over thousands of years made for rich soils in that very wet region.

[00:09:01]So, uh, some good historical precedent there for using just regular old charcoal potentially. Also, DJ Clarky Kent asked, quote, "Hey, Farmer Jesse topic suggestion. If he is up for it, can we have a Mike's Minute Monday? I'd love to see how he has progressed in his farming endeavor since joining your team. Thanks for all you guys do. You make my hourlong commute to work a little more bearable." End quote. And thank you. I'll leave that to Mike if he wants to do uh you know that every Monday or any day or sometimes or just occasionally or whatever or if he wants to just enjoy his farm and not have to share it. Totally his call, but we will always take your topic suggestions. So, really appreciate that. Thank you. All right. Uh good stuff as always this week, friends. You all are the best.

[00:09:40]We're going to take a quick break and when we come back, the stuff that grows on your soil block that ain't plants or not exactly. I mean, sometimes it is plant anyway. BRB. Today's episode is brought to you by BCS America. If you're practicing no till or low till farming, you know that heavy equipment is often the enemy of your soil structure. That's where BCS two- wheeled tractors come in.

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[00:10:35]That's bcsamea.com.

[00:10:37]Today's episode is also brought to you by Grownby. Grow smarter with Grownby, the farmerowned cooperative. Grownby is the platform for online sales of everything. custom and traditional CSAs, halves of beef, flower bouquets, wholesale to restaurants, and now grown by supports in-person sales, too. Their new app, Grown by Register, you can supercharge your market and farm stand.

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[00:11:18]That's co-op.grownby.com/notill.

[00:11:22]All right, back to the show.

[00:11:24]A quick and loving reminder that if you, the listener or viewer, are enjoying this podcast, getting even a small amount of value from it, consider supporting our work over at patreon.com/notillgrowers.

[00:11:33]Does the show bring you $2 worth of value a month, five or 20ome dollars a year? You can pay upfront. Doesn't have to be a subscription. I will try to get to questions from everywhere the questions come in, but I will always get to those Patreon questions. Now, today's Patreon question comes to us from Patreon member Rhea Plet, who asks, quote, "How can I discourage mold growth on fresh soil blocks? They are quite wet when I first make them, and I've noticed a little fuzz after a couple of days. I started a fan blowing over the trays, hoping that will help." End quote. All right, great question here, and I'm sure this is something that a lot of growers are seeing right now, especially on crops that are in blocks for a long time, like tomatoes, peppers, etc. But it can just about happen on any crop.

[00:12:12]First, lots of stuff can grow on the tops of soil blocks. Algae's, molds, mushrooms, slimes, all the things. Some are more threatening to the plants than others, and many things like some algaes can actually be somewhat beneficial to your soil with some notable caveats. In general, if you don't want fuzzy white things growing on your soil blocks, ventilation is a big part of the reducing them. So, that fan is probably going to be key. The fan does not have to or probably should not be uh blowing directly on the blocks themselves. Uh probably just dry them out too quickly.

[00:12:41]just right above it is fine and enough to shake the plants themselves to keep them like moving but also you know to keep water droplets from staying on there for too long. What I might also suggest is to slow down on watering them at least from above. Bottom watering can help a little bit with uh you know the presence of fungi and algae etc as well as actual moisture the plants are receiving. So perhaps uh get some sort of bottom watering system for times when you are you know seeing the fuzzy stuff forming. Direct sunlight can also help a bit depending on the growth like help reduce that fuzziness. Sometimes uh setting them out in the direct sun itself on a table can clear that up a little bit too with the white molds. But the reality is that in green houses we are creating some of the perfect conditions for molds and slimes and algae etc to grow by providing the you know the shade the growing material and the consistent moisture that they need.

[00:13:27]For the most part that should not affect plant growth. But there are a lot of different slimy growths out there. So I don't want to you know put that down as some sort of like blanket statement. And uh like I said, algaee's are largely good or at least neutral. Though one thing I've seen in the greenhouse is that algae's, slimes, etc. create can create like hydrophobic layers on top of the soil block that will repel the above watering, which means that the soil block does not get saturated enough. It actually feels somewhat dry when you pick it out. Like the top will be really moist where the algae is, but the bottom will be like dry, which the plant roots not a big fan of that. That's uh where the bottom watering will also come in handy. But if you want to take a fork or something and even scrape across the top of the blocks, uh, you know, to scrape a little bit of that algae, break it up a little bit, I think that wouldn't hurt.

[00:14:10]Uh, you I mean, it's a lot of work, but, you know, on a small scale that would be possible. You will also hear people say it's caused by overwatering, but that's not strictly true. You could start the same crop and water it exactly the same way in two different trays with two different soil mixes and one will get surface growth and the other won't. So, it's not it's not necessarily because you're overwatering it. It's mostly just because the algae was there to begin with or got there after you started it through the water you're using or whatever. What you don't want is a thick algae that's staying wet right around the stems of your plants, which could lead to damping off. That's like fungal pathogens that love those moist conditions and will turn your young seedlings to mushlings. For really small but slow growing plants like say celery or perhaps some slow brassacas, then there may be some relevant nutrient competition as well with the algaee's.

[00:14:54]Molds, in my opinion and experience, are a little riskier, but a little easier to deal with truly like direct sunlight and a little bit of like ventilation will do the trick most of the time. Algaes are a little less concerning in the short term and adding some algae to the soil block to the soil with your transplant can be a good thing. So, likes that. But, uh, for plants that will be in the block for a while, it's worth making some changes to your system to address the issue.

[00:15:17]Anyway, I hope all that's helpful. Let me know what you think. Otherwise, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're literally going to talk about vasectomies. And if you have a partner who has ever brought it up or maybe a partner who is too shy to bring it up, hopefully this will be helpful to you. Obviously, this topic may not be ideal for the littles in your life who hang out with you while you watch and or listen to the show. So, just fair warning. Otherwise, be right back. No idea what we're going to use for B-roll in this segment.

[00:15:46]Good luck, Mike. Today's episode is brought to you by Good Agriculture. If the season is picking up and the pile of receipts is starting to grow, you're not alone. Good Agriculture handles farm bookkeeping so you can stay ahead of the mess before it piles up. They keep your books organized each month, help you understand what's coming in and what's going out, and show you where your farm stands so you can make better business decisions throughout the season. If you're behind, they'll help get everything caught up. They also help farmers find funding and stay ahead of grant deadlines. You run the farm, they help the business. Learn more at goodaggriculture.com/info.

[00:16:18]That's good.com/info.

[00:16:21]All right, back to the show. All right, so let's have a conversation about vasectomies. And I want to do this well for a number of reasons. I want to do it because vasectomies are not something I really ever hear anyone talk about. I know it's a conversation that often gets avoided between couples or maybe it's brought up but never really followed through on. There are a lot of myths as well about vasectomies and the risks and I think that that would be helpful to dispel some of those. Plus, condom prices are on the rise and thanks to the war. So hopefully I can save you some money and some pollution. Now I am not an expert on vasectomies. I'm not an expert on a lot of things. I'm barely an expert on farming. But anyway, a few years ago I got a vasectomy and have not one ounce of regret about it. Uh it was a little awkward of a procedure. I'm not going to lie about that. But it took maybe like 15 to 20 minutes. I was conscious with some local anesthetic applied and they sent me home with some painkillers of which I took one and was fine beyond, you know, being basically unable to really move very much for like a couple days or lift anything for a couple weeks. So although uh the World Cup would be an awesome time to get one and just like chill and watch a bunch of games. In fact, the NCAA tournament is notably a really popular time for this particular surgery, as a farmer, the winter probably makes a lot more sense.

[00:17:29]I did mine either at the end of January or the beginning of February, but in the winter. All right. So, uh, why me and not Hannah? Well, simply put, hysterctomies for women are incredibly major surgeries. Not just by comparison, just on their own. That's a large surgery with a lot of risks and a lot of recovery time. Some people obviously have to get them for legit medical reasons. But if you love your partner, a hyerectomy is not something you should you would probably wish upon them, especially when a vasectomy is fairly straightforward and simple. It is also fairly reversible. Quoting a New York Times article on the subject, quote, "In a 2021 analysis, researchers reviewed 25 studies on vasectomy reversals among just over 8,300 patients, the authors found that among the 2,933 men who had had reversals done microscopically using a powerful surgical microscope, about 91% of their fertility restored. And among the 671 men who had them done macroscopically with the naked eye or a small magnifying glass, about 81% had their fertility restored. End quote. So if you uh sought out the powerful microscope uh surgeon option, 91 out of 100 men will have their fertil fertility restored and you can also have your sperm frozen uh for insurance before you have the procedure anyway. A hyctomy by contrast is permanent. Period. Done. Uh so there is really no comparison here.

[00:18:49]The failure rate is almost non-existent at.15% of vasectomies that fail. That's like almost none. Now, there have been extensive studies on the side effects and long-term risks, and there's just not a lot there. Uh, vasectomies do not increase your risk of prostate cancer, according to an incredibly large study of nearly 400,000 men from 1982 to 2012.

[00:19:10]Quoting another article, quote, "The researchers found no difference in rates of prostate cancer incidents or mortality between men who had had vasectomies and those who had not. Nor were there any differences in rates of aggressive cancers, tumor stage at diagnosis or gleon scores above eight, which indicates the most aggressive tumors." End quote. There had been some earlier research that linked the two, but this like to cancer, but this has been put to bed at this point. I feel no mental change, uh, which was something I had feared, I guess. I mean, I feel better mentally now than I have in years, though. I I just assume that's also partially because I stopped drinking. That that helps. And probably not so much the vasectomy thing, but I don't feel any different. I feel no physical changes or pain or discomfort.

[00:19:52]Uh, and we live a less stressful existence. So, anyway, I hope that at least helps you have some perspective on the subject. I'm sure the comments could go off the rails on this one, but for us, this was a super pragmatic decision.

[00:20:03]We were good with two kids of our own.

[00:20:05]If we want more, we will foster and or adopt. The steps for me were that I called my primary care doctor and they gave me a referral and then that was it.

[00:20:13]The rest is history. So yeah. Uh anyway, how about that for a Friday banger? O maybe I could have chosen a better word there. I don't know if that anything would not sound like a euphemism in this context, but anyway, don't forget No Growers is a nonprofit 501c3, so donations are taxdeductible and greatly appreciated. Please make sure to like and subscribe and or follow wherever you get this podcast. That is an easy way to help us out as well. Enormous thank you to all of our show sponsors. And if you'd ever like to sponsor the show, you can reach out to farmer Michelle at notoggoers.com. Big thank you to Michelle. Big thank you to the Notogrowers board of directors. Huge shouts to Willie breeding for the theme music. Mike Hilbert for the production help and editing and my wife Hannah for absolutely everything in the world.

[00:20:48]Also, shouts to Epidemic Sound for the background music that you can hear.

[00:20:56]>> Pick up a hat or a copy of my book, The Living Soul Handbook at Noelgrowers.com to support this work. Big big thank you to everyone over at patreon.com/notto growers where at a certain level or if you just bump up from one level to another or you sign up in the month of May, you get a shout out on the show. So big shout outs today to Hudson Carter, Bill Price, Alex and Oliver, Dwight Yodar, Bill King, Doug and Ian at Grindstone Farms. Thank you all so much for your support. Huge, huge, huge help.

[00:21:21]In this story, a massive rock, as you will remember, is hurtling towards the Earth. And the scientists and the military and all the people and everyone else in the world is feeling like they have a good plan to stop the thing and save the Earth. But then a scientist discover discovers something pretty inconvenient. This rock has very clear signs of life on it. Heck, maybe the whole rock is somehow some sort of spaceship. Nobody really knows. This sets off a worldwide debate about how to proceed because by following through on their original plan, this would be a conscious genocide. Alien side, I don't know what you'd call it. But what would we lose by not, you know, trying to figure out something to learn from them?

[00:21:55]Like we're just killing this whole civilization. They clearly have some nice tech, you know, to be able to live on an asteroid. So, a decision is made to try and follow through with the original plan. Time is running out.

[00:22:05]There is one only way. All the leaders decide it's us or them. So, the planet launches its nukes into space and then they see it. The asteroid inhabitants seem to have done something similar. And then it occurs to everyone that maybe they aren't coming here. Maybe we are just in their way and they have likely done this before.

[00:22:25]Yeah. O the end. Anyway, thanks for watching andor listening. We will see you Monday. Uh hopefully I'll have a voice. We'll we'll find out. Bye.