permaculture

[dwoodard@becon.org]

That's useful, Antonio.

Can you tell us what your winters are like? What are your historic
low temperatures? Are there well-known warm area fruit and nut
species which are known not to grow in your area because of cool
winters?

Roughly how many hours in a winter do you have below about 8 degree 
Centigrade? Are there any major fruit or nut species which don't
grow in your area due to winter chilling requirements?

Can you tell us a bit more about "duplex" clay? It's not a term I am 
familiar with.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario


On Wed, 6 Dec 2006, sinergyinaction@netscape.net wrote:

> Hi Doug and al.,
unfortunately I have not yet planned what roostocks I might/should, use nor 
which ones available locally.
Soil has 4-5% slope, we are talking about duplex clay soil 
We have 575mm average rainfall each year, with summer temperatures
reaching easily 40-45º C (southern Spain) zone 10 and mild winters.
main rainfall happens during fall (October through genuary) although there are
wet spells untill may. Main dry months are June through september.

In some spots the acuifer is quite shallow (1,2m)
There are a few growing trees there, one is a fig (ficus carica) that grows 
below a terrace wall (which receives run off during rainfalls), a few olive 
trees, and a huge peccan, where I think the acuifer is closest to the surface.
There is also a small mature citrus orchard (oranges) that goes without 
irrigation (but its oranges are really bad!) Then some pomegranates and 
loquat that were recently planted are thriving, but thay are on a hedge, so 
their placement is diferent that the orchard situation. Of course the hedge 
can still be planned to be divided into irrigation sectors as well.
I'd like to plant, figs (of course), peach, plums, nectarines, pistacho, 
(maybe wallnuts and hazelnuts), jujube,
cherries, apricots, avogados, almonds, kaki, mulberries, and any other 
drought tolerants species that I can come across.
 Cheers

Antonio