Converting a Monoculture Orchard Into a Food Forest
By Mikael Maynard
The Climate Farm at the Johnny Appleseed Organic Village was not always a climate farm, and some of the artifacts of its previous iteration as an average organic farm remain. One step in transitioning toward a truly sustainable growing methodology involves redesigning the established monoculture orchard of mayhaws into a regenerative food forest.
Before we get into that, let’s cover the problems associated with the original establishment of these mayhaws, the process of converting it and the plants we chose to create a guild/consortium of beneficial species that will aid in food production!
Issues with Original Planting
Before we started this project, the mayhaws were planted in rows that looked like this:
There are a few issues with this planting:
The row beds were very narrow, causing intense erosion of the topsoil on the bed, which exposed the roots and caused the trees to become unstable.
The row beds were not made on contour with the land, causing erosion during large rain events as the flow of water would move soil and nutrients from the beds off the property.
There were no support species co-planted with the trees.
Food Forest Conversion
While brainstorming the best way to correct the situation, farm manager Joshua Andersen noticed how his friend and fellow permaculture designer Matthew Reece dug banana circles and used the excavated soil to make mounds for his mango trees on his farm in Punta Gorda, Florida. Joshua thought it was a great idea to adapt this concept to the mayhaw orchard by excavating the soil from between each mayhaw and placing it around the mayhaw, essentially creating an island of soil. These mini ditches between the mayhaw islands keep water from running off site.
The next step will be to dig swales that interlock the catch basins, tying them together and making them more effective at slowing, sinking, spreading and storing the water for use by the mayhaws and the consortium of plants surrounding it.
The Guild / Consortium
Before we talk about the support species planted alongside the mayhaws, let's go over what a guild and a consortium is. ‘Guild’ is a term used in permaculture design that means a “harmonious assembly of species clustered around a central element (plant or animal). This assembly acts in relation to the element to assist its health, aid our work in management, or buffer adverse environmental effects.” (Mollison, 1988, Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual, 60)
Guilds are planted for many reasons. A few mentioned in the ‘Designers’ Manual’ include:
Reducing competition from unwanted plants.
Biomass creation.
Nutrient creation.
Physical shelter.
Ease of gathering and harvesting.
A ‘consortium’ is a term used to describe this concept in the context of syntropic agroforestry. Ernst Goetsch, creator of syntropic agroforestry, says, “In Syntropic Farming, we work the design aiming to arrange different species all the way from the implementation of the system and continuing at each step in the conduction of our plantations, managing them to produce their own fertilizer. For that purpose, we plant trees, grasses, and herbs in high density. They should share the characteristic of vigorous regrowth after pruning. A good farmer manages them accordingly. The periodic pruning results – in addition to the supply of light for our crops – in organic matter in large quantities which, on top of the soil, create a prosperous life in it and, indirectly, fertilize our plants.”
There is not much of a difference between the two terms, but we like to use both terms as an ode to each practice.
As Joshua planted these newly formed mayhaw islands, he knew the consortium/guild of plants he wanted to plant around each tree but he wanted to vary the arrangement of these plants in relationship with one another, essentially making each island guild planting unique.
Here is a list of the guild/consortium:
Fruiting subcanopy species
Crataegus aestivalis - Mayhaw
Fruiting herbaceous species
Abelmoschus esculentus - Okra
Support/biomass/copic species
Pioneer/support/nitrogen-fixing species
Albizia julibrissin - Pink silk tree (nitrogen-fixing)
Crotalaria juncea - Sunn hemp (nitrogen-fixing)
Parkinsonia aculeata - Jerusalem thorn (pioneer/support)
Robinia pseudoacacia - Black locust (nitrogen-fixing)
Acacia dealbata - Silver wattle (nitrogen- fixing)
Herbaceous/rhizosphere species
Manihot esculenta - Cassava
Below is a picture of an example island.
All of these species were selected due to their accessibility and their ability to withstand our climate. The nitrogen-fixing species have naturalized in our area along the roadsides and tree lines of our town, which tells us they will certainly do well on our farm.
The larger tree species planted in the islands will be highly managed with regular pollards and coppices throughout their lives, ensuring that they will not dominate the guild.
This list is by no means exhaustive — these are just the plants we are working with at the moment. The cool thing about permaculture and syntropic agroforestry is that these systems are never static! They are highly managed by our skilled staff and continuously evolve as natural systems do, so stay tuned for future updates.
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