permaculture

["Jara" <jara@otenet.gr>]

Dear Toby,

 Thank you for this. In answer to your question. I have indeed seedballed 
using a large variety (heading towards 100) of indiginous and some not so 
indiginous species. I must agree with you that this is not strictly nature's 
way although it is not far off. The main difference, I feel, is that 
biological succession to climax rainforest establishment takes longer 
usually and is somewhat more sophisticated in terms of timing. I believe 
this issue can be addressed as you said by subsequent seedball broadcasts 
every autumn and spring and by limited 'tampering' - thick mulching on top 
of over zealous/prolific pioneers, and subsequent seed selections containing 
fewer pioneers and more climax species - I have also done this and it does 
seem to suppress pioneers yet allow the continued development of 'sturdier' 
ground covers,shrubs, trees and climbers.

 Concerning the tangled and messy battle for dominance initially - I hate 
to admit I have indeed seen this. I have quite a serious dose of horsetail, 
nettle and bramble which continue to dominate areas of the gardens despite 
my best efforts with mulch. What I have noticed tho is that wildflowers, 
vetch, clover, herbs and saplings are beginning to do well in areas that 
were initially predominantly a tangled mess of vigorous pioneers. What I 
conclude from this is that nature is steadily healing the mess that the 
farmer who cultivated my plot made before I took it on.

  Concerning soil deficiencies and the battle for resources, I have found 
rockdust and mulching really sorts this out.

 Thanks once again for your post.

Yours,

Andrew.


> I am very interested in hearing more about your experience with 
> broadcasting
> over 100 species of native trees, shrubs, canes, and herbs in seedballs. I
> would expect germination rates for native trees and shrubs in particular 
> to
> be so low as to make this unworkable; I would also expect the herbs and
> canes to completely choke out the tender, slow-growing tree seedlings 
> before
> they could be established.
>
> Or did I misunderstand the quote and you have worked with seedballs--which
> are great--but not in the way you suggest? I don't think that idea will 
> work
> for the above reasons and a few more. The article that was cited described
> an attempt to create crop-producing polycultures, not native assemblages.
> It's conceivable that broadcast-seeding just the right natives (adapted to
> specific soil, aspect, etc) would work since these are species that have
> seen each other before and thus might, if properly chosen, be able to
> partition resources among themselves without killing each other or
> succumbing to deficiencies or pests. But it's rare that so many natives 
> get
> seeded at the same time in nature, hence I suspect the broadcast technique
> is not actually mimicking nature at all! And if you're working with a
> food-based polyculture with species from many regions, you're going to 
> have
> to do some selecting and nurturing and tweaking, not to mention 
> successional
> planting and replanting, to make sure all the pieces survive and can work
> together. Fukuoka's plantings were very simple and painstakingly worked 
> out
> over time, not random jumbles. I've tried the "plant it all and let God 
> sort
> it out" method and it results in a vicious tangle followed by dominance of 
> a
> few vigorous or site-adapted species.
>
> Broadcast seeding can work well with a single species, where, say, you are
> planting many seeds from a promising tree and want to see what selections
> result that are promising. And broadcasting a mix of annuals, or sometimes
> perennial herbs, can work, but when you mix fast growers with slow 
> growers,
> big with small, usually the result is death of all but a few.
>
> Toby
> www.patternliteracy.com