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  • From: "Jara" <jara@otenet.gr>
  • To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Seedballing results for Toby
  • Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2005 12:52:34 +0200

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




  • [permaculture] Seedballing results for Toby, Jara, 11/02/2005

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