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permaculture - Re: Fw: Help design this orchard

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  • From: "Rene and Lorraine van Raders" <rvraders@tpgi.com.au>
  • To: <permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Fw: Help design this orchard
  • Date: Sat, 27 Dec 1997 21:51:28 -0800

>Neat rows are convenient for harvest and maintenance, but aren't very
>
> aesthetic, nor earth friendly. Certainly other patterns will work, but
>
> they will do better with careful design to ensure harvest and maintenance
>
> are still easy. Most trees are affected by competion (bare ground can
>
> increase yields... however the down sides are many). A forest garden
will
>
> usually show reduced yields of your main crop, offset by other yields.
>
> However a field planted with companions ( a few species selected to work
>
> well with your main crop) should not impact negatively on the crop, and
>
> also provide additonal yields.
> Look to the pattern of nature in your area (spacings etc) and from the
area
>
> the crop originally comes from.>>
>
> My question to Rene and Lorriane and all is this. First I tend to agree
with
> the above comments, but just what are the patterns, and the spacings
involved?
> I've seen so many posts that espouse ideas like this , but few that give
> actual details.
> It seems that we must also keep in mind "labor" requirements in any such
> operation else how can we profitably sustain it...unless we have free
labor of
> family , friends, and our own sweat.
> Love to hear more about these patterns.
> I have been deeply influenced by Fukuoka's " The Natural Way of farming"
and
> would like to adapt some of his ideas on my homestead farm.
> Thanks. Happy Holidays to all. frank

Hi Frank

Well some patterns that spring to mind are alley cropping (alternating rows
of crops), sinuous rows, circle plantings, spirals. Perhaps you could
trial a mixture of patterns and spacings. Our own garden is more a random
scatter pattern. It seems to me that there is no right or wrong answer
with patterns and spacings (no magic formula).... larger spacings give more
room for growth and production per tree, while smaller spacings let you put
in more trees (presumably with less yield per tree). The research with
regards spacings for a permaculture style orchard (stone fruit in your
region) has almost certainly not been done. All you can do is take a stab
at what looks right and monitor it (making adjustments). We live in
rainforest country where close spacings are the norm. Look to see the
pattern/spacings in your natural forest and use them as a guide. Close
spacings can easily be thinned out later, and this is the approach we've
taken here. Our expensive trees are planted at fairly wide spacings (as
for adult trees) but the spaces in between have been heavily planted with
other tree species. As the trees mature we'll then select those poor
performers to cull as mulch or other yields.

Hope this is of some help
Rene















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