Hi Byron, do you have a list of all the seeds you planted together? When I saw how many seeds Ernst Götsch puts into the ground and how many beautiful plants you grow together, it is inspiring!!! I was very inspired by your forest being able to resist frost. My aim is to add way more plants into our system. We are in Brisbane and going with syntropic agroforestry has transformed the energy on our land so much. But I can see the gaps that need to be filled and also like to experience more with perennials like katuk etc and Australian natives/bushtuckers. I saw your new video, that looks so epic where you are now and what you guys are doing over there!!!!
chea buddy! I subbed like 2 years ago and love to see the updates. I'm in Auk currently saving up for a plot up north somewhere, really want to live this life. I really enjoy how specific you are with your process and how you share so much of it. Thanks!
Epic mate, love to hear it! 👏 Lots of great spots up north that keep popping up for a (relatively) reasonable price hey. Definitely lots of potential to love this life, and if you’re really keen possible to make a living from it. Any questions you have just pop them below, glad you’re getting value from things! 🌿
As an arborist I really appreciate your detailed information. Many people forget to give this level of detail on how prune agroforestry systems and how the pruning affects the system and the why
Hell yeah brother 🤝 Love hearing that from an arborist. Super important things to be considering aye! I’ll be uploading a pruning video later in the week from the apical cuts. Have you got an agroforestry system you’re working on?
Also thank you for explaining properly how nitrogen fixing trees work. Many permaculcture videos give people false understanding that you just plant them and they pump nitrogen into your system.
@@byrongrows one day lol I have small food forrest in my front back yard front yard 100m2 & back is 100m2 mixed with lawn for son & dog and fruit trees with ornamental shrubs & native tussocks. I hope one day have time do agroforestry in red zone. For now with edible Streets community programme I started. We plsnning do circle guilds in parks and redzone that will mostly grow wild to there full-size and be low maintaince cause got think cost to council maintain them. If we say its basically zero jusr let them grow and occasionally prune put dead wood as needed like other parks trees.
Hi Byron! Thanks for this awesome video. I just subscribed and look forward to hearing more. Listening to you talk is helping strengthen my resolve to find a way to get some land to work on and learn from. As a flexible and time-rich (but money-scarce) 24 y/o with little experience growing my own food and few people around me who are interested in these kinds of things, having access to others with shared passions is very encouraging and motivating. Thank you!
Thanks William! Cool to have you here 🤝 Hope this and future videos continue enriching your journey into agroforestry! Should have a new video up soon 👍
Awesome video Byron, thanks for the detailed explanation on nitrogen fixing, pruning 👌🏾Hopefully moving back to NZ soon then one day start my own food forest. Just learning and getting ideas at the moment .
I'm going try growing bananas here in chch in wainoni which close to beach so we don't get the heavier friars hornby or Rolleston do. So keen here how your different variety bananas go.
This is the way 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 local florid man here. Much learned and put to use from you, twin falls nursery, agroforestry academy, David The Good etc. Thanks bruv great work!
Super glad you got something out of this & all the other content brother 🤝🤝 An awesome community growing in this space, that’s for sure 🌿 Keep in touch mate -
@@clouda86 I personally wouldn’t swap the two, mostly because comfrey is a sterile perennial that’ll only grow exactly where you plant it - Makes for easy management. Borage will spread via seed
@@byrongrows here in Sicily the borage grows wild and quite well and abundantly. Thanks for this question. For now I think I'll let it grow while I search for other plants such as comfrey. Couple things about the borage: a) it's edible, b) insects/bees love it, c) grows well and provides substantial biomass, d) it has a deep taproot which helps to improve my compacted clay soul, e) is a great companion plant, and f) you can chop and drop before it goes to seed if you don't want it to spread via seed (however for now I'll be letting it self-seed for now). Cheers!
Old growth forests have denser tree rings that create stronger lumber😢. The denser rings are the result of growing up in the understory. This method is genius, strategicly using natural to select the best plants.
Hi, great video. I have a question, maybe you'll show it in a video about pruning. I understand that all pruning will go back to the ground near the trees, but will you shred the bunches/leafs to small pieces or just drop it in the ground?
I'm currently trying to decide whether I should commit to full syntropic agroforestry or stick with a more classic permaculture food forest and this is really tempting me to go high density 😂
@@byrongrows I'll give it a go! I've had a lot of issues with pest pressure from rabbits so I'm hoping the high density will kinda dampen the problems they cause hopefully
Grass is the biggest challenge for me. I’m pulling it by hand and trying to plant cover crops and supporting herbaceous plants in its place. I know it’s a losing battle, very time costly and probably even a complete waste of my time. But I’m just trying to keep the nut sedge, couch and kikua at bay until the other plants can establish well enough to smother it
@@pietsnot7002 I do have 12 chickens but I’m worried they’ll be too destructive to my target and support plants. I think I have won the battle with the grasses now though. Persistence pulling it out by hand for a period of time, compost seeded with cover crops covered with a lot of bana grass biomass and grass clippings seems to have kept it at bay for now.
@@mrpinify l’ve been working with creeping grass in my orchard system and raised beds.. it’s horrible stuff, 2 years ago the raised beds looked clean and l thought that was it, the next year that crap came back with a vengence.. l gave up on the raised beds, too hot and dry here anyway to grow veg.. l’m focusing on my trees now to create that needed shade..
Very nice my friend. I'm a Canadian living in Sicily, Italy and I want to convert a portion of our land away from the 'traditional' tilled/plowed olive orchard towards a regenerative agroforestry system. We also have some fruit trees interspersed. What did you do with the old fruit trees in your orchard? Did you remove any or just incorporated them into the new system?
Incorporated them into the new systems. But I’ve done projects where existing trees are either entirely removed or given a serious reset before installing the new system
awesome video. watching this in waitaha Canterbury. what are some good herbaceous support species that grow well in the temperate south island climate ?
Hoping to find ways to turn hard Clay soil to garden soil ! where there's nothing can grow on it now! I am on small budget. I need to grow supporting and biomass s ecies first. I think banana com Survive on my clay soil... Lots of good tips ! thanks!
You can do it! LOTS of herbaceous organic matter layered on top - Mexican Sunflower, comfrey, Cana Lillies, Queensland arrowroot, Bana grass, etc.. And then start thinking about your tree species, and you'll start to see major differences in no-time
Would you ever consider teaching a class and setting up a food forest here in Morocco Marrakech? I am helping start up an association with locals here and would love to have test plot for people to see difference between monocropping vs agroforestry
Other species like Mexican Sunflower start casting more shade than the grass prefers. Once you start using the material as mulch grass pressure goes away pretty quick
If there are random existing trees and bushes on a site, do you just use them for the biomass in the first transition phase, or is it necessary to replace them with particular legume trees for it to work?
Don't need to be replaced, my biggest reason for removing existing trees/shrubs would be for ease of management (to have tidy + easy to maintain rows). But if you're going more free-form then just continue managing whatever plant community is already there!
Would love see video of doing alley cropping in dairy farms. I'm in chch so that's our main type farming. And heaos farmers are afraid of the costs and the how. There first thing is my stock will eat all the tree saplings
Yeah absolutely! I ought to upload the video from the northland dairy farm where we’ve began adding rows of banana agroforestry systems. Obviously different climate so it wouldn’t be exactly the same, but we’re looking at scaling things up to graze animals between commercial rows of tropical fruits. Lots of potential once the “keeping animals off the young trees” problem is solved for
They could use movable electric fencing and move the cows between the tree lines, a form of alley cropping.. also when it’s time to do a prunning the cows could do a portion of that..
@@zanecrofts7085 l would personaly use temp elec fence to move the animals around the land every day or so and leave them longer where l want more animal impact.. And just plant as many areas as l can 🌵🪴🌴🌲🌳🌻
Greetings, Mr Germany! Climate differences aside, I can't see why anyone WOULDN'T wanna do this. Can understand people who rent might have a hard time, but even backyard-scale agroforestry can be epic! Cheers, from NZ
![how & why to RESET your Food Forest / Syntropic Agroforestry [2023]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GMlyvauGLOU/mqdefault.jpg)
![how & why to RESET your Food Forest / Syntropic Agroforestry [2023]](/img/tr.png)
Leave a comment if you learned anything useful, or have any questions 🤝🌿
You got the timing on that one just right! I love the direction your taking.
Thanks mate!
Nicely done Byron. Keep on iterating and learning. You really seem to have a similar climate to Florida.
So glad I found your channel. I’ve just bought 17 acres in the Waikato and am planning to do all this with it! I’m looking forward to more videos!
Hi Byron, do you have a list of all the seeds you planted together?
When I saw how many seeds Ernst Götsch puts into the ground and how many beautiful plants you grow together, it is inspiring!!!
I was very inspired by your forest being able to resist frost. My aim is to add way more plants into our system. We are in Brisbane and going with syntropic agroforestry has transformed the energy on our land so much. But I can see the gaps that need to be filled and also like to experience more with perennials like katuk etc and Australian natives/bushtuckers.
I saw your new video, that looks so epic where you are now and what you guys are doing over there!!!!
Yes - I'd be interested in a seed list too
chea buddy! I subbed like 2 years ago and love to see the updates. I'm in Auk currently saving up for a plot up north somewhere, really want to live this life. I really enjoy how specific you are with your process and how you share so much of it. Thanks!
Epic mate, love to hear it! 👏 Lots of great spots up north that keep popping up for a (relatively) reasonable price hey. Definitely lots of potential to love this life, and if you’re really keen possible to make a living from it. Any questions you have just pop them below, glad you’re getting value from things! 🌿
As an arborist I really appreciate your detailed information.
Many people forget to give this level of detail on how prune agroforestry systems and how the pruning affects the system and the why
Hell yeah brother 🤝 Love hearing that from an arborist. Super important things to be considering aye!
I’ll be uploading a pruning video later in the week from the apical cuts.
Have you got an agroforestry system you’re working on?
Also thank you for explaining properly how nitrogen fixing trees work. Many permaculcture videos give people false understanding that you just plant them and they pump nitrogen into your system.
@@byrongrows one day lol I have small food forrest in my front back yard front yard 100m2 & back is 100m2 mixed with lawn for son & dog and fruit trees with ornamental shrubs & native tussocks.
I hope one day have time do agroforestry in red zone.
For now with edible Streets community programme I started. We plsnning do circle guilds in parks and redzone that will mostly grow wild to there full-size and be low maintaince cause got think cost to council maintain them. If we say its basically zero jusr let them grow and occasionally prune put dead wood as needed like other parks trees.
Hi Byron! Thanks for this awesome video. I just subscribed and look forward to hearing more. Listening to you talk is helping strengthen my resolve to find a way to get some land to work on and learn from. As a flexible and time-rich (but money-scarce) 24 y/o with little experience growing my own food and few people around me who are interested in these kinds of things, having access to others with shared passions is very encouraging and motivating. Thank you!
Thanks William! Cool to have you here 🤝 Hope this and future videos continue enriching your journey into agroforestry! Should have a new video up soon 👍
Awesome video Byron, love the passion and all your insights! Keep up the good work brother!
Thanks mate! Always love hearing from you & seeing what you’re up to. Keen for another call soon 🤙
Awesome 😎 Just found your channel. We grow a food forest in Australia 🇦🇺 Exciting to watch your journey.
Welcome aboard! Hope to make it out your way before too long - Lots of great agroforestry projects happening out there
Well done man. This is epic. A surprising amount of growth since your first video. Some very good botanical insights in here too, Cheers man
Glad you enjoyed it! Crazy to go back and watch things, even from just six months ago haha. Glad you appreciate the botanical side of things too!
Awesome video Byron, thanks for the detailed explanation on nitrogen fixing, pruning 👌🏾Hopefully moving back to NZ soon then one day start my own food forest. Just learning and getting ideas at the moment .
Very cool, glad you enjoyed the detailed explanation!
I'm going try growing bananas here in chch in wainoni which close to beach so we don't get the heavier friars hornby or Rolleston do.
So keen here how your different variety bananas go.
This is the way 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 local florid man here. Much learned and put to use from you, twin falls nursery, agroforestry academy, David The Good etc. Thanks bruv great work!
Super glad you got something out of this & all the other content brother 🤝🤝 An awesome community growing in this space, that’s for sure 🌿 Keep in touch mate -
love that emotional land connection
very interesting and inspiring- I can't wait to try this on my own land here in Serbia
Wow! How amazing! So many questions sprung to mind watching this. Such a pleasure to watch 😁
Love to hear it mate! 🤝🌿 Any questions just leave them here & I’ll do my best to answer
@@byrongrows could i use borage in place of comfrey? I have tonnes that have self sown in my veggie garden.
@@clouda86 I personally wouldn’t swap the two, mostly because comfrey is a sterile perennial that’ll only grow exactly where you plant it - Makes for easy management. Borage will spread via seed
@@byrongrows hence the reason i am battling it throughout my vege gardens hahaha🤣 Thanks for the reply.
@@byrongrows here in Sicily the borage grows wild and quite well and abundantly. Thanks for this question. For now I think I'll let it grow while I search for other plants such as comfrey. Couple things about the borage: a) it's edible, b) insects/bees love it, c) grows well and provides substantial biomass, d) it has a deep taproot which helps to improve my compacted clay soul, e) is a great companion plant, and f) you can chop and drop before it goes to seed if you don't want it to spread via seed (however for now I'll be letting it self-seed for now). Cheers!
Old growth forests have denser tree rings that create stronger lumber😢. The denser rings are the result of growing up in the understory. This method is genius, strategicly using natural to select the best plants.
Terrific video. thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
❤ Thank you Byron 😄 for being an inspiration to everyone ❤
😉 Greetings and blessings friend🙏
Haha thanks Dilan! Glad you enjoyed 🤝🤝
Hi, great video. I have a question, maybe you'll show it in a video about pruning. I understand that all pruning will go back to the ground near the trees, but will you shred the bunches/leafs to small pieces or just drop it in the ground?
Thanks! Yeah I’ll show during the Pruning video but yes / Just chopping and dropping. Not mulching except for certain exceptions with large material
I'm currently trying to decide whether I should commit to full syntropic agroforestry or stick with a more classic permaculture food forest and this is really tempting me to go high density 😂
Go for it! Even as a trial area
@@byrongrows I'll give it a go! I've had a lot of issues with pest pressure from rabbits so I'm hoping the high density will kinda dampen the problems they cause hopefully
Grass is the biggest challenge for me. I’m pulling it by hand and trying to plant cover crops and supporting herbaceous plants in its place.
I know it’s a losing battle, very time costly and probably even a complete waste of my time.
But I’m just trying to keep the nut sedge, couch and kikua at bay until the other plants can establish well enough to smother it
If you can get enough mulch to cover the soil afterwards, you could let animals kill the grass for you, ie chickens or pigs..
@@pietsnot7002 I do have 12 chickens but I’m worried they’ll be too destructive to my target and support plants.
I think I have won the battle with the grasses now though. Persistence pulling it out by hand for a period of time, compost seeded with cover crops covered with a lot of bana grass biomass and grass clippings seems to have kept it at bay for now.
@@mrpinify l’ve been working with creeping grass in my orchard system and raised beds.. it’s horrible stuff, 2 years ago the raised beds looked clean and l thought that was it, the next year that crap came back with a vengence.. l gave up on the raised beds, too hot and dry here anyway to grow veg.. l’m focusing on my trees now to create that needed shade..
Great videos mate. With the Eucalypts at 1m, are they intended to be climax trees or will some be removed as the other species develop?
they'll get removed as time goes on - to be used either as poles for structures around the property, firewood or just mulch
Very nice my friend. I'm a Canadian living in Sicily, Italy and I want to convert a portion of our land away from the 'traditional' tilled/plowed olive orchard towards a regenerative agroforestry system. We also have some fruit trees interspersed. What did you do with the old fruit trees in your orchard? Did you remove any or just incorporated them into the new system?
Incorporated them into the new systems. But I’ve done projects where existing trees are either entirely removed or given a serious reset before installing the new system
Sounds like a cool context 👏
awesome video. watching this in waitaha Canterbury. what are some good herbaceous support species that grow well in the temperate south island climate ?
Comfrey will be a major one for you in that climate
Hoping to find ways to turn hard Clay soil to garden soil ! where there's nothing can grow on it now! I am on small budget. I need to grow supporting and biomass s ecies first. I think banana com Survive on my clay soil... Lots of good tips ! thanks!
You can do it! LOTS of herbaceous organic matter layered on top - Mexican Sunflower, comfrey, Cana Lillies, Queensland arrowroot, Bana grass, etc.. And then start thinking about your tree species, and you'll start to see major differences in no-time
Great videos man! Love what you are doing ❤
Width of rows?? Could be any problems if the row is/gets too wide?
Thanks! If things get “too wide” just means it’s time for some chop & drop management 🤝
Would you ever consider teaching a class and setting up a food forest here in Morocco Marrakech? I am helping start up an association with locals here and would love to have test plot for people to see difference between monocropping vs agroforestry
Which species we can you use instead of Mexican sunflower?
Yo brother love this I'm in Whakatane 🤙
Isn't eucalyptus allelopathic?? How do you plan to deal with this
how do you go about stopping the grass from smothering things?
Other species like Mexican Sunflower start casting more shade than the grass prefers. Once you start using the material as mulch grass pressure goes away pretty quick
If there are random existing trees and bushes on a site, do you just use them for the biomass in the first transition phase, or is it necessary to replace them with particular legume trees for it to work?
Don't need to be replaced, my biggest reason for removing existing trees/shrubs would be for ease of management (to have tidy + easy to maintain rows). But if you're going more free-form then just continue managing whatever plant community is already there!
@@byrongrows Thanks, that's a relief, as I have to work with large plants already on site. 🙂
Have you ever looked into the work of mark Shepard?
He’s a legend. He was a huge foundation of my learnings
Would love see video of doing alley cropping in dairy farms. I'm in chch so that's our main type farming. And heaos farmers are afraid of the costs and the how. There first thing is my stock will eat all the tree saplings
Yeah absolutely! I ought to upload the video from the northland dairy farm where we’ve began adding rows of banana agroforestry systems. Obviously different climate so it wouldn’t be exactly the same, but we’re looking at scaling things up to graze animals between commercial rows of tropical fruits.
Lots of potential once the “keeping animals off the young trees” problem is solved for
They could use movable electric fencing and move the cows between the tree lines, a form of alley cropping.. also when it’s time to do a prunning the cows could do a portion of that..
@pietsnot7002 exactly and they even got the electric collars now so they can make invisible fences around tree rows
@@zanecrofts7085 ohh yeah l heard about those.. l wonder if they come out cheaper than a fence though..? Imagen having to buy like 300 of those 🤪
@@zanecrofts7085 l would personaly use temp elec fence to move the animals around the land every day or so and leave them longer where l want more animal impact.. And just plant as many areas as l can 🌵🪴🌴🌲🌳🌻
🙌
What is the type of eucalyptus you use?
A diversity, but my favourite is Nitens
Irrigation???
Nonexistent 👍 Did hand-watering for the first two weeks while each row was establishing, and nothing after that
I think a lot of people would like to do what you are doing. The Problem for me is that i dont habe the Space.
Greetings from germany
Greetings, Mr Germany! Climate differences aside, I can't see why anyone WOULDN'T wanna do this. Can understand people who rent might have a hard time, but even backyard-scale agroforestry can be epic! Cheers, from NZ
Does he water no right
Correct
Please slow down.. The machine gun delivery is tiring. Less of you more of overlay.. Let the video breathe.. 🙄
are you hiring?