Why doesn't a fruit tree grow into a mature tree and produce fruit by itself?

That is the core question of today's gardening problem. All the plants, trees, and animals have their niche, which is a pre-established infrastructure (in this case, a specific environmental conditions), where they thrive. No living being can survive without the necessary conditions.

Modern gardening and farming denude the environmental infrastructure and then deliver the necessary conditions artificially, which require work and money (straight rows, loose soil, fertilizers).

We are creating these environmental conditions by assembling a collection of species that will create them and maintain them by living.

Then, the fruit tree grows by itself.

It's nature's version of a 20-year-in-the-making overnight success.

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In this edition, in 7 minutes or less:

#1 How to create your orchard from the very beginning - The fourth important step

#2 One last step that was left unanswered is how to plant a tree.

#3 A polyculture orchard has only 5% of pest pressure in relation to a monoculture orchard

#4 Ernst Götsch's Example

#5 Integration with free-range animals

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How to create your orchard from the very beginning

The fourth important step

Establish ground foraging by chickens, ducks, geese, and even pigs, sheep, or cows.

Always perform controlled grazing and foraging by the animals, which means controlling the density of animals and the time they spend there, so that the effect is beneficial to the system and doesn’t create stress to the trees, plants, and soil.

• Small livestock, like chickens, are only allowed after the fruit trees and their associated plant guilds have had time to establish
• Orchard trees of 3-7 years old are big enough to be visited by foraging pigs
• Orchard trees of 7-20 years old are big enough to be visited by foraging sheep and then cattle

For the sake of this edition, let’s mention that chickens at 70-100 individuals per acre are safe, giving just benefits (however, don’t forget them there, because in due time they will eat everything).

The subject is inside the Silvopasture umbrella and the scope of this letter is not to deal completely with it, but to highlight that foraging animals in the orchard bring a lot of benefits for someone who wants to have fruit trees, but also for someone who wants to have animals, since the animals get free food, while they perform a job that is impossible for humans - break pest cycles in an orchard by removing those pests and rotting fallen fruit.

One last step that was left unanswered is how to plant a tree.

Check out our previous newsletter: The Ultimate Checklist for Planting Trees that Thrive for Centuries!

A polyculture orchard has only 5% of pest pressure in relation to a monoculture orchard

According to Bill Mollison’s field observation, a permaculture orchard has pest levels of only 4-7% of those in a normal monoculture orchard.

That is the result of applying the previous advice:

• Disease-resistant stock of the main fruit crop
• Minimal damage by pruning or no pruning
• Predation of pests by birds, frogs, lizards, wasps, and other predatory insects that found a niche in the orchard
• Interplanting of leguminous trees and other useful trees that add fertility to the soil
• Reducing crop stress with windbreaks, mulch, and excluding grass competition with ground cover
• Reducing crop stress with ground foraging by chickens, pigs, geese, and ducks to clean up windfall (fruits that fall by the effect of wind or anything else and stay on the ground, where they rot or attract harmful insects), and break up pest cycles. They add fertility to the orchard through their droppings.

Ernst Götsch’s Example

Ernst Götsch implemented a polyculture cacao farm (cacao comes from the nuts of the fruit of an understory tree!) in the northwest of Brazil in the state of Bahia.

He called his method syntropic agriculture. The term comes from syntropy, which means negative entropy. What he means by that is that his practice accumulates energy and complexity, transforming barren and damaged land into fertile, forest-like ecosystems. His farm needs no external input and is resilient (it has self-regulating capacity), because the useful trees beyond cacao supply organic matter and biological stability through their function and by attracting useful insects and animals. On top of that, he produces arguably the best cacao in the world, completely (beyond, actually) organic, while reforesting the region, and changing the regional climate, which was plagued by lack of rain and now has plenty of rainfall.

He says that we can plant rain (by planting a polyculture orchard—or forest-like system).

As a side effect, he harvests a super valuable yield of cacao while managing his orchard with practically just pruning.

Integration with free-range animals

The orchard offers a unique possibility to rear animals on range.

They complement each other perfectly.

• Bees
• Chickens and ducks
• Pigs

It is the same idea as the fourth step of establishing ground foraging, but the difference here is the focus on the free-range system, where the animals on range have the orchard available to them, creating a unity between the orchard and the range.

I want to draw more attention to bees, because it is a perfect fit, since there is almost no extra work for us by introducing them and both the yields of the bees and the orchard are multiplied by: - The bees have an optimal environment for them with plenty of forage, at a optimal distance, protected by a windbreak - The orchard receives a targeted, precise pollination job

Last but not least, the practice of releasing livestock pigs into a forest is called pannage in English.

It was practiced all across Europe until the 19th century, and was very useful to the people back then for the same reasons that were presented to you, plus a way to fatten pigs, which had an important economic impact. Since the woods were the property of the nobles, the peasants had to pay a fee, but many tried to make it look as if the pigs ran away unintentionally to avoid the fee. Of course, it didn’t work and they were charged with the crime of committing pannage, and punished.

Today it is not a crime to commit pannage, and the yield potential left by releasing bee, chickens, ducks, and pigs on range is left untapped.

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Planting fruit trees in the middle of the grass is plant abuse.

Planting an orchard involves planting the fruit trees together with supportive tree species, ground-cover plants, insectary plants, and even bringing in chickens (and other animals) to visit, clean the orchard of pest cycles, and fertilize the soil.

This practice has been used in small backyard orchards and big farms like Ernst Götsch's with amazing success and low effort, because it works on the strong side of the fruit trees and focuses on managing (caring for) the trees, plants, and animals that compose the orchard, which is a guild par excellence in permaculture, instead of forcing it to conform with a system that is unnatural to them.

See you next Tuesday!

Alexandre and Marina

P.S.: If you got inspired to plant some guilds, our guide can help you. This sustainable practice allows you to plant trees together with the vegetable bed!

Sources: Mollison, Bill, Remi M. Slay, Jeeves, Andrew. Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual. Tagari Publications, 1988, pages 423, 434, Figure 12.11