Management of sugarcane involves keeping good sunlight so the canes can continue to flourish. Here we are again playing with endangered genetics trying to keep them alive and growing strong! Keep them moving around and keep on sharing them! Each cane has different qualities and different flavor profiles. Did you know there are so many varieties of sugarcane? We grow somewhere around 25 varieties. KEEP THEM ALIVE!
Disturbance drives agroforestry systems forward. Enjoying your shade? Itʻs time to take it down to allow higher succession species their sunlight. A wise oracle once said, “your system isn’t for you, itʻs for the trees.” Prune your systems often to keep them vigorous. Blast the under story with sun! When you discover the cycles of your system, you can open the sunlight right as the species are about to flower, inducing heavy flowering. Is our system bio diverse enough?
Hit that subscribe button to get the next update showing flowers pushing from our lower strata species!
These peppers are 5 years old, tired and ready to be reinvigorated. This video shows an experimental management on some senescent cocktail peppers. Take down the moringa above them and prune them down to sticks! Will they live after the relentless slasher comes through? Check out the video to find out!
Thanks to a friend (you know who you are) who recently came over for a tour for the suggestion that we demonstrate how we use tools in our management. A tool tutorial!
The sickle is an invaluable tool. Utilizing different tools allows us to have streamlined management of our agroforestry systems. Here is a description of how we work with a sickle. When I first started using these tools it changed my life and now itʻs one of the most important go to tools that I have. Itʻs ideal to have the right tool for the job and know that tools limits and when to pull out a different tool like a handsaw for bigger cuts.
If anyone knows of a better brand to work with, please let us know. High quality tools are extremely important.
Agroforestry management changes as years progress. We are stepping into year 5 in this zone. At this point our trees give us most of our mulch. We have never brought in mulch and never plan to. In the early years many other plants were utilized for mulch until they are phased out as the system works it way through natural succession. Heavy pruning drives our system forward as it begins to become stagnant and crowded with overgrowth. Pruning the system hard pulses it into grow mode again. At this moment we have an opportunity to plant a few more species into the system as its nice and open and there’s a lot of sunlight.
Notice how teamwork makes our dream work. Julie cuts the trees apart and Spencer grabs the material as it comes down to limit destruction to our shorter plantings. As Julie finishes the climbing tree work most of the material is already cut, organized and managed as mulch into our system.
Agroforestry management is all about cycles and diligence. PRUNE YOUR SYSTEM!
Syntropic Agroforestry management can be straightforward when you design the system effectively. Here we have a nice wide area along our fence line so we can have access and an area to work material. Notice how effectively the material comes down and dissipates as mulch into our cropping row. We do own the property next door, so we are not cutting our neighbors Cecropia, but our own trees. The coconuts and sugarcane will have much more sunlight now, the area is pruned and ready for a growth pulse. Next to finish up cutting trees on the hillside and mulch the other side of the row.
Hey everyone, I wanted to share a video about reclaiming a zone after it was neglected in management cycles for a little too long and the vines turned into chaos. Delayed management of our agroforestry rows allowed our system to eat itself. With a solid framework and repetitive patterns we can take the chaos and turn it into mulch for our system. These types of systems are resilient even when you delay timing of management cycles and it gets away from you. As long as you take the time and reset it!
We are cropping the passion fruit vine that was planted a few years ago before we had our system set up in that area. Due to this being a crop bringing in some cash flow we have found a way to work with it until we phase it out and replant new vines in an area that wont become a problem.
Plant your vines in an appropriate place, or design systems to be utilized for vines!
For more information about my agroforestry experience check out this link
Let me know if y’all have any questions or thoughts!
Hey everyone! Starting to ramp up our youtube channel. Check out this video and let me know if you have any questions. Please like and share!
Finally sharing a solid update about our syntropic agroforestry system. The rows in this video are 10 months and 1 year old. Based off of a 15 year old fallow on ripped lava flow. Dialing in syntropic systems in different areas can be a challenge, this is my first rock system and this is our home.