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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] grass in orchards (was Geese as guards? Imprinting?)

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  • From: Paul Cereghino <paul.cereghino@comcast.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] grass in orchards (was Geese as guards? Imprinting?)
  • Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 22:39:52 -0700

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




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