I just saw that you came to Brazil. I think it's really cool that you're already spreading the knowledge and even the seeds. I love your enthusiasm for agroforestry.
Fair Play brother. Great work and savage MST hat!! Im a Brazilian doing syntropic agroforestry in Ireland for the last 5 years now... If you are ever up this way give us a shout!! Haux
Shocking the system makes the forest really boom into bloom. I'm a bit scared of heavy pruning. But I get it, the hormones need activation and communication to flow through the root system.
Ernst Gotsch and other Syntropic people often talk about giberellic acid. I recently found this paper ( www.nature.com/articles/s41589-023-01462-8.pdf ) that imo suggests methyl-jasmonate as a culprit. It is released by plants in response to herbivory (or pruning!?) and as a volatile organic compound it can travel through the air and is easily dispersed through soil
Byron, your videos have been a huge inspiration! I started my agroforestry system last month on the Pacific Coast from Colombia. Thanks for the good nrg! Greetings!
@@byrongrows The conditions are really unique: 5m altitude, 6750mm3 of water a year!!! Hot and humid as it can be! I'm doing a video about the process and will post it, tagg you and reference your channel. You are a great educator.
Look into jack bean as a plant to put under ypur fruit trees ... they grow very quick and are abundant in leafy material and add nitrogen to the soil aswell good chop and drop
I highly recommend fo your climate this species, they are all fast growing nice to regrow : Tagasaste, Acacia longifolia, elderberry, grevillea robusta, Myoporum laetum, Tipuana tipu
Thank you Sir amazing job I have learnt allot. I have one question. What about the Manure? You spoke about windstorm and briefly about the roles being played by animals. But really if you think of the work you are doing is simulating an animal that is not there, Such as an Elephant. An elephant would walk in rip down trees drop leaf litter and manure and then move on. What are you using for Manure fertilisation?
Great comment. If I had large animals here, I’d be incorporating manures for sure. We’re also certified organic, which makes that tricker when sourcing from outside the property
Hey Byron. What kind of banana are you growing and how hardy is it? I'm curious to try if one could survive in a big greenhouse at 55N temperate maritime climate. CHeers. and thanks in particular for your video of your trip to Brazil. Awesome info.
Great video man! Thank you for sharing all this knowledge! But I must say something about the group that gave him that red hat, the mst is unfortunately a very violent and oppressive paramilitary group, they destroy and threaten any farmer who disagrees (especially small family farms), and there are many people within the group who they were silenced and robbed because of their feudal system that does not allow workers to own land. So be aware of this when using your symbols
Appreciate the feedback - Can’t speak to anything but my own personal experience. Some of the friendliest & most generous people I met were involved with the MST movement. I’m sure there’s folks involved who aren’t like that too.
@@byrongrows I don't know about your politics, and that doesn't matter here, but MST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra / Landless Rural Workers' Movement) is one of the biggest (if not THE biggest), more organized and respected social movements in Brazil, which fight for the right to the land (theoretically guaranteed by our Constitution), food sovereignty, access to healthy food for everyone etc., all of that within a broader view of an sovereign, just and egalitarian country. Its origins goes back to the late 1970's, still during the civilian-military dictatorship, and was formally founded in 1984, in the south of Brazil. A great number of its members along its history were murdered be it by state repression, be it by militias formed by big landowners (and it is still happening up to date; just this month at least 3 rural workers members of MST or organized by them were assassinated). Saying MST is a paramilitary group is absolutely laughable for any minimally informed person in Brazil, it is just a plain lie. This person up above are just a far-right sc****g. I'm really glad you had the opportunity to engaged with some people of the movement.
I want to compliment you, the Brazil trip and this video... you really put the work in on formatting them and they are super high quality. Your presentation and pace has come forward as well. I'm also trying to get into this and put up videos in Kenya to ultimately showcase the power of agroforestry's potential. I have one teacher here fortunately, but don't you also do classes on your site?
I'll have it up on our channel in the future, but right now it's just biomass and cover crops establishing. About to plant eucalyptus, banana, leguminous trees and try to figure it out. I'm still learning how to choose and how to space species on the rows so I'm not quite doing it in the right order but the end result will hopefully be the same once I get it all together. It's within a few weeks or months of each planting@@byrongrows
Incredible! I’ve loved following along with your progress. I know you’re in NZ but what would the USDA growing zone be? Have you thought about creating a syntropic system back in Oregon? I’m in Washington with a year old food forest, focusing on finding cold hardy tropicals. Have 8 varieties of bananas, citrus, mountain papaya, hardy sugar cane, the list goes on.. Always get stoked watching your videos, keep them coming!!
Wow,i really loved this video, so much useful information!!! Thanks so much! I'm designing a small patch at the moment, and I'm wondering about the width of your pathways and treelines. I'm in the Netherlands. Also wondering what months of your season you are pruning? So in spring, would you prune in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd month of spring? And the second time, if there is a second pruning?
Glad you enjoyed it! Pathways vary from 3-4m between tree lines. Would love to see more agroforestry in NL. I’m generally pruning my heaviest at the very start of spring, and doing lighter prunes more regularly. Then another large summer prune
@@byrongrows great, thanks! There's a movement going on at the moment here with the food forests. We started 5 years ago, and especially in my province, they're popping up everywhere, so nice! Syntropic isn't very known here yet, I know of 2 that were planted like that. But hey, more trees in the ground, no matter what type of food forest, is good, right! Keep up the good work, thanks again!
Kia ora Byron, I'm in Kaitaia in the Far North. Looking to transform a number of garden spaces that i am currently working with. At home, I have a small lawn orchard that I inherited from previous owners, I started by building and planting guilds around the fruit trees - the trees have since tripled in size and now I want to apply the syntropic method. It will take a bit of tweaking... Do I need to heavily prune my existing feijoa, apple, peaches, guava and citrus to introduce more plants into the system? There are definitely gaps to be filled but the current trees are dominating
I have always heard that you should never mulch right up to the trunk of any tree because a tree with a buried (therefore damp) trunk will get diseases. Does this principle only apply to mature trees?
This is true - Mostly when only using wood chips & mounding up the trunk. Here we’ve got coarse material, which leaves lots of air gaps and very little direct contact to rot trees
Great info on the hormones and biomass, microbes etc. But im sn Arbourist and work daily with trees and thd waning moon theory idnt true. The only time trees have less sap in tree is when they are dormant and all goes down store in their roots. Some trees like birch and figs will bleed heavy pruning in spring because of they have alot of sap rising
Great videos. I'm doing the same thing on the big I Hawaii. What is the purpose of planting your keeper trees so close together or do you move them later which also seems counterproductive?
15 years from now it would be too much, but right now, not necessarily. You want and need the most organic matter production possible, so you use the space (and fertility) that would otherwise remain underutilized for many years until the trees of primary interest got bigger. So you "overplant", prune over and over again, and over time you select the trees that stay and the ones you cut down, based on which growed better, which is more healthy, which is best positioned, which has the correct amount of light for that species in that specific spot, which showed the best genetics etc. Over time, some of the trees will almost "ask" to leave, either for having a shorter lifespan or for not being adapted to the increasing shade. Occupying the soil with more roots will benefit its life too, and even when at some point you cut down a tree, its roots will stay in the soil, slowly decomposing, releasing nutrients, increasing carbon content of the soil and helping to prevent compaction.
When you talk about species succession and youre listing all the plants within 1 meter, will all those young trees have enough space for when they mature ?they seem so densely packed ,wont that effect the growth of the less dominant species?
Considering planting anuals or super fast crops like radishes after an intervention like that? I´m thinking in the amount of money you can save and or generate from cuttings? Every part from the trees can be transform into cutting except to big logs in an nursery like place?
Millettia pinnata is a good candidate. If I remember correctly the Indonesian government forestry agencies promote its planting. It grows very fast and flowers very early. A good nectar source for bees and its beans are a source of an oil. Nitrogen fixing species should be inoculated with Rhizobacteria culture you really wanted them to fix Nitrogen, that way it’s assured instead of chance.
@@k.3004 I've noticed some of these pod producing plants on the lands around. When I looked it up I saw that there are some options for oil/biodiesel plants as well. Interesting idea for subsistence farmers with very difficult land to manage i.e. steep/subject to landslide/monkeys that eat crops etc.
The strata, refers to the amount of sunlight the plant needs. So grass is high/emergent in some cases because they often can’t grow in shade. Coffee and Cacao are shade tolerant, I’m not sure with Loquats.
The plants Love disturb, ernest saw after a small or kind of hurricane in his farm how trees "damaged" grew heathy and strong. Do not be afraid, of course there are better ways for each plant.
OK I've watched a few of your videos so far and subbed. Suggestions: first rule of photography is to point the camera AWAY from the sun. The sun should be behind the photographer, with the camera pointed at the plants. Not behind you shining into the camera. You give a great deal of information, but the viewer is starving to see the exact work going on. Yes you are handsome. We want to see the PLANTS and the WORK, not your face. The music is unnecessary and distracting. Thank you.
With so much org material, aren't you creating favorable conditions for wildfire? I think having some sylvopastoral activity is missing at this stage to consume psrt of the org material while creating manure. No?
i love what you do, but for some trees like the 100 year old! plum tree other interventions are necessary to prolong its life and therefore create and safe habitat for countless species that depend on the tree. with wounds like this the tree will die within a few years. it wont be able to close these big wounds... syntropic agroforestry should not become dogmatic.
![heal the land by growing food - Syntropic Agroforestry / Brazil [2023]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vGqhlnCxkQE/mqdefault.jpg)
One most important thing i love in this video is the beautiful sounds of birds. They signify Life in the forest. Well done
Thank you
I adore the author for his crystal clear English with good diction, and the topic of agroforestry itself is TOP for me!
Thank you so much for sharing, it's really a pleasure watching your videos
THANK YOU! Glad you’re enjoying them
Thanks Byron,
This is the best explanation of syntropics I've seen so far. Looking forward to trying these techniques.
I just saw that you came to Brazil. I think it's really cool that you're already spreading the knowledge and even the seeds. I love your enthusiasm for agroforestry.
Fair Play brother. Great work and savage MST hat!! Im a Brazilian doing syntropic agroforestry in Ireland for the last 5 years now... If you are ever up this way give us a shout!! Haux
This is absolutely great content, thanks for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Awesome stuff, people could learn alot how nature bounces back after a heavy prune.
Absolutely!
Shocking the system makes the forest really boom into bloom. I'm a bit scared of heavy pruning. But I get it, the hormones need activation and communication to flow through the root system.
And also through the air!
@@nicosemenova3595 everyday is a school day. Thanks dude. Any idea what the hormones are passed through the air?
Ernst Gotsch and other Syntropic people often talk about giberellic acid. I recently found this paper ( www.nature.com/articles/s41589-023-01462-8.pdf ) that imo suggests methyl-jasmonate as a culprit. It is released by plants in response to herbivory (or pruning!?) and as a volatile organic compound it can travel through the air and is easily dispersed through soil
But of course there are probably many variables at play!
que bien va tu bosque que hermoso, gracias por tanta informacion
Byron, your videos have been a huge inspiration! I started my agroforestry system last month on the Pacific Coast from Colombia. Thanks for the good nrg! Greetings!
Love to hear that! Would love to visit that region someday
@@byrongrows The conditions are really unique: 5m altitude, 6750mm3 of water a year!!! Hot and humid as it can be! I'm doing a video about the process and will post it, tagg you and reference your channel. You are a great educator.
Great video! And I loved the MST cap! 🙂🌱🖖🏽
Grande professor, ótimo material pra aprender agrofloresta. parabéns Byron
muito obrigado meu irmão! ansioso para vê-lo novamente no futuro
Great knowledge being shared here. Thank you!
My pleasure!
Look into jack bean as a plant to put under ypur fruit trees ... they grow very quick and are abundant in leafy material and add nitrogen to the soil aswell good chop and drop
Thx Byron, mega video.
My pleasure!
The Lord of the vineyard Giveth. The Lord of the vineyard taketh away.
Blessed be the name of God.
Grate job brother keep it up.
Incredible.
Wow! Have i seen Kikuyu grass! Awesome!
Great video , Thank you . Keep the good work.
Thanks for watching!
I highly recommend fo your climate this species, they are all fast growing nice to regrow : Tagasaste, Acacia longifolia, elderberry, grevillea robusta, Myoporum laetum, Tipuana tipu
Thank you Sir amazing job I have learnt allot. I have one question. What about the Manure? You spoke about windstorm and briefly about the roles being played by animals. But really if you think of the work you are doing is simulating an animal that is not there, Such as an Elephant. An elephant would walk in rip down trees drop leaf litter and manure and then move on. What are you using for Manure fertilisation?
Great comment. If I had large animals here, I’d be incorporating manures for sure. We’re also certified organic, which makes that tricker when sourcing from outside the property
But you’re spot on about mimicking an elephants ecological role in a forest
love this content. thank u
Glad you enjoy it!
Hey Byron. What kind of banana are you growing and how hardy is it? I'm curious to try if one could survive in a big greenhouse at 55N temperate maritime climate. CHeers. and thanks in particular for your video of your trip to Brazil. Awesome info.
Great video man! Thank you for sharing all this knowledge! But I must say something about the group that gave him that red hat, the mst is unfortunately a very violent and oppressive paramilitary group, they destroy and threaten any farmer who disagrees (especially small family farms), and there are many people within the group who they were silenced and robbed because of their feudal system that does not allow workers to own land. So be aware of this when using your symbols
Appreciate the feedback - Can’t speak to anything but my own personal experience. Some of the friendliest & most generous people I met were involved with the MST movement. I’m sure there’s folks involved who aren’t like that too.
@@byrongrows I don't know about your politics, and that doesn't matter here, but MST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra / Landless Rural Workers' Movement) is one of the biggest (if not THE biggest), more organized and respected social movements in Brazil, which fight for the right to the land (theoretically guaranteed by our Constitution), food sovereignty, access to healthy food for everyone etc., all of that within a broader view of an sovereign, just and egalitarian country. Its origins goes back to the late 1970's, still during the civilian-military dictatorship, and was formally founded in 1984, in the south of Brazil. A great number of its members along its history were murdered be it by state repression, be it by militias formed by big landowners (and it is still happening up to date; just this month at least 3 rural workers members of MST or organized by them were assassinated). Saying MST is a paramilitary group is absolutely laughable for any minimally informed person in Brazil, it is just a plain lie. This person up above are just a far-right sc****g. I'm really glad you had the opportunity to engaged with some people of the movement.
I want to compliment you, the Brazil trip and this video... you really put the work in on formatting them and they are super high quality. Your presentation and pace has come forward as well. I'm also trying to get into this and put up videos in Kenya to ultimately showcase the power of agroforestry's potential. I have one teacher here fortunately, but don't you also do classes on your site?
Appreciate that feedback - Would love to see video of Agroforestry in Kenya
Yes, I run one or two courses here each year
I'll have it up on our channel in the future, but right now it's just biomass and cover crops establishing. About to plant eucalyptus, banana, leguminous trees and try to figure it out. I'm still learning how to choose and how to space species on the rows so I'm not quite doing it in the right order but the end result will hopefully be the same once I get it all together. It's within a few weeks or months of each planting@@byrongrows
Incredible! I’ve loved following along with your progress. I know you’re in NZ but what would the USDA growing zone be? Have you thought about creating a syntropic system back in Oregon? I’m in Washington with a year old food forest, focusing on finding cold hardy tropicals. Have 8 varieties of bananas, citrus, mountain papaya, hardy sugar cane, the list goes on.. Always get stoked watching your videos, keep them coming!!
That’s awesome! In 10a here. Haven’t considered going back, but would be awesome to see what’s possible out there!
Amazing work! I have a question: Does this forest have any irrigation systems?
Thank you! Love your work
Wow,i really loved this video, so much useful information!!! Thanks so much!
I'm designing a small patch at the moment, and I'm wondering about the width of your pathways and treelines. I'm in the Netherlands.
Also wondering what months of your season you are pruning? So in spring, would you prune in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd month of spring? And the second time, if there is a second pruning?
Glad you enjoyed it! Pathways vary from 3-4m between tree lines. Would love to see more agroforestry in NL. I’m generally pruning my heaviest at the very start of spring, and doing lighter prunes more regularly. Then another large summer prune
@@byrongrows great, thanks! There's a movement going on at the moment here with the food forests. We started 5 years ago, and especially in my province, they're popping up everywhere, so nice!
Syntropic isn't very known here yet, I know of 2 that were planted like that. But hey, more trees in the ground, no matter what type of food forest, is good, right!
Keep up the good work, thanks again!
Do you have a video where you describe all the tools recommended/required for syntropic food forest maintenance ?
Great idea
MST cap was lit! Seu comunistinha s2
Kia ora Byron, I'm in Kaitaia in the Far North. Looking to transform a number of garden spaces that i am currently working with. At home, I have a small lawn orchard that I inherited from previous owners, I started by building and planting guilds around the fruit trees - the trees have since tripled in size and now I want to apply the syntropic method. It will take a bit of tweaking... Do I need to heavily prune my existing feijoa, apple, peaches, guava and citrus to introduce more plants into the system? There are definitely gaps to be filled but the current trees are dominating
Hey, What is the best orientation for the tree lines? North/South is the orientation of this ones? Thanks! Keep the great job!
I have always heard that you should never mulch right up to the trunk of any tree because a tree with a buried (therefore damp) trunk will get diseases.
Does this principle only apply to mature trees?
This is true - Mostly when only using wood chips & mounding up the trunk. Here we’ve got coarse material, which leaves lots of air gaps and very little direct contact to rot trees
Great info on the hormones and biomass, microbes etc. But im sn Arbourist and work daily with trees and thd waning moon theory idnt true.
The only time trees have less sap in tree is when they are dormant and all goes down store in their roots.
Some trees like birch and figs will bleed heavy pruning in spring because of they have alot of sap rising
Great videos. I'm doing the same thing on the big I Hawaii. What is the purpose of planting your keeper trees so close together or do you move them later which also seems counterproductive?
15 years from now it would be too much, but right now, not necessarily. You want and need the most organic matter production possible, so you use the space (and fertility) that would otherwise remain underutilized for many years until the trees of primary interest got bigger. So you "overplant", prune over and over again, and over time you select the trees that stay and the ones you cut down, based on which growed better, which is more healthy, which is best positioned, which has the correct amount of light for that species in that specific spot, which showed the best genetics etc. Over time, some of the trees will almost "ask" to leave, either for having a shorter lifespan or for not being adapted to the increasing shade. Occupying the soil with more roots will benefit its life too, and even when at some point you cut down a tree, its roots will stay in the soil, slowly decomposing, releasing nutrients, increasing carbon content of the soil and helping to prevent compaction.
We are ment to take care of the Earth ❤
When you talk about species succession and youre listing all the plants within 1 meter, will all those young trees have enough space for when they mature ?they seem so densely packed ,wont that effect the growth of the less dominant species?
What about termites here in Brisbane
From 1 to 10 how much neccesary you think is a wood chipper?
Absolutely not necessary. Just speeds things up : efficiency
Books in English, from start to finish, where do I get them?
Considering planting anuals or super fast crops like radishes after an intervention like that? I´m thinking in the amount of money you can save and or generate from cuttings? Every part from the trees can be transform into cutting except to big logs in an nursery like place?
Absolutely
What are some tropical nitrogen fixation species that you recommend. I am in Bali and would like to enhance my nitrogen content.
Millettia pinnata is a good candidate. If I remember correctly the Indonesian government forestry agencies promote its planting. It grows very fast and flowers very early. A good nectar source for bees and its beans are a source of an oil. Nitrogen fixing species should be inoculated with Rhizobacteria culture you really wanted them to fix Nitrogen, that way it’s assured instead of chance.
@@k.3004 I've noticed some of these pod producing plants on the lands around. When I looked it up I saw that there are some options for oil/biodiesel plants as well. Interesting idea for subsistence farmers with very difficult land to manage i.e. steep/subject to landslide/monkeys that eat crops etc.
for example with the little logs from the tree lucerne, how would you make cuttings from them?
Those only grow from seed
This has been my Brazil 😅
the little fruit trees and them from seeds or why do you plant them so near instead of more biomass species?
Hi what is the organic carbon percentage in u r syntroic field before 3 years and Now?
Definitely higher. Have ‘before’ soil tests. Haven’t yet done ‘after’
are loquats high or medium strata, for the shape and form of leaves that are very similar to cacao and coffee I think is medium.
I’d imagine they’re happy in the High canopy, but possible could be productive and happy in Medium. Very similar leaves indeed
The strata, refers to the amount of sunlight the plant needs. So grass is high/emergent in some cases because they often can’t grow in shade. Coffee and Cacao are shade tolerant, I’m not sure with Loquats.
What chain bar oil do you use?
Stihl
@@byrongrows I just use canola oil. Any thoughts on it?
what happens if you cut all the leaves or 90% from a banana and let the trunk lives?
The trunk still keeps growing unless you carve into the meristem at the base
wouldn´t be optimal to be doing monthly prunings or every 3 months or something more progressive and not that radical?
The plants Love disturb, ernest saw after a small or kind of hurricane in his farm how trees "damaged" grew heathy and strong. Do not be afraid, of course there are better ways for each plant.
In Brazil we say something like: what dont kill you, make you strong. Sorry for my english.
OK I've watched a few of your videos so far and subbed. Suggestions: first rule of photography is to point the camera AWAY from the sun. The sun should be behind the photographer, with the camera pointed at the plants. Not behind you shining into the camera. You give a great deal of information, but the viewer is starving to see the exact work going on. Yes you are handsome. We want to see the PLANTS and the WORK, not your face. The music is unnecessary and distracting. Thank you.
With so much org material, aren't you creating favorable conditions for wildfire?
I think having some sylvopastoral activity is missing at this stage to consume psrt of the org material while creating manure. No?
i love what you do, but for some trees like the 100 year old! plum tree other interventions are necessary to prolong its life and therefore create and safe habitat for countless species that depend on the tree. with wounds like this the tree will die within a few years. it wont be able to close these big wounds... syntropic agroforestry should not become dogmatic.
Awesome video Just be careful with the MST hat. That group is an extreme left political group ......
Grate job brother keep it up.