Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] spindle cut orchards

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Paul Cereghino <paul.cereghino@comcast.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] spindle cut orchards
  • Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2007 21:49:53 -0700

Mr. Blaha writes,

Espalier techniques are the spindle technique taken to the extreme...they ...Could be permaculture.

I figure permaculture designs borrow techniques as useful. It is less the technique, but the system through which it is applied (while some techniques are only applied through dysfunctional systems I figure extreme pruning is not one of them). Dwarfed trees could also be placed in created microclimates that support production outside commercial range that reduces impacts of food transport. They better receive integrated pest management strategies reducing reliance on poisons.

This purity in pruning discussion reminds me of the rift within the green party in Germany -- "idealist" vs. "realist"
While I in fact have hugged many trees -- I found permaculture so attractive because it tended to be very 'cosmology' neutral. The degree to which a system successfully incorporates permaculture design is found in the ecological balance sheet -- inputs, outputs, resilience. We have so far to go until we build a lifestyle that no longer feeds atrocious waste and destruction. Until then, I have a hard time making distinctions over the intraspecies ethics of pruning styles. What do you do with the prunings? What are the other elements of the cultural system and which of those are necessitated by the pruning technique? How much energy does the system use? What are the inputs and outputs? Is the soil increasing in fertility?






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page