Thank you Paul for a practical thread,
Fukuoka overcame some of the broadcast into veg limitations by pelleting
seed (mash seed with clay, push through 1/4" hardware cloth screen of
frame into dry clay poweder in shaker tray, lay in sun to dry). I have
experimented once with this and was not successful.
Where competition for water is your challange, any thick herbaceous
growth will reduce tree yield.
Where tree yield is your primary focus you will be driven to solutions
that are more labor intensive because maximized single species yield is
not typical in a natural system.
Packet 1 and 2 would need to be designed to soil, moisture, climate specs.
Packet 1 would in my mind be a species that grows fast and tall and
thick and then dies in winter.
Hairy vetch is a weaver between plants,
not a dominator.
Consider broadleaf mustards or rapid annual grains as
this nurse crop. Many of the mustards also have the virtue of a tap
root (daikon, rapeseed) -- Fukuoka again uses a lot of daikon.
Fukuoka's
books emphasize and reemphisize timing. There is a story of him leaving
his farm and the students bungling the timing of broadcast sowing into
veg and it taking years to bring the cycle back.
In short, the magic pill 1-2 packet approach attempts to achieve the
output of ecological design while still using the delivery model of
2,4,D and the lawn mower. I wish to heaven and earth it were that simple.
Keep it up, and let us know your results.
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.