permaculture

[Paul Cereghino <paul.cereghino@comcast.net>]

paul wheaton wrote:

> Marjory,
>
> It seems that many orchardists grow grass under their fruit trees.  I
> don't understand why.  My (limited) understanding is that the grass
> roots occupy roughly the same space as the fruit tree roots. 
Depending on the scale you work at, it takes work to get away from 
grasses, and grasses may dominate over time under neglect... then mowing 
or grazing the grass becomes the alternative to letting the grass grow 
and become more competative... but then mowing/grazing can be a 
disturbance that encourages grasses which are well adapted to that kind 
of distrubance -- you're in a feedback cycle.  In some settings, fruit 
yield is limited by soil moisture, and so reducing transpiring leaf area 
in association with your trees could be a strategy to increase monocrop 
yield.  Not saying its a good idea, or the best solution -- just is what 
it is and can pay the bills if you happen to be brainwashed into 
thinking about bills ;)  So Fukuoka has good ideas for converting to 
non-grass plants, but it looks risky from the perspective of someone 
conditioned to like the control of mowed grass, and transition to a 
semi-wild system may in fact be risky for yield as you figure out what 
the hell your doing.
~Paul