Subject: Re: Applications [strip crops]

From: "Permaculture West" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 1997 04:02:22 -0700

I've found the idea of sowing deliberately chosen weed seeds into existing
pasture or naturally weedy areas interesting.  I've often pondered this
same tactic as a means of enhancing forage for my goats and cows.  However,
the area where my animals range is predominantly covered with reed canary
grass.  For anyone not familiar with this plant, it is extremely invasive,
aggressive, and dominating in any ecosystem it invades.  I've chosen to
range my animals across this area as a means of succeeding the grass.  My
hope is that the animals will constantly graze this grass while
simultaneously enriching the soil with their poop thus setting the stage
for the next succession of plants to take over (i.e. the perennial
herbs/weeds).  As this is my first chance to experiment with such a
"controlled transition" I am not sure how long the evolution will take. 
This has prompted me to consider forcing the succession somewhat by
attempting to sow certain weed seeds into the area.  I'm not real keen on
tilling as this isn't very good for the soil and doesn't hamper the canary
grass whatsoever.  Has anyone experimented with canary grass control and/or
sowing alternate crops (i.e. weeds) into it?
	On another note...would spreading mineral amendments on top of grassy,
weedy, or otherwise untilled areas be anywhere as effective as working it
into the soil or is this a complete waste of time and resources?  I have
some trees planted into a pasture and am considering mineralizing the whole
area as opposed to each individual tree.  I assume the minerals will still
find their way into the soil and be used by the trees.

Kirk Hanson
C/O Permaculture West
72 Mattson Rd.
Oakville, WA 98568
ph./fx. (360) 273-7117
e-mail: [email-masked]

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From: "April Sampson-Kelly" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 1997 11:14:54 +1000

The difference between strip farming with poultry free range in between the
strips
and actually using tractors-  is the concentration of birds on the soil,
this concentration can quickly denude an
area which is open to weed seed or your seed.  
This is desirable for intensive beds but may be a unnecessary for large
scale farming. 
When I use the chickens in a small concentration here I am left with woody
plants and sedges and a mix of less tasty plants (tasty for hens) but there
is a wider control of pests such as insects, caterpillars, slugs and
snails.
For orchard maintenance you could use 100 birds to the acre [Mollison] it
all depends on how much understorey or ground cover
there is for the birds to eat.
The greatest risk is soil loss and permaculture is about upmost soil and
water conservation.

I would consider the options with the least amount of management and energy
for you, the farmer.

Permaculture is really about observation and confidence in trying things, 
Why not divide the birds up into a couple of test runs,
and find what really works for you, then hopefully you'll be kind to share
it with us.

All the best.

April Sampson-Kelly  [email-masked]
www.ozemail.com.au/~askpv
My space can make this world a better place

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> From: Lawrence F. London, Jr. <[email-masked]>
> To: [email-masked]
> Subject: Re: Applications [strip crops]
> Date: Wednesday, October 08, 1997 6:36 AM
> 
> 
> On Tue, 7 Oct 1997, Mike Skinner wrote:
>  
> > Pardon me, in advance,
> >     But could a poor educated peasant farmer like myself get an
> > answer to my "animal tractor on strip cropped" question or is this
> > not the appropriate forum?
> 
> Now that's an interesting concept: strip cropping (as opposed
> to row crops, broadcast sowings (i.e. greens, cover/forage crops)
> no-till raised bed cropping). This sounds like a quick and possibly
> effective way to prepare an area for later preparation of raised beds.
> Take an area, weed seed bank and all, cut over existing weeds, distribute
> soil amendments/compost, digging fork/spade fork/U-Bar dig the area
> quickly, plant crop seeds. In the above example forage crops intended for
> chickens would be planted. Weeds would be allowed to regrow/germinate
> then be thinned or removed depending on appropriateness/usefullness or
> whether they are part of a guild or have companion, biocontrol, medicinal
> or food use. Strip cropping would give you an excellent opportunity to
> sample your weed seed bank and experiment with integrating various weeds
> into your permanent cropping schemes, whether they be row, raised bed or
> strip. You would also have the opportunity to see which weeds are good
> forage crops for chickens and then start saving their seeds for planting
> ahead of the path of the chicken tractor. If they like weeds that
> are miners of subsoil-located nutrients, all the better.
> 
> Re: Bill Mollison: I agree with Jack that Bill's writings and teachings
> should, by example, encourage aspiring permaculturists to find solutions
> for themselves in the regions where they are working, using his methods
> when applicable. 
> 
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>  Lawrence F. London, Jr. - InterGarden - Venaura Farm
>  mailto:[email-masked] - mailto:[email-masked]
>  http://sunSITE.unc.edu/InterGarden
>  http://sunSITE.unc.edu/InterGarden/permaculture.html
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 10:12:13 -0400 (EDT)

Strip cropping is now an accepted conservation practice. You can learn about
it from the Cooperative Extension Service in the USA. The original post,
again if my failing memory serves correctly, varied from standard strip
cropping by specifying strips of UNIFORM WIDTH.  Naturally, strips on contour
are of differing widths.  The good reasons for putting strips on contour are
of course lost, but still, if the strips are even approximately at right
angles to slope, it should be better than whole field cultivation.  

For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since
1982), Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and now correspondence
courses via email.  Next starts in Oct. 1997. Internships available.
Copyright, 1997, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway, P.O. Box 52, Sparr FL 32192 USA
 [email-masked]  

We don't have time to rush.

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 11:54:16 -0400 (EDT)

In a message dated 10/9/97 9:33:52 AM, [email-masked] (April

>and find what really works for you, then hopefully you'll be kind to share

This is very similar to what I do with poultry.  The 100 birds per acre thing
is obviously questionable--breed, climate, soil, and vegetation type all are
factors that can raise or lower the threshold.  Morever, a much smaller
concetration of birds will denude the area around the water supply and the
coop.  I always put water supply under a favored tree and the area around the
coop gate is a good place to grow Opuntia spp for nopalis.  When we use
chickens FOR defoliation of an area, we continually add mulch, first because
it protects the soil and second, because it attractes invertebrates that
chickens then eat.  And you have mulch ready to plant through.  It needs to
be said, though maybe it is obvious, that when poultry are used to defoliate
they need supplemental feed.

I'm intereasted on hexagonal arrays for poultry forage with the coop and the
permanent deep mulch in the center hexagon and the foraging limited to one of
the adjacent hexagons (there are six more).  The outer permieter can be
circular to save a few percent on fencing.  Seven forage areas give plenty of
time for an area to recover.  Yet if, say an insect infestation crops up,
they can be let into any one forage area, immediately, without moving
anything.  In my view this system is not suitable for steep ground.  We are
seriously considering it for very lightly contoured land here where some
areas get flooded from time to time.  These would be in chicken-fallow.
 There is no reason not to grow grain for chickens in the forages when
chickens are out, or other crops and agroforestry naturally fits in.  My
chickens really don't like to come out from under the trees and I have wasted
grain trying to entice them into certain open areas to break up bovine manure
pats for fly control.  They just left the grain there, much to the delight of
the cardinals and other wild birds.