peter le grand

I am looking at something similar. The issue here is the availability of Bentonite. So far, I can only get 2 versions. One is sodium bentonite with a mix of polymer. And the other is Calcium Bentonite. I tried both on small scale. The calcium bentonite doesn't hold water. The Sodium Bentonite with Polymer mix does. But I wonder how bad this polymer mix is for the environment. Any ideas on this?

Hi Permies,

We just created a website that is a database where people can post their experiences with crops. All experiences are classified by crop, soil, climate, and country. By this classification, visitors to the site can easily find relevant information.

We have just completed the framework (200+ crops, 50+ countries, 30+ climates, 6 soils)

Can you help us and the community with this resource by start posting in this database.

We hope by your posts the community can gain knowledge for their areas of interest.

Please post you experience at www.CombiCulture.com

You can find an explanation on how to sign up and post at:
http://combiculture.com/introduction-to-combiculture

We are waiting for you at combiculture website, please join us now.

Peter


By the way, if you have a lot of stories we can upload them for you.

Just got a pricelist from a nearby agriculture focused university for doing soil analysis. But I am wondering once I do this soil analysis, what to grow. What I am actually looking at is the following:

1. What is the most ideal soil composition? They for example will test pH, EC, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Zn, Mn, Fe, Cu. So what would be the ideal values of these measurements anyway.

2. What should I grow to get to good soil and thus good values?

Any suggestions? I just enjoy working on the land but don't know much about this kind of stuff.

Thanks,

Peter

I plan to dig a pond (or actually ask some people with the right equipment to dig it). Will be about 20 by 20 meter. The only question is how do I seal that so the water stays in? The earth is rather loose sand on a deeper level. For the rest, the area is slightly sloped (5%). I hope to catch some water from the neighbors who doesn't do any water management and a lot of the water is coming from there.

Finally, just for your information, I live in Thailand. The land is in the mountains in the North near Chiang Mai. So there are 2 to 3 seasons. A rainy season in which it rains a few hours per day. A cold season is about 30C (86F) day time and at night 15C (59F). the last season is the summer. At day it will be around 38C (100F) and at night 25C (75F). Each season takes about 4 month.

Any suggestions how to seal a pond? I wouldn't like to do it with concrete or plastic.

Thanks,

Peter

here are some images:
1. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-X_MwDgTm17MkJQbzdhdExRekpYTks3SG93ZWl6RVpZUjRv/edit?usp=sharing
This shows the main area of the land. About 150 meter far and about 60 meter wide

1. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-X_MwDgTm17Y2FsUjFzSlRBdVRnSy1RTENhdGRpV2FPWUVJ/edit?usp=sharing
The bambo fence is the end of the land. The houses thus are not part of the land

1. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-X_MwDgTm17allydG0zQ1lwbWxsZjNkTFBMTHFIcjR5MXIw/edit?usp=sharing
This big tree is part of the land as well including a part of the land behind the tree. Also behind the tree is a creek

Thanks very much for the good ideas. This was actually exactly the practical information that I was looking for. Btw, where are you located? And do you have a farm as well?

Peter

Last weekend, we just bought 1 hectare of land and would like to start a small permaculture project on this. Maybe the land is not ideal but will try anyway. The land lis located in the North of Thailand about 50 km outside of Chiang Mai. It is located in the mountains. The area is about 150 times 60 meters and has a slope of about 6 degrees. The long side of the area goes from top to bottom, thus the narrow side goes along the slope. At the bottom of the land is a small creek that probably always has some water though in the rainy season, it will probably have a lot of water. Also, I expect that during the rainy season, there will be some water flow from the agriculture fields that are above this area.
Currently, there is not much growing on it. I'm not sure at the moment on more details on the soil.
So I'm wondering what to grow first in order to develop the soil. people told me that bananas are good. Though I think it should be a combination of several plants.
Also the land doesn't have any gullies or something like that it is a rather flat 6degrees slope. So I was wondering if I should put in a couple of swales and a pond. Like I mentioned, I expect to have some catch of water during the rainy season.
I would like to do these things soon as the rainy season is starting and would like to use that already this year.

If anyone has any idea, please let me know.

Thanks,

Peter