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  • From: Pumpkin Lady <pumpkingal@clearwire.net>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Mayan agriculture
  • Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:42:28 -0500

As far as I have ever read, the Mayans never went in for hydroponics, although you could possibly accuse them of aquaculture. They had terrace gardens, bank gardens, and some "floating" gardens that might equate with aquaculture of some sort.

While the floating gardens could be confused with hydroponics a little, they were clearly woven reed/twig boats or mats or bases (whatever you want to call it), they had dirt and fertilizer to give the plants something to grow on and to feed them, the purpose of them was to get terra firma in a swampy place so the plant could survive in an area that would otherwise not be arable.

Bank or ditch gardens were raised strips of land in a flooded pond type area that both kept the plants irrigated and mitigated extremes of temp to give them a slightly longer growing season. If I didn't live on a hill or if I had a bundle of $$ to sink into lining a large pond area and then putting growing strip mounds in it, I would love to give that one a try. They also gardened on the sides of river banks according to the net, but I don't remember that being a focus of any of the books I read or shows I watched.

Morgan



  • [Livingontheland] Mayan agriculture, Pumpkin Lady, 08/16/2009

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