Date: November 28, 2006 10:25:23 AM CST
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Sweet Potato Spinach?
Blackberry muscadine stacks are a stacking technique I use to get the
most food production out of my 1/3 Acre urban "farm". Essentially it
is based on the idea that domestic blackberries like Kiowa produce
very well here in May even if somewhat shaded in late summer, that
Southern improved muscadines like Darlene or Fry or Ison are very
late to leaf out and fruit in August, and that sweet potato spinach
is planted/emerges in May and covers the ground. Probably any
blackberry and grape combination would work for this.
I trellis the muscadines about 7-10 feet off the ground by stringing
a wire between two tall durable posts spaced about 10 ft. The trunk
of the muscadine is trained initially on a string or wire about 5 ft
from either post and then T-ed at the top. The blackberries are grown
at the posts and tied loosely to the posts with cord or wire so they
won't fall all over the place with their thorns. They are topped at
4-5 ft. The ground is then planted with sweet potato spinach or any
other soil suitable edible leaf or green manure crop. My posts are
steel U stakes pounded into the ground and bolted together to get
height. In this humid tropical climate, they last decades. However,
there are obviously more self-sufficient timbers potentially feasible
especially in colder drier places with ample room to grow things.
Bob Randall
