Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] nutritional valuess for designing a system

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: jedd <jedd@progsoc.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] nutritional valuess for designing a system
  • Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:57:05 +1000

On Wednesday 25 October 2006 1:27 am, Forest Garden wrote:
] I am trying to develop a sustainable feeding system for rabbits, poultry,
] humans, etc. I am wanting to use paulownia, tagasate, and moringa trees.
I

I don't have any etcs, so I'm not sure what they'd eat .. ;|

Anyhoo, variety is the spice of life, so plant [at least] one of
everything (that isn't invasive) and see what grows well and what
the animals like. In .au, if you have chooks[1], it's illegal [2] in
most states to not grow at least one mulberry tree for them, f.e.

And of course, under a mulberry tree you are obliged [2] to grow
horseradish (which my chooks seem to love the strong peppery taste
of). My observations so far suggest this is a fairly tolerant plant,
albeit somewhat invasive. One man's invasive is another man's hardy.

Rather than selecting plants based on their ability to tolerate your
poor soils (implied), consider getting in lots of plants that will
improve the soils -- and if they also provide fodder, all the better.

So green manure plants (annuals and of course things like comfrey
and arrowroot that you can chop and drop and the chooks and
rabbits will then sort out for you) are strongly advised.

Nutrient values are often hard to come by and shouldn't be relied
upon too heavily, IMHO, as the quality of the soil and other factors
(fertilisers, hours of sunlight, available moisture, and other plant
stressors) will all have a strong influence on the nutrient content of
what you grow. I'd suggest a few detailed soil tests up front would
be more useful for long term planning & maintenance.

Jedd.

[1] aka chickens.
[2] Not really.




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page