permaculture

[lbsaltzman@aol.com]

I have trees growing in very heavy clay soil. Two Satsuma plums in particular 
are growing in clay that has veins of pottery grade red clay and doing 
beautifully.  You can do a lot to prep the soil that you can find covered in 
any Permaculture text. Learn about pioneering plants with deep roots that 
pull up nutrients and loosen the soil and other things you can do.
 
 Also many fruit trees come grafted onto root stock. The trick is to find 
good sources of trees in your location where they know the best root stocks 
to graft the tree onto.  If you are going to graft your own trees or buy the 
trees already grafted research the root stocks they come on and make sure 
they are appropriate for your soil. 
 
Where I live in the Central Coast of California, there is a wholesale nursery 
called Dave Wilson, where the rootstocks have been carefully researched for 
the local soils. I am sure there are similar companies in many locations. 
Avoid buying trees from nurseries at large chain stores and typical retail 
nurseries.  They often sell trees that will be totally inappropriate for your 
location.  I bet there is a lot of of information on rootstocks if you search 
the web.
 
-----Original Message-----
From: evansdk@earthlink.net
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 3:37 PM
Subject: [permaculture] frozen trees and baby steps to permaculture


Jedd, Thank you for the suggestions....seems like stuff I can actually start 
on. 
Can I grow fruit trees in clay soil in the understory of oak/hickory forest? 
    It's easy for me to be overwhelmed trying to understand and apply 
permaculture and not sure how to just begin in a small way. I can only speak 
for 
myself but I wonder if that holds some people back from getting into it, 
because 
it's such a huge body of knowledge and a lot of what I see has to do with 
major 
design projects. 
    Thank you Felicity, regarding the trees, someone emailed me off list and 
said they had seen highly stressed trees come back after more than a year of 
dormancy...I want the local public to know that so that people here in 
Midwestern suburbia don't start getting trigger happy with a chainsaw. At 
least 
I want them to wait awhile and see what lives and what doesn't. Now I'd say 
half 
the mature trees are affected, with zero signs of life three weeks later, 
after 
leafing out and freezing. Others have literally a couple dozen leaves on a 
seventy foot tall tree. God bless the trees.                   
Thanks for the help, Kathy


Kathy Evans
evansdk@earthlink.net
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