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Orchard Systems
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Cool temperate humid orchard species include pome fruits (apple, pear, quince, mdelar), stone fruits (cherry, peach, plum, apricot), nuts (filbert, walnut, chestnut, hickory), and a few hardy evergreens such as olive, loquat, and pineapple guava (Feijoa); mulberry and fig may also be grown in milder areas.
In selecting varieties for local orchards, care should be taken with the following factors:
[From Bill Mollison's Permaculture, A Designer's Manual]
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The Selection of Plant Guilds for Orchards: The enemy of decidious orchards is grass, thus non-grass crop below tree canopies is ideal. A selection or mix of the following plant groups can be made:
- Spring Bulbs (Narcissus, hyacinth): These flower and die back by early summer, as does Allium triqetrum (onion weed), and create a grass-free area below trees in fruit, plus a crop of bulbs, flowers, and honey. Iris and tuberous-rooted flowers also assist grass control.
- Spike Roots (comfrey, dandeliion, globe artichoke) cover the ground and encourage worms, yield mulch and crop. Soil below their foliage is soft, free-draining, open to roots feeding near the surface, cool.
- Insectary Plants: Umbelliferae and small-flowered plants: fennel, dill, Queen Anne's lace, tansy, carrot, and parsnip flowers, and so on. Tachynid and other predatory wasps, robber flies, ladybirds, jewel beetles, and pollinator bees or wasps are attracted to interplants in orchard, e.g.: Quillaja, a small tree attracting many wasps, Phtinia, and some small species of Tamarix and Acacia species. All of these can be placed in windbreaks around orchards, interplanted in rows, or as clumps in orchard. All bring predatory or pollinating insects into crops.
In the herb layer, catnip, fennel, dill (or any Umbelliferae), small varieties of daisy (or any Compositae), Phyla (Lippia) nodosa, and flowering ground covers generally attract wasps, pollinator bees and insectivorous birds.
Nitrogen and Nutrient Crop. Clovers and interplants of tagasaste or Acacia provide root-level nitrogen. Some control of root menatodes (Crotalaria), as do marigolds (by "fumigation" of the soil).
In general, we aim to maximise the floristic or flowering components of orchard interplant, to reduce or even to eliminate grasses, to attract a variety of pollinators and predatory insexts, insectivorous birds (using Kniphofia spp. Fuschsia spp. Echium fastuosum, Salvia spp.), and to provide ground cover for frogs and insectivourous lizards (small ponds or troughs throughout orchards will breed frogs for leaf insect control). Soft ground covers such as Nasturtium prevent soil drying and give mulch, as does the interplant and windbreak trees, and the herb layer generally.
Thus, pest species in orchard can be reduced to 4-7% of monocrop orchard by a combination of these strategies:
Selection of disease resistant stock of the main fruit crop;
- Minimal damage by pruning, or no pruning;
- Predation by birds, frogs, lizards, wasp and predatory insects;
- Interplant of leguminous trees and other than main crop species;
- Reducing crop stress with windbreak and mulch;and
- Ground foraging by chickens, pigs, gees to clean up windfalls, or careful collection of windfalls for juice processing.
Orchard Planting with Swales
A swale is a low tract of land, especially when moist or marshy. The term can refer to a natural landscape feature or a human-created one. When created by humans, this open drain system is designed to manage water runoff.
A swale can be used to implement a rainwater harvesting and soil conservation strategy. Swales as used in permaculture are designed to slow and capture runoff by spreading it horizontally across the landscape (along an elevation contour line), facilitating its infiltration into the soil.
This type of swale is created by digging a ditch on contour and piling the dirt on the downstream side of the ditch to create a berm. In arid climates, vegetation (existing or planted) along the swale can benefit from the concentration of runoff.
La Boca Designer's Comments
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A plow can be used to create swales along land contour. In an arid climate the swale can be used to collect and hold moisture even if rains are infrequent.
Trees can be located on the upper slope of the berm created by digging the swale. This actually encourages root growth as the roots will naturally grow to seek the moisture lens created by the swale.
Guild plantings can be used to help stabilize the earth and to hold moisture while providing mulch and habitat for the wild creatures. [Click to discuss Orchard Planning concepts]
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Site Selection
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Location
The first decision is where to place the orchard. The best site would be on a gentle south facing slope. The south slope would be warmer than a north or east facing slope. When you have no choice, a gentle north facing slope is OK. But, a severe north facing slope is not. It is also good for the site to be slightly sloping so that it drains well. Fruit trees must never have wet feet. Their poor roots rot. A slightly sloping field provides natural drainage - even during the wettest winters.
Sun
The site must also be sunny. It must get 8 hours of sun a day. If it doesn't, the fruit trees will not thrive and may not bear fruit. Orchards in the shadow of large trees produce inferior results.
Temperature
You should try to avoid hollows, canyons, and creek bottoms. In the winter, cold night air moves from the hilltops down the slopes into the basins and hollows. As an example, sometimes it is 15 degrees colder at the bottom of Snows Grade than it is at the top of the grade in Camino. For the orchardist, this creates a problem with spring frosts and freezes. Orchards in bottoms and hollows suffer more from frost damage - loss of fruit buds and fruit - and sometimes tree death.
Wind
Stand where you are going to plant the trees and just see where the sunlight falls, the wind blows and the air moves. All fruit needs the sun to ripen the fruit buds to fruit the next year, as well as ripening the fruit. No movement of air will encourage the growth of moulds and fungus, whereas too much wind – especially at pollinating time – will discourage insect movement, with resulting poor fruit set. One more thing to be aware of is frost pockets. These are caused by cold air flowing downhill being trapped by hedges or gathering in valley bottoms. Late frost can seriously damage blossoms, and simply making a gap in a downhill hedge can allow the cold air to keep flowing.
Water
The last site selection issue is water availability. Since you must provide supplemental water in the summer, it is best to locate your orchard where it is convenient to water. There are many water strategies available. These include drip systems, sprinklers, water basins, and hose end soakers. Whichever strategy you choose, you must have the water ready when you buy the trees. A brief period without water - even in the middle of winter - can be fatal to new young trees with small undeveloped roots. - by Glenn Wilson University of California Cooperative /Extension
Location
The first decision is where to place the orchard. The best site would be on a gentle south facing slope. The south slope would be warmer than a north or east facing slope. When you have no choice, a gentle north facing slope is OK. But, a severe north facing slope is not. It is also good for the site to be slightly sloping so that it drains well. Fruit trees must never have wet feet. Their poor roots rot. A slightly sloping field provides natural drainage - even during the wettest winters.
Sun
The site must also be sunny. It must get 8 hours of sun a day. If it doesn't, the fruit trees will not thrive and may not bear fruit. Orchards in the shadow of large trees produce inferior results.
Temperature
You should try to avoid hollows, canyons, and creek bottoms. In the winter, cold night air moves from the hilltops down the slopes into the basins and hollows. As an example, sometimes it is 15 degrees colder at the bottom of Snows Grade than it is at the top of the grade in Camino. For the orchardist, this creates a problem with spring frosts and freezes. Orchards in bottoms and hollows suffer more from frost damage - loss of fruit buds and fruit - and sometimes tree death.
Wind
Stand where you are going to plant the trees and just see where the sunlight falls, the wind blows and the air moves. All fruit needs the sun to ripen the fruit buds to fruit the next year, as well as ripening the fruit. No movement of air will encourage the growth of moulds and fungus, whereas too much wind – especially at pollinating time – will discourage insect movement, with resulting poor fruit set. One more thing to be aware of is frost pockets. These are caused by cold air flowing downhill being trapped by hedges or gathering in valley bottoms. Late frost can seriously damage blossoms, and simply making a gap in a downhill hedge can allow the cold air to keep flowing.
Water
The last site selection issue is water availability. Since you must provide supplemental water in the summer, it is best to locate your orchard where it is convenient to water. There are many water strategies available. These include drip systems, sprinklers, water basins, and hose end soakers. Whichever strategy you choose, you must have the water ready when you buy the trees. A brief period without water - even in the middle of winter - can be fatal to new young trees with small undeveloped roots. - by Glenn Wilson University of California Cooperative /Extension
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Biodynamic Paste
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The tree paste has proved a very effective way of maintaining healthy trees with a smooth bark, healing lesions, and protecting trees against pests, especially those which hibernate underneath the bark, or in the crevices e.g. sucking insects, scale, aphids, wholly aphids, etc. That is, provided that the job is done right. The principle is that the entire tree, trunk, branches, twigs, buds is thoroughly covered with the paste. This restores a healthy trunk and the many pests that hibernate and lay their eggs on the outer twigs and near the buds, for instance bud borer, aphids and scale are also counteracted by the past. It is especially important that not only the under side of the branch is covered, but the entire branch, including the dead corners where the branching off takes place, and that no bark remains to giver hiding places. Any lesion of the timber can be painted with the paste, which is a much better procedure than covering with tar, oil, asphalt or paint, as is usually done. Holes in the trunk should be cleaned out and filled with paste. If eggs, larvae and scale are covered with the paste, it will exclude the air from them and they will perish. Since this paste is entirely harmless, and in no way toxic, it is an ideal means of protecting the tree and avoiding poisonous sprays. We have even sprayed it on green foliage,when this was attacked by pests and fungi (rust for instance and mildew), so that the leaves were entirely 'painted yellow'. The rain washes it off eventually and leaves recover with a healthy green shine.
The original recipe for tree paste was:
1/3 Sticky clay
1/3 Cow manure
1/3 Fine sand
This mixture is approximate, for the sticky quality varies and the proportions have to be somewhat altered accordingly. As much water is added as is needed so that the past can be easily applied and still stick to the tree. Add equisetum preparation (horsetail tea), extract of nasturtium plants against aphids, or other ingredients that one wants to apply. For many years it was the biodynamic practice to apply the paste, in the solution form, with a whitewash brush, by hand, to the trunk and larger branches. Nowadays one finds few orchardists who want to paint a tree by hand and we admit it is rather a messy procedure, but hand application may still be the easiest method for a few trees but for a large orchard spraying is really the only way to do it.
The paste can be used in Autumn when the leaves have fallen off, or in Spring as a pre-emergence spray (before the buds open, but after the main frost period is over).
Irish Seed Savers article
Ref: The biodynamic treatment of Fruit trees, berries and shrubs by Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer.
The tree paste has proved a very effective way of maintaining healthy trees with a smooth bark, healing lesions, and protecting trees against pests, especially those which hibernate underneath the bark, or in the crevices e.g. sucking insects, scale, aphids, wholly aphids, etc. That is, provided that the job is done right. The principle is that the entire tree, trunk, branches, twigs, buds is thoroughly covered with the paste. This restores a healthy trunk and the many pests that hibernate and lay their eggs on the outer twigs and near the buds, for instance bud borer, aphids and scale are also counteracted by the past. It is especially important that not only the under side of the branch is covered, but the entire branch, including the dead corners where the branching off takes place, and that no bark remains to giver hiding places. Any lesion of the timber can be painted with the paste, which is a much better procedure than covering with tar, oil, asphalt or paint, as is usually done. Holes in the trunk should be cleaned out and filled with paste. If eggs, larvae and scale are covered with the paste, it will exclude the air from them and they will perish. Since this paste is entirely harmless, and in no way toxic, it is an ideal means of protecting the tree and avoiding poisonous sprays. We have even sprayed it on green foliage,when this was attacked by pests and fungi (rust for instance and mildew), so that the leaves were entirely 'painted yellow'. The rain washes it off eventually and leaves recover with a healthy green shine.
The original recipe for tree paste was:
1/3 Sticky clay
1/3 Cow manure
1/3 Fine sand
This mixture is approximate, for the sticky quality varies and the proportions have to be somewhat altered accordingly. As much water is added as is needed so that the past can be easily applied and still stick to the tree. Add equisetum preparation (horsetail tea), extract of nasturtium plants against aphids, or other ingredients that one wants to apply. For many years it was the biodynamic practice to apply the paste, in the solution form, with a whitewash brush, by hand, to the trunk and larger branches. Nowadays one finds few orchardists who want to paint a tree by hand and we admit it is rather a messy procedure, but hand application may still be the easiest method for a few trees but for a large orchard spraying is really the only way to do it.
The paste can be used in Autumn when the leaves have fallen off, or in Spring as a pre-emergence spray (before the buds open, but after the main frost period is over).
Irish Seed Savers article
Ref: The biodynamic treatment of Fruit trees, berries and shrubs by Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer.
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