permaculture

["Kevin email" <ktopek@houston.rr.com>]

Dear Marsha,

Try to innoculate the land with some animal manure/bacteria either by
letting the critters browse or sprinking manure or compost with manure. It
will make future fertility and productivity that much greater than if you do
not do it.

!Feliz Navidad! Kevin

-----Original Message-----
From: permaculture-admin@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:permaculture-admin@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Marsha Hanzi
Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2002 9:07 AM
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [permaculture] Drylands-pantas instead of compost


Bom dia!
Some time ago I asked about sheet-composting in dry conditions, with some
very useful feeback from the list.

I would just like to give you the feedback that I came to the conclusion
that the best way to kick-start restortion of really degraded land in
drylands is planting Opuntia ( a cactus used for animal forrage here) one
per meter. You could feel immediately that the field had gained life, with
miniture wind-braks as well as a reserve of humidity. Now with the first
rains we planted castor with each opuntia  , 3 cowpeas between each on the
line, a cassava in the center ( one per meter), and  a cocktail of
catch-crops ( sesame, amaranth, radishes, and a native legume) every 50cm,
filling up the rest of the space with jackbeans.  In spite of very little
rain, things have come up marvellously, and received enough rain, in a
second downpour, to develop well.  These are occasional summer
thundershowers, not dependable as are our rains of April-May, so we are
playing in the lottery, so to speak...But even if the crops fail, a good
amount of organic material is being  created onsite.

Of course the areas ( a small portion) where I actually did manage to spread
the sawdust compost are reacting a bit better than the others-- one can see
a result , but the area I actually managed to cover is only about one-tenth
of the whole,  after days and days of effort, whereas I needed a team of six
workers for one day to plant the whole area with opuntia, and can myself
 with a manual planter) do all the rest in two days time--

The advantage of opuntia is that you can ( and should) plant before the
rains come.  Another advantage is that it has a very high market value as
emergency forrage for cattle during droughts, so the investment will return
in a years time ( I dont plan to have animals for the next two or three
years...)

Though you might be interested in this update..

Marsha Hanzi
Bahia, Brazil
www.permacultura-bahia.org.br



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