Episode 500, seed saving and a donkey in the weed patch for No-Till Growers
Jesse's daily Growers Daily show passed its 500th episode, and the newest one turns to farming with kids, with Mikey and Kez of Five Tales Farm.
No-Till Growers
Story of Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.
So the Weeds Got Away from You This Year…
A usual day on No-Till Growers brings in around 16,000 views, and lately the channel has been running closer to 10,000. That is a soft stretch for a show built on routine, and the routine itself did not slip: five new episodes of Growers Daily went up, one a weekday, and somewhere in the middle of them the count quietly rolled past 500.
The milestone episode, "It's Seed Saving O'Clock," kept things unceremonious: general seed saving talk, what to know about your first frost, and a listener who found moldy garlic three weeks before planting. Garlic ran through the week, from a Wednesday episode asking whether it can simply go in come spring (the title's trailing "Well…" suggests the answer is complicated) to Friday's mailbag.
That Friday episode, "So the Weeds Got Away from You This Year…," is the week's most watched, a pep talk for gardens that turned into jungles plus a visit to a sweet potato harvest with some pest trouble. The comments turned into a regional damage report: voles in upstate New York, chipmunks in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a viewer in zone 3b suspecting pocket gophers instead, and one gardener whose mini-donkey broke in, ate the weeds and the carrot tops and trampled every pepper. Hilary of Finding Ground Farm also turned up, delighted by a shoutout for her chia experiment.
Chia came back on Tuesday, paired with teff in "Two Unusual Cover Crops with Great Potential," which the description calls a better second pass, with teff pitched as a possible pathway crop. It started faster than the weeds episode. The newest, on farming with kids, from babies on the farm to revisiting a talk with Mikey and Kez of Five Tales Farm, opened quicker still.
Around a thousand new subscribers arrived over the week. Among the outdoor and homesteading channels near its size, Big Water Guy and Kirk Price are the busy ones, while several neighbors, Linnea & Akela among them, are running quiet too.
Published on Trari
Read next
What viewers say
The weeds got away from me in my garden, but then the mini-donkey broke in and ate all the weeds and carrot tops, trampled every single pepper plant, and left the rest alone.
@eliseinwonderlandSee it on YouTubeHilary here from Finding ground farm I am geeking over the shoutout about my chia experiment!! 🧪 I actually reached out to my local university and I’m hoping to do some soil studies on the results of the Chia seeds as part of my graduation requirement. We are a mere days from a possible frost, and the Chia seed still has not gone to seed and has effectively drowned out Canadian thistle in some of my beds the fear of the spread spreading because it’s in the mint Family is Null for me in my area. 🎉 excited for next year.
@hilaryGraceSee it on YouTubeVoles were out of control this year in 6a NY for us this year too! A half bed of beets, half bed of bush beans, any low hanging tomatoes on my dwarf field tomato trial. Just nuts. There are some fat and happy snakes around now, though. Hopefully they come back in spring 😊
@dwagner6See it on YouTube
5 more comments
Life got in the way this year. Garden turned into a jungle. I’m just starting to clear it now so I can get my raised beds ready for spring. Mushroom compost incoming.
@CHEFTECH86See it on YouTubeI used a collection mower, a stirrup hoe (got one after one of this summers no-till videos about cultivation) and straw mulch and that combo has done wonders for seriously diminishing weed pressure!
@shano212See it on YouTubeDidn't you have a long dry, hot spell this season? I've noticed more vole damage in those years. A nice juicy tuber is just the ticket for dry ,hot times. A small live trap baited with peanut butter might work. We have Fang, the polydactyl cat (AKA the vole patrol) to help. Also getting rid of anything that provides cover helps.
@MiriamPendletonSee it on YouTubeYou commented about garlic tops getting frosted, our frosts in this part of Australia (Canberra min -8C, about 17 F, more frequently 0 to -2C) don't seem to damage the tops. But, the local birdlife loves to bite off tops notably the sulphur crested cockatoos.
@waltertate2108See it on YouTubeZone 4b Upper Peninsula of Michigan here…sweet potatoes would be a project this far north, but we have the same problem with chipmunk damage to our potatoes
@thomasdevoogt1655See it on YouTube
Public comments from the video's page on YouTube
Is this your channel?
Share the story with your audience: in a community post, in your channel's description or on your socials. The text and the badge are ready.
You may use the picture, the badge, and link it to this story.
The videos drawing views on No-Till Growers right now
- Channel
- No-Till Growers
- Subscribers
- 414,000 ▲ 1,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 112,009
- Videos published this week
- 5
- Video published
- October 2, 2026
- Video views so far
- 15,571
- Views on its first day
- 8,303
The numbers
Here is how No-Till Growers' week looks in figures.
💡 Test your knowledge
Chia, one of the cover crops Jesse discusses, belongs to which plant family?
Chia, Salvia hispanica, is a sage and part of the mint family, Lamiaceae.
