Upon researching how to improve fertility for the Pond Orchard (especially the higher entrance area that has a very shallow layer of topsoil) I have found several ideas and paradigms that may bring interesting questions and working methods for the wider farm to consider and trial. I am thereby making this page for future reference, were we can all contribute new readings, videos and links
Overview
The concept I bring to the table is called “regenerative farming”. By this I understand a collection of techniques and practices aimed at creating a rich soil were crops will thrive. The main question they address is reversing soil degradation, and generating new layers of fertile soil. The emphasis is that by allowing the soil roots and microorganisms to establish and develop the soil needs no fertilizing, no pesticides and no weedkillers to work.
Some of the key concepts I have found in common in these farmers and authors are:
- The practice a strict no-till agriculture following the knowledge that tilling breaks the fungus network that are essential to provide the nutrients to the plants
- They always keep the ground covered with cash crops and cover crops, calling this the “armour of the soil”.
- Cover crops never go in as monocrops, but as multicrops of at least a combination of 8 plants, and up to 16.
- They believe that they are not only able to slow degradation and erosion of soil, but to increase more healthy soil than they start with every year, breaking the idea of soil being a zero sum game that is in inevitable degradation once you start farming it
- They believe that inputs of fertilizer actually inhibit the establishment of the bacteria that would produce that compound in a way that will be readily absorved by the plant via the fungal network.
- They seem to prove that -once they get ontop of their game- the yields are better and need much less input than with conventional farming.
Regenerative Agriculture vs Permaculture, No till and other techniques.
I dont see any contradiction between regenerative agriculture and the other schools of thought, but simply the application of many of those techniques in a certain farming context. The take many of these shared concepts and put them under a new perspective more applicable to field and cash crop production. while doing so they make a very big emphasis on soil health and its micro-ecology, and evolve the other previous practices and paradigms and develop a new perspective. I don’t see it as you must chose to be a permaculturist, a Dowding No till follower or a regenerative farmer in an exclusive way, but that you can learn and apply concepts of any of them depending of your situation.
There are however some differences to take into account. Mr Dowding’s method understands no-till and works around introducing quite huge ammounts of compost over the soil and cultivating in an intense way, while regenerative farmers who are working with many accres achieve their goals via cover crop combinations. Mr Dowding leaves the soil bare in winter while farmer Gale Brown or John Kempf advocate for never leaving an inch of soil without a root and leaves over it.
What i have also learnt of Dr Elaine Ingram is that even the application of what we think as “good techniques” like laying compost, or a certain cover crop, can fall very short of regenerating the soil’s health if we do not care for specific microbes in the soil that are key for its balance.
I have made up these frameworks in levels to get an idea of how awareness and practices link and evolve
- Level 1: Avoiding chemical pesticides to achieve less harmful practices for the souil and human consumption. However we still make aditions of natural fertilizers to “add nutrients to the soil”, and even some artifiticial ones like chicken pellets. We dont plant in winter covering the plots with plastic sheets to avoid leeching of nutrients and germination of weeds
- Level 2: We move towards only adding natural fertilizers, making our own compost and bringing manure to the farm. The idea is to replace nutrients and build up organic matter in the soil. We still use the practices of covering the soil in winter, and no cover crops the rest of the year. We monitor soil samples to know what nutrients and in what quantities are in the soil.
- Level 3: We experiment with No Dig techniques, meaning that we minimize soil disturbance. The underlying logic is that we need to nurture the soil life, especially the fungus network. The most understood practice is Charles Dowding No Dig, were he uses cardboard to start, and adds an inch of compost over the soil every autumn to reactivate and feed soil life. No dig can sometimes go in hand with covering the plot with plastic sheets to avoid weeds, leaving bare ground in winter or between crops.
- Level 4: We introduce and experiment with cover crops, but these are used one at a time. We seeded several ones in separate rows to see which one would give better results. This means no plastic cover for the winter, and no bare ground in winter, but cover crops are seen as competitors during the growing season hence they are felled and mixed before the food crops go in.
- Level 5: Regenerative farming. The goal is not only to not dig ever, but to use several cover crops during the growing season AND the winter season never leaving bare soil. The underlying logic is that minerals in the soil cannot be absorved and used by the plants if they are not transformed by the soil life, hence nitrogen, phosporos, magnesium.. are all leeched or built up unless soil life regulates and facilitates them to the plants. .
What could this mean in practice in HCF
The main lesson in the application of regenerative farming lessons towards our practices could be avoiding or limiting the application (and maybe overapplication) of soil improvers, like manure, and the introduction of permanent cover crop schemes.
Following this school of thought, soil ecology (meaning not using sterile lifeless compost bags or fertilizers but actual microorganisms) is key to the balance and health of the soil. While the application of limited ammounts of manure and compost helps to activate the microorganisms the lack of cover crops and roots in the soil can make for a dangerous inbalance of nutrients and render the additions useless. Tilling, and over manuring, could also have a direct impact on the health of bacterial and fungus populations and ecosystems stunting them instead of helping them thrive. Tilling in particular seems to be very detrimental to soil health.
The second idea we could take to HCF would be to develop cover crops. We have done some trials using several crops to find the best one, but everything I read is that its not this one vs that one, but the combination of multiple ones in the same field that achieves soil helath. that is thanks to the combination of diferent root exudates, root lenghts, and ecological roles. The same that over the soil we can understand the value of diversity (diferent flowers for diferent pollinators, times and uses) a monocrop of roots under the ground, even of a cover crop, cannot improve soil health.
Conclusion
There is much to learn , and much to experiment. Regenerative agriculture not only challenges many of the concepts we asume we know (like the use of nutrients) it also has a learning curve to manage the types and timings of enough cover crops to make it work. It also demands some couradge to venture into new techniqes knowing we will get some wrong and suffer setbacks. However it does seem to me the way to go forward and experiment, even if we dedicate just one plot to do so until we feel confident in its management. We definitly will be putting some of its lessons in practice in the orchards, together with food forest concepts and ideas.
Links to interesting authors, not exhaustive
I attach a list of sources I have found interesting. its not an exhaustive list, but the main authors Ive found with a practical or interesting approach. Im sure you can find more by yourself of these and other authors, but if you need me to link you more just drop me a line
PODCASTS
I find podcasts not only soothing but also very compatible to learn from while doing house work or other chores, or before sleep. I tend to star those that i find have key concepts, and come back to them to take notes. I also find it somehow less arid than getting through long books that may not be central to my reserach, as an hour of conversation may well have all the key points I need to understand of an author
As an app i use Pocket Casts because it lets me “favourite” and organize podcasts, and goodle podcasts because its very simple and straightforward. There is a whole array of apps besides these. You can find any of the podcasts and episodes searching in all of them
A podcast by John Kempf, a highly innovative farmer that is at the vanguard of the regenerative farming movement. There are 80+ podcasts episodes there touching a full range of subjects!
YOUTUBE CONFERENCES
There is a huge list of videos to watch with the added bonus of showing images of the results of their practices. I’ll list some of what i find are key ones and let the algorythm suggest you more.
Gabe Brown
I found this man to be a very good comunicator with a lot of examples of what can be achieved, what are the trade offs and goals. Good for an introduction to regenerative agriculture.
and or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwoGCDdCzeU (shorter video)
Elaine Ingram
She was the chief scientist at the Rodale institute and has a dense, scientific aproach to many topics. My main discovery with her was how little I know about the groups of soil life and how they interactive towards soil health. We need a microscope!
James White: explaining the rhizophagy cycle or how the roots interact with the soil microbiome
Dr Christine Jones (a cycle of conferences, many more to find ). Slightly less complicated than Ingram, but full of good science. Makes a big case of neaver leaving the soil bare, or to monoculture one single cover crop
Dale Stricker
And two videos that touch maybe a more practical debate of what to plant when to achieve desired results
OTHER VIDEOS
A very interesting video on how an investigation using weeds explains the changes in the soil over the last thousand years, and how soil has declined with the use of the plow. Quite fascinating.
And another very interesting author explaining the history of soil decline over time, with a lot of historic examples. David Montgotmery also has several other conferences on soil regeneration practices.