Patrick Barmet

Thanks for edeting

Sugsesion for soil improvement

Vegetation develops over time first pioner species arive who prepere the soil pionir species are a very diverce group of flants.
On a flat rock. pioners like moos and lichen will be the first. But if you alredi have luse fine minerals like kley sand gravel the story is a little diffrent. Not only will Moses and liches apper but sl tips of pioneers from herbs to trees. Some species are very good at making nutrients available for others so can eucalyptus exude acid from its roots and dissolve minerals and rocks. Legumes are able to fix nitrogen. Tillia can bring up calcium from deep soil and drop it with it's leavs on the surface. Juglans is known to drop phosphor with its leefs. Oters like celtis are experts in spliting rocks with a force of up to 50kg per cm2 ore 500t per m2 thats why this tree is caled rock spliter in Italy. There are even tropical species witch are able do drill into solid rock via agrasive root exudates. Resulting in finges cized drill hols.
Often under aprichiate is the rool of pine trees on rookie mountain tarain. Wher is not mutch  soil at all. Pintrees cover the rocks with a souer blank of needels witch sped up the widering process of rock and halp form soil and prepere for other species.
The short lifetime of many pioner species is also key to soil formation. As the live of a tree ends it fals over and is coloniced by basidiomycets a clas of mushrooms. This mushrooms not only grow in the wood but also in the area sorounding the wood. So will logs colonized by the auster mushroom colonize the soil in a radius 60cm around the wood. Fungi gave the ability to loosen up al types of compaction and even desolving solid rock. Although this is a slow process. By doing so fungi make the minerals available and transport it to where is needed. Fungi are also able to do nitrogen fixing with the help of bacteria. Fungi are the transport system fo the soil thei build a network across species.
The fungel network whants to maximize photosynteses in a area. To achieve this it transports nutrients but also carbon hydrates directly from one tree species to a other.
suzanne simard describes in here book: "finding the mother tree" how myhorriza fungi transport carbohydrates  from duglas fri to paperbark birch in spring and the oposide direction durring summer.
If a forest comes stagnent and week fungi like armelaria melea take more extreem measures.  This mushrooms is able to kill week trees within week. It set's the reset butom sometimes killing whole forests and making the tree available for soilbulding organisems. In a healthy forest it's presence is hard to detect as it does no harm. As a soil is lacking in organic mater and woody material it can become problematic this often happens in cyti parks ore private gardens.
Treepruning is a rare event in nature mostly do to stormdamage ore fire. The woody matirial resolting from sutch a event are of great benefit for the forest ofer the long run as it will build up soil via fungi. Are trees toped bi a storm the fungal network will help to regrow the trees as fast as possible. But not only will large trees regrow fast after a storm event but also the small trees in the shade will awaken from their sleep and start growing fast. A storm ore topping event interduces a growth impuls in the whole plant community. So that photosynteses is maximiced. Also trees start fruting healthy as now are the optimal conditions to establish their seeds.
Understory plants like  yew often wayt vor centuries for sutch a event to occur. Stormdamage ore Tree topping brings new live to a forest and let's it produce a bounti of fruits. Ernst götsch observed this in his cacao plantation in costarica. The plantation was a forest garden wit many diffrent tree species and cacao as understory After a cyclon toped all tree in a 60m wide strip the trees stardet regrowing fast. But also the cacao respondet very well  to the storm event. The yeald went up by 100% for this seson.
As the storm showed ernst götsch the bennefits of topping trees he does it now annually. The recolting woody material halps to build up soil very quickly also the growt impulse given by the toped trees halps alle plants near by. Ritch topsoil is built at a rate of 1 to 3cm a year. Usuly you can finde topsoil increase bi only 0.5 to 1mm a year acording to scientific literature.

You can use this knolage to improve your soil and make it sutible for demanding tree species. In nature pionis species later followed by other species.
But it's possible to plant stages of succession at once. Even climax species can be planted right from the beginning. The species will start flourishing as soon the soil conditions improfed to there need. Fast growing species will produce larg amount of biomas early on. The topping of this pionere species makes the woody biomasse available early on for the basidiomycets fungi. This will sped up a process witch in nature takes centuries to only a decade or two
fungi will build up soil rapidly.

 Often exotic treespecies can greatly exelerate the process eucalyptus robinia ore ailantus will produce lots of biomas very quickly.  But also alder elm birch and popular do their job well.

Lets do a exeple for central switzerland with deep but biological inactife have soil and about 600mm ore more rainfal.
The species you like to grow are chery plum peach apple walnut oak and chestnut. To start wit you plant the named species. But also next to it silver willo alder elm ash mapels
Birch lime mabey popular but it makes root suckers. Exotics like hippophae salicifolia, pawlonia, gleditsia triacantos, inermis tona sinensis, Xanthoceras sorbifolium sophora japonica ore Morus to name a few.
They are planted in high density about 10plants per m2. From the first year onward you top the pionir species and drop the pruning material. This will maximize growth right from the beggining. With time you will take out more and more of the trees some you let grow tal and topp them at a a high of 5m if you do this with maple fraxinus gleditsia cherry walnut chestnut ore maybe moorus you can produce high quality timber along side.
Some species like willo always regrow from the stump. You can cover it with plastik to prevent  that ore plant them on the side so that you can mow them. Also cow ore seep will love to eat the new shoots and after a wile it will give up.
Brambels also help to improve the soil quality  you can cut them at the beggining. When the soil becomes loos over time and they fufilled ther duty they will be easy to pull.

Benefits of regular pruning

When you prun ore cute Trees/Herbs/Grasses, Plants send a growth impuls to the soil this encourages the growth of al plants en the area. The cute material is cliped ore chiped so  it makes soil contact. Lignine ritch material/wood is food for beneficial fungi from the group of basidiomycets. This fungi produse molecules sutch as vitamines and antibiotics whitch are beneficial to the imunsystem of plants so plants are protected from desise. Also there fruit and leaves have higer mineral protein and vitamin content whitch makes them a lot les attractive to insects and slugs
The role of many insects is to clean up plants and fruit that not fit for human/animal consumption.

The growth impuls consists out of codifide information rootexudates sutch as carbohydrates protein and growt hormons. It tells myhorriza and the soil food web to prepere the nutrients required for rapide new growth.  Plants store lots of carbohydrates in their tissue. Pruning makes the plant release this stored energie to the soilfoodweb  and myhorriza. The mixture of root exudates is fine tuned to encurage only the growth of beneficial microbs and fungi. Myhorriza is able to bracke down stones end extract nutrions from it. The exudates are kinde like the fule in a mining operation. Just more complex and elegant way than mining.
Thats why pruning cutting has more beneficial efect than just mulching with organic material.

If you have lots of woodi material, in alle stages of decay. on the ground. There will be a diverse community of fungis in the ground.
Like earli and late stages the succession in decomposition. This makes it very hard for Pacific fungi sutch as honey mushrooms armilaria to gain food. It's important to feed the soil with woody material regularly

You have the efect only when you top the trees. Then the regrowth will be strongest. But you should not go over the capacity of the tree. The tree has to be able to regrow it's volume with in a vegetation period. Otherwis it's beter to cut on the ground and start from a stump. If a tree is pruned to heavily he is not able to support it's rootsystem with enough asymilates. This will resolt in the rootsystem die back. The same problem you have when you cut herbs and grasses to often ore to deep. Herbs and grasses are redy to cute when first seeds start maturing. A clen cut is necessary for good wound healing and fast recovery

Iregular pruning ore havy topping can severely stress a tree ore even kill it.

If you work with old senescenct trees start slowly.

Fore example fagus acer and fraxinus take wile to activate sleeping buts and form adventife buts onse they to they nan handle a lot of pruning the leav area should be able to recover within a vegetation period.  Fagus can grow 80cm. acer up to 2.5m a year.
You can encurage formation of adventeri buts bi doing a cut about 1cm in the wood this will creat prasure below the cut and stop growt inhibeting hormons from about resolt is the formation of new shoots. In a year ore to you can use this shoots to creat a new crone. This is a useful trick when you deel with old cheery trees as often they loos all shoots in the crone do to shading and you have nowere to brun back.

Heavy pruning in late June and August can force the tree to a second growth. This second growth is not able to mature bevore winter. This can result in heavy frost damege or even the dieing of the tree. Do heavy pfuning from late September late July. But best when tree starts growing in spring.
Ligt pruning, removel of up to 1/3 of leav mather can be done year around. So cherry can be pruned wile harvesting. as often done traditional. If you harvest leav fore fooder ore food do in late spring early sumer. Leave have les fiber and are better digestible. In late sumer many leaves are infected/covered with fungi such leaves are not fit for fodder
Some tree specias as willo you can harvest twice every second year. But if you leve the new shoots ofer winter they will flower in early spring. Flowering buts are easy located as they are meny times as big as leav buts

Here a document how diffrent treespecies react to pruning

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14aF4IVWcaRNSF2qJSJwfo8S9pGfVOauI/view?usp=sharing

Some of my notes from syntropic workshop  with ernst götsch

Condencing whater from the atmosphere.

Droughts  exists only  in your mind. You can use plants to condence whater  from the atmosphere.  When plants are vigorous they can cool them self below  condensation  point at night.  This meen waterwaper starts condensating on there levels. Dew droplets form and running down the levels  where they collected by the rootsystem or just acumylate in soil. Best is you take your flashlight and go outside to nigt. I did this and found a Künigskerze the silvery fluffy leafy of the planet was covered  in dew droplets like perls. Sertendli this process would make amazing time-lapse. You will soon learn which plants ore in witch growth state are accaptional water harvester. So does kardus (Dipsacus fullonum) hold water in its cup like leave. Leavs grow oposite each other. On the lower part of the stamm they  are fused and form a cup around the stamm. Same is true for silphium perfoliatum. Kale is also a axeptional water colector. But this plant guids the water directly to it's rootsystem and storse it there. Its enough whater to survive a drouts. When you plant  a cale next to your treesidling it wil halp establish your trees and help them throug drout.


Vegetatione can be shaped and pruned to encurage the condensation process.  When moist air starts cooling and condencing it's  volume decres.  A faling downward spiral of cooling air es created. Furdar air is drawn towards the plant furder water condencing on the plant.
Multi story planting are effective at this process.  Young vegetation is explicitly effective. Old senescencc fegetation has not the ability to cool itself effective it does condensa mutch water.
Some plants are extremely  effective  in condencing whater sutch as Kale.
You can plant a cabage next to your young tree to water it.

I wonder if you will finde whater flow of the smoot bark of fagus sylvatica. At least wen it rains this tree chanels raindrops down it's  stamm, so during rain you will often finde a little creek flowing down it's stam. Maybe dew will also be sufficient to induce waterflow.

To harvest water  from the atmosphere two things are key. First fegetation neds to be in the growth state so it can cool it's levels below condensation point during night. This is achieved by regular pruning /topping. Grasses and herbs ned to pe cut bevore seeds ripening ore during flowering. This can also be achieved with rotational grazing. In boat cases, sufficient recovery time is key. When it comes to grazing you should graze only fore one day at the same spot then the animals have to move on. After only three days grasses and herbs will start regrowing. If animals still present they will seek out new growth and crippel the plants ability to regrow.  Even a few animals on a large area are sufficient to hindere plants regrow. This is called overgrazing and is very comen on extensive plots. Biomas production will plomit.
When a plot is over grazed plants like stinging nettle hawkweed buttercup and other poison ore thorny species will appear. If you into the toppic of grazing and its postve and negative events on the ökosysteme i recomend the books of allen Savory's and gabe brown.
When you cut grass a clean cut is key to enable fast recovery. brush cutter with strings should be avoided becose thei induce very bad squash woonds on the plant. Whit drasticli decrease the ability  to regrow. If you go with a bar mower make sure you don't  mow to deep. This can be difficult wenn grass is already laying on the ground to do a clean cutt. Also when you prune trees and hedges a clan cut is key for fast recovery.

The second key factor  is the structure of the fegetation. A multi story forest/ forest garden alwos air circulation. When condensation starts at night this will form a Vortex sucking in fresh moist air from above. This downward spiraling of moist air is very sufficient to condencate and harvest water with fegetatio.
If a forest only is made up of one layer are vertical downward air circulation is greatly hindert. A closed canopy layer wit out oter layer of smaller trees and shrubs can encurage horizontal winds blowing through under the canopy and driving  out the area. This is the case in plantain forests. It also will increase the risk of wildfires.
On the other hand hilltops can be utilized for dew harvesting. Multi story forest on the top of a hill will be very  sufficient at colecting dew. So did our ancestors built dew ponds on the top of hills. This ponds were leyed out with straw then seled with  a layer of cley. The straw works as a capillary brake and stops the water from inflation it also keeps the clay in place. Dew ponds are know from irland end even after centuries they still work. With topping/pruning the trees their effective can be increased.

Air well (condenser) are a agient metode to harvest dew. It's basicli a large stone structure built in a way are can circulate and condencate.

Yakhchāl are a other stone structure. This one is used to generate ice in the deserts by utilizing the space colling effect. It's made up of a shallow pond whitch is shaded by a stonwal. This stops it from heating up durring the day. During the clear desert night it radietes out mutch heat that it cools below  freezing. The ice is harvest and stored undergroung dome where its used to ceep food  fresh.

Waterboox is a dew harvesting  device i used to establish tree seedlings. It colects rainwater and dow and release it via a wich directly to the roots of the seedlind. I left one of this waterboxe standing for a few years on a dry hillside. After a wile Binse juncus stardet growing.  This plant schows waterloged soils.

But the most efficient means of wather colecting are still multistorry forest and agricultural systems like syntropic agriculture who mimic it. How this works on a continental scale is explained well on the YouTube video "rivers in the sky" by be smart
https://youtu.be/VGurBZ0b6nI?si=6dHhBtRrx8jncAID

As ernst götsch says drought exists only in the minde.

To underline this he gave a example of harvesting water in a arid climat.

For this the made a demonstration plot. The area was devidet in 4 by 4m plots on halve of it he planted a multi story succulent planting made up of
mandacaru cactus emergente layer
Pricklypair crown layer  and
Sisal-Agave ground layer
This planting was sufficient to harvest water not only for is self but also for the mixed crop in the other 4 by 4m plots.
The mixed grains presistet out of the folowing species. Recinus corn beens and and and.
The yeald of each singel species of crop was greater whats usual in the area. In adition to that Pricklypair fruits can be harvested.

When it comes to treeplantings in a row ernst recomendet the planting of wormwood Artimisia  absintum. The plant is toped multible times a year and keept in the vegetatif state. Wen trees become responsible size it's shadet out and disappeares by it self.

To toes of you who attempted to turn a forest patch in to a forest garden know it comes with some difficulty. I tried now for about 7 years but with limited suses. Du to very slow establishment of fruit trees and other plants. I got in to syntropic agriculture in February 2023. Syntropic agriculter explains why this is hard and what you can do about it. First exoeriments are very prommesing so i do now my syntropic patch and lets see what 2024 brings.

Syntropic agriculture uses pruning not only to get sun to the ground but also to induce a growth impuls in the area surounding the prunned tree.
When e tree is toped it goes in to rapid growing stage to achieve this parid growth it mobilises stored startch from its trunk end exudes it togeter weth growt hormons to the soil. Soil fodweb gets activated througt the bounti of foot and starts making nutrients plants  available. This creates a growth impuls in the rootsystem of the spesific tree and all plants in the rootsystem will react with vigorous growth. Also is the material fom chop and drop good food for earthworms and basidiomycets acording to ernst götsch 70% of the growt impulse is due to rootexudates and plant hormons as he says codifide growth information and about 30% is do to mulching.
With the repedet choping of the trees around your plants you increes there growth due to imprufed ligt condition and growt impuls also does soil quality rapedli increes. Even if its in the begining not suited for your fruit trees.

On the locations where i planted fruit trees i planted now also moter plants along them.

So a chestnut plum ore asimina and next to it
Popular willow mulberi thornles roas cutings also seedling of elder elm ash birch and seeds of aesculus rea and wite oaka tulip tree also maple. Basic basicli ale rapid growing species i could get my hands on.
When thes start growing i will prune them back so my fruit trees have suficiant ligth.
I made some islandes of trees where a planted about 10 to 50 close by. If they cloas the root will intertwine and change the soil.

Popular plum and gray alder wil probably spred out from there and propagate them self  througt root suckers. So the forest garden will extend it self and with topping i will ecelerate the prosses. As trees grow larger some wil be cut to the ground oders trimed beck to about 5m so i still get timber.

On ther ereas in this forest are dens youg growth of beach fagus sylvatica  and some maple and elm view cherry and linden trees. I cut beck most beach to 1.5m so they can be used for biomas production and out of reach by the dear. Also some of the maple i toped at 5m. Betwen i will add other species like silverwillo popular and grey elder. This area will be toped annual to improve the soil and secure the steap sloap. Its now havey kley soil mixed with gravel trees tend to establish slow and acationaly we have land slides. The material from chopping. Specially the loges plased on the toped trees to form living terasses over time. This makes the tarain instantly more accessible and fun to work.

Over the long run the goal is to creat a bee forest with little fruit trees and a flowering herbal layer. Trees like tilia tomentosa can yeald about 1000kg of honey per hectar the area is about 6hektars and about one is suited for this aproche like young dense growth of mixed leaf trees mostly beach.
8 to 12m in high  and 8 to 20cm in diameter

Heavy pruning/topping and tree diversity semes tobe the key to success in forests

Trees to large to prune and to nice to cut down should be avoidet ther root system us usuali duble as wide as the croun.

Als should the pruning benefit myhorriza mushroom and increese the fruit body's.

In a year or two i can say more about the method.
Currently i working on a little summery of the noats from the syntropic workshop with ernst götsch.

His website agendagötsch.com

I recomend the two videos
The first one for a short impresion
https://youtu.be/gSPNRu4ZPvE?si=yO5KNMr_zB_qpJQ8

The second one about 2 houers
https://youtu.be/1OB7RzlVOsk?si=wc1YdH5m3Kutu4u_

Also this two instagram proviles give a great impresion what it lookes like
@agendagoetsch und @matadolobo

Rarna Vanda wrote:There are a few ways to reach a billion people.

!. The bifurcation method.
Talk to two people about your idea, and ask them to also talk to two people. Eventually this will grow into a huge network.

2. The influencer method.
Talk to people who have already got thousands of followers, and by convincing them, you pass on the idea to all their followers too.

3. The viral method.
Create a meme or make a video that will catch people's imagination and go viral on the internet.

4. The advertising method
Literally just pay for it. Make an advert and put it on national TV or on google or wherever will get the best coverage of your demographic.

5. The fame method.
Write a song, form a band, and get famous so you can speak your truth to the masses.

6. The Hollywood method.
Make a big blockbuster film that makes people really think about your message.

Which option you choose really depends on who you know, how much you have to spend, and how creative you are.

Honestly though, I think spreading the message of permaculture is not an easy task, because there is only a limited percentage of the population who even care about gardening, and most of them do it in a more traditional way. This is because of the pressures on people, to live their lives in a certain way ie working 40 hour weeks. Covid did help to focus more people on their gardens, and on nature, so that is a big plus, but even then, permaculture doesn't really apply to small gardens, owned by people who are working a main job in an office, or even those working from home. Permaculture is really relevant to smallholders, homesteaders and small farmers. So if you can reach a good percentage of those people, with the permaculture message, then really that is all that is needed. And honestly I think that has already happened, so well done

About reatching out to influencer
What do you think selecting specific  influancer
I think about youtubers like Kurzgesagt as they alredy have some content on the future of agriculture but seme to be not aware of permaculture.

How to reach out. As a forum we could go via the coments and writa and promot permaculture coments

Do a croudfounding project togeter wit kurzgesagt for a video

Reach out to the employees of spesific youtubers via social media and infact them wit the permacultur virus

Send some of the geat big youtubers permaculture books ore hand writen letters i beleve this makes more impresion in ouer fast world

Lets say if we send kurzgesagt about 30 to 100 hand writen leters they will start talk about permaculture in their team.

I assume if one of those large sciens youtube does a video about the others will folow.


Some i think could be suited
Afterskool
Its okay to be smart
Veretasium
TED ed

I gues you have also your personal ideas


Live in syntropy is a great video about syntropy agriculture
Syntropy agriculture is a grwat way to spead up transformation it's a twin brother of permaculture
https://youtu.be/gSPNRu4ZPvE?si=yO5KNMr_zB_qpJQ8

I also sugest the book "dirt to soil" by gabe brown its fiten from a farmer for farmers using divers covercrops and livestock to impfufe soil.
It's not permacultur but regenerative agriculture. I believe we should take this 3 approach as equal depending on the situation one ore the oter is better suited for rapid change. It's important so start even ev the aproche is not perfect.

I also pondering if through bulding up soil organic mater if we can take out enough CO2 from the atmosphere to stop climachange. Mabe if done on a global scale even CO2 will eventually become a scarce resource. This thougt in the minde of fossil fule industri could make them to promot regenerative ag and permaculture. I know though like this are unholy


I

Allan Savory's  bock Holistic managmant is so fahre the best i read  on ecologi. To get him the Ted tak is not enough.  I really  like his approach  to include politics and local groups in the process.  In my opinion  he will be one of the most influential person when it comes to green theĝ planet alongside with ernst götsch. Savory's has also a capture of aforestation its not al about grassland

Do you know any plant breeding communeties?

i just came across Experimental Farm Network

http://www.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/about

Anne Miller wrote:I wonder has anyone here actually tried making coffee from cleaver or yaupon?

Before I would go out and plant a bunch I would want to know what it tastes like.

I know for a fact the chicory tastes good and is relatively easy to roast the root then dry the root and grind it because I mix it with coffee to make coffee go farther.

I have cleaves by the hundreds but have really no desire to try them as coffee.  Picking them does not appeal to me as I would rather smoother them with cardboard.

I have been around yaupon all my life.  They have small leaves that a person would need to pick a lot of to make much coffee.

It is a nice topic to talk about.

hi Anne Miller you inspiered me. so i bought some yaupon tee from the "yaupon brothers"

mi favourite is the lavender coconut

fire roasted and american green have a week taste. just my opinion...

but you could mix them cicory ore roasted dandelion root tea and get someting nice tasting high in coffein




if someone is looking for yupon seeds


https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/search?q=yupon

Anne Miller would you also have seeds around we could do a litle plant exchange maybe

best regards Patrick Barmet
Barmetbaumpflege.ch

Nordern ilex containing coffein ->  yaupon Holly and other Holly



Enzyklopädie der psychoaktiven Pflanzen
Buch von Christian Rätsch


Ilex cassine                                                                                                USDA (6) 7-11
Ilex ambigua  syn. Ilex caroliniana                                                        USDA 7


Ilex glabra Ilex glabra - Kahle Winterbeere - Tintenbeere - Stechpalme USDA 3-7
Ilex perado


Ilex vomitoria
Ilex vomitoria "Eureka Gold(TM)                                                         mabey     USDA 6

Ilex vomitoria Nana - Yaupon-Stechpalme                                                 USDA 7
Ilex verticillata Afterglow Amerikanische Winterbeere Afterglow       USDA 3-7

Ilex yunnanenesis                                                                                 USDA 5-9
Ilex yunnanenesis var. ecliata
Ilex ×altaclerensis 'Camelliifolia'                                                                 USDA 7b (-14,9 bis -12,3 °C)