Reforestation - Growing trees in arid, barren lands - by Seeds and Clay cubes (no watering)

Today we’re doing something a little different.

We’re at our farm, about half an hour south of Thessaloniki. This is a natural farm, and the land has not been plowed for about 25 years.

Our goal is to introduce what is called biology into the soil. Ideally, we would do this with animals — for example, a herd of 25, 30, or even 50 sheep. The sheep would graze lightly on the land, eating about half of the plants above ground. The rest would be trampled, and the animals would also urinate and deposit manure. This process would introduce biology into the soil and help improve soil health in an accelerated way.

Since we don’t currently have access to sheep, I’m trying a different approach. I’m taking fresh compost and placing it directly on the soil surface. We’re not digging and we’re not burying anything. After placing the compost, we cover it with dry or green leaves.

We’ve done this in about 20 to 30 different spots across the farm. I honestly don’t know how this will behave, and I don’t have a way to monitor it closely. This is the first time I’m doing this.

The best-case scenario is that it’s wildly successful: the biology in the compost thrives in the soil and gradually spreads throughout the farm. The worst-case scenario is that it does very little — the quantity may simply be too small to have a major impact.

I don’t have a way to measure the results yet, and as I said, I’m at the very beginning of this process. Still, I don’t think this can do any harm. Even if the impact is small, it doesn’t damage the land. And personally, it has already been beneficial for me — spending time with the land and the soil matters.

If anyone knows more about this than I do, I’d really appreciate hearing from you.

Thanks.

Kostas

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/ILlrFfLt5qE


Greetings,

Today we planted acorns, even though it’s a bit late in the season for planting. Recently there has been very little rain, so the soil is quite dry. We had kept the acorns in the refrigerator for over two months, and we were happy to see that they survived well and remained in good condition.

If we just planted the acorns in the soil as it is (dry), there's a good chance the acorns will not survive - there is no rain forecast over the next 10 days.

Since we finally had the time today, we took the opportunity to plant them. To improve their chances of survival, we added damp vermiculite to the soil. Vermiculite has the ability to hold moisture for long periods, and we hope it will help keep the acorns alive until the rains arrive. Ideally, this will give the young roots enough time to grow deeper into the soil, where they can find more moisture and nutrients.

Through this process we are becoming much more aware of how important soil moisture is when planting acorns. If there is too much water, especially in heavy clay soil, the acorns can rot. On the other hand, sandy soils can dry out quickly and create the opposite problem. Because of this, we are learning how useful soil additives such as vermiculite or hydrogels can be in helping acorns survive and grow during difficult conditions.

Kostas

Greetings,




Today we visited several areas where we planted acorns over the last two or three months. Unfortunately, in some locations nearly 90% of the acorns had been taken by wildlife. It could be field mice or other small animals that are attracted to the large acorns we planted.


This is the first time we have planted such a large number of evergreen oak acorns, and it is also the first time we have seen losses on this scale. In one area alone we planted perhaps 200–300 acorns, and almost all of that effort was lost.


We have had similar experiences in the past. Years ago, when planting almonds, we lost hundreds—possibly even a few thousand—to field mice. Thinking about it now, the large evergreen oak acorns are roughly the same size as almonds, so it makes sense that they would be a delicacy for local wildlife.


In another area we noticed heavy activity from wild pigs. These animals tear up the ground while searching for food, so anything planted there is likely to be disturbed or destroyed.


Although this wildlife activity is frustrating and sets us back, it is also part of the natural cycle. There is little we can do about it, nor should we try to eliminate it.


Interestingly, our experience after forest fires has been very different. For the first couple of years after a fire, wildlife such as wild pigs and field mice tend to move away from the burned areas. During that period we can plant many almonds or acorns with very little loss. However, this window of opportunity may only last two or three years before the animals return.

Kostas

This is discusses the damage by wild pigs

Kostas

Greetings to all,



Spring is upon us.
And this is my attempt to report on our progress in planting trees etc.

The following text is a bit long but it summarizes where we stand and where we are headed.

Thanks

Kostas

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Full Forest Conversion Project – Update
Today we visited the pine forest near Thessaloniki, where we have been planting acorns as part of our effort to gradually convert the existing pine forest into an oak forest.

Why We Need to Act
The pine forest faces serious threats. Experts around the world warn that pine trees growing below 1,000 meters in elevation are increasingly likely to die from drought, forest fire, or disease — all of which are driven by the changing climate. But beyond the threat of death, pine forests are simply not the most desirable ecosystems. They store water poorly, release relatively little moisture into the atmosphere, and produce acidic soil beneath their canopy.

Oak forests, by contrast, are far more resilient and ecologically rich. Their soil is healthier, they retain water more effectively, and they breathe significantly more moisture into the air. This matters more than many people realize: trees release moisture that forms clouds, and clouds produce rain. In essence, when you plant trees — especially oak trees — you are planting rain. An oak forest is a far more powerful rain-generating ecosystem than a pine forest.


Our goal is to convert the pine forest into an oak forest before disaster strikes — before fire, drought, or disease strips the land bare and leaves nothing behind.

Fortunately, oak trees are one of the few species that can grow beneath pine trees. They coexist naturally, growing side by side, which makes a gradual transition possible. Rather than purchasing young oak trees, planting them, and watering them individually — a process that is expensive and labor-intensive — we are planting acorns directly into the forest floor. This is a more natural, scalable, and cost-effective method.

The three most common oak varieties in our area are the Holm Oak (or holy oak), the Evergreen oaks, calliprinos or Palestine Oak, which keeps its leaves year-round, and the Common Oak, which is deciduous and sheds its leaves seasonally. Both are part of our planting effort.
Progress and Setbacks
We are making progress, though we are also experiencing setbacks and learning as we go. That is expected at this stage.


What Success Looks Like
In five to ten years, success will mean seeing healthy oak trees reaching 50 cm to a meter or more in height, growing alongside the existing pine trees. When and if the pine trees eventually die, the oaks will be ready to take their place — ensuring the land is never left bare and exposed.

We do not want to face a future of ash and bare soil after a devastating fire or diseases. We want a living forest — one that cleans the air, stores water, provides habitat, and offers a place for people to walk, breathe, and connect with nature. That is our goal, and that is what we are working toward, one acorn at a time.

Field Update – What We Found Today
In this video, we share what we observed during today's visit. There are both encouraging results and disappointing ones, as is to be expected at this stage.

We are particularly encouraged by how vigorously the Palestine oak trees are growing — and it is still early in the season. By mid-June, and even more so by August and September, we will have a much clearer picture of what has survived and how the different varieties are progressing.


Scale of the Project
We are currently planting acorns in eight to ten locations in and around Thessaloniki, spanning as far south as half an hour from the city. We are also planting in areas that have previously been devastated by fire, and we still need to visit those sites to assess how they are recovering. In addition to our work in northern Greece, we have planted acorns in southern Greece near Sparta, at elevations ranging from 300 to 1,100 meters. We plan to visit that area in the summer and will share a dedicated update, as the conditions there are quite different from what we see here.


Why Each Location Is Unique
Every site presents its own challenges. Soil conditions and microclimates vary significantly from one place to another. For example, young oak seedlings pushing up through heavy clay soil or dense rock will face very different obstacles than those in looser, more forgiving ground. We expect different oak varieties to respond differently depending on these conditions, and part of what we are doing is learning which types of acorns are best suited to which environments — whether the determining factor is soil composition, moisture levels, elevation, or some other microclimate variable.


A Bigger Vision
This is a large and complex project, and honestly, it is one that deserves the attention and resources of a university research program or a major nonprofit organization. We hope that one day it will attract that kind of support. In the meantime, we will keep planting, keep observing, and keep sharing everything we learn

Greetings to all, and best wishes,

I would like to share an article in NYTIMES by Gary Furguson.

NYTIMES - Ponderosa Pines

The article says:

after about 26 years of exceptionally high heat and drought, hundreds of millions of these trees in lands stretching from New Mexico and Colorado to the southern Sierra Nevada of California have died. And in many places, something even more startling is happening: The trees aren’t coming back.

It continues,

In 50 or so years, by some estimates, snow could virtually disappear from the West, making life there exceedingly difficult.

And,

The government should treat this situation as deeply threatening to the habitability of the West. .

The article discusses how prescribed burns are being employed to save the trees, and that millions of seedlings of ponderosa pines are being produced for the purpose of replanting.

Being far away from this area, the first question I have,
Is this the reality there ? Members of this forum can shed some light.

The 2nd question, and I don't know who can answer it.

If ponderosa pines cannot handle the new weather conditions, why do they want to plant more of them.
Why not plant broadleaf trees like oaks instead.

Why not employ drone technology and human labor to plant millions of acorns.

This matter is urgent - it effects millions of people - and it will major economic impact

Kostas

Dying of ponderosa trees have been in the news for years. The species is adapted to arid and high elevation regions in western US. It depends on natural fires to recycle nutrients and to suppress competitions. Part of the reasons for their decline is fire management in the past decades to disrupt low intensity burns so that less fire resistant needle-leaf such as firs and junipers are growing under to compete for water, building up fuel load and making fire events more extreme. Eventually the ponderosas weaken and die off to pest attacks. Oregon State University has an article on the proper managements to restore the health of ponderosa forest here:
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/forests/fire/restoring-ponderosa-pine-forests-dry-side-oregon

In some of southern range of ponderosa such as Texas Davis Mountains, weather has a major impact as long term droughts and higher temperatures are shifting the ecosystem towards shrubland and grassland. The ponderosas forests are not coming back. I don't know if oaks can fill in their place or not. Bur oaks, for example, are fire and drought resistant and part of the tall grass prairies in Midwestern US.

Thanks for the info! I appreciate the details on controlled burns.


It makes me wonder if the author is exaggerating a bit. Is an 80% to 90% loss of Ponderosa pines in the next two decades really realistic, or is it closer to 5% or 10%? Where do we actually stand right now in terms of total population loss? And I mean loss that it total-no natural tree reforestation.


Either way, if severe fires mean the Ponderosa pines can't grow back, it seems like a great opportunity to build a new ecosystem from scratch.


Oaks are incredibly tough and thrive everywhere from southern Canada to northern Mexico and northern Africa to southern Russia, so they would be perfect as the main replacement tree.


Post-fire ash leaves behind really rich soil. Instead of giving up and letting the land turn to desert, we could seed fast-growing plants like arugula, barley, or Mediterranean heartwort right away to stop soil erosion and plant a large variety of trees by planting seeds. I've already seen oaks and almonds and other prunus family trees thrive after a fire. So a fire is an opportunity to create a better ecosystem.


If these pessimistic projections are realistic, the human and economic costs will be devastating. Action is needed now. The threat is severe enough to justify shifting 10% or more of the defense budget toward ecological restoration. Repurposing military technology from weapons to reforestation is a practical application of this shift. True national security involves protecting the environment before the crisis becomes irreversible. The people most affected need to act.


To make these kind of decisions you need good data.


I don't know, I'm just thinking.


Kostas

This is a great book on Oak trees

Very informative

Kostas

I just wanted to say this is a project where I am really looking forward to updates, and in a way updates far ahead are more exciting than ones in the near future - although those are great also I really really hope to read about this next year too, and the one after, and in ten years!

I am in the Ozark plateau of Midwest US and there are over two dozen species of native oak trees. Settlers fell them for timbers, especially the white oaks for cooperage, and cleared the land for cattle ranching. When the soils get more acidic and poorer, fewer oaks are able to grow. Blackjack oak (Q marilandica) is one that thrives in the dry upland soil. Missouri Botanical Garden has a page about it:https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=280720

I have several mature blackjack oaks and they aren't doing too well: lots of caterpillars, wormy acorns, dying branches marcescence etc. I am trying to revive them and it seems to be working.

They are a majestic creature!!!

Hi Costa,

I just had an idea. If your pine trees are dying and you fell them, and you fell them a little bit higher, and you took an auger or a core drill and hollowed out the tree stump to about 100 or 150 mm diameter (or whatever the machine allowed you to drill it out to) down to the ground level, then you'd have a hollow in a tree in which you could plant your young oaks or any seeds you wanted to nurse. That way you have a sheltered environment inside, protected from wind and some browsing animals, until the young tree emerges and hopefully some fire protection and definitely moisture accumulation and eventually nourishment for the tree as the nursing tree stump is rotting away. Just a bit of an idea. Maybe I'll give it a try but then I'm eighty years old and I think it's a little bit beyond me now

Hey Martin,
Great idea
Give it a try and let us know the results.

As far as your age…
It’s only a number

Keep fighting till the end!!!

Kostas

Greetings to all !!!
All the best to all - peace on earth,



Title: Acorn Planting Experiment & Field Observations Near Thessaloniki

Today we visited an area near Thessaloniki where we’ve planted acorns over the past few years, including a site from December 8th of this year.

There, we tested a new planting method:

· Dig a hole 15–20 cm deep.
· Place two spoonfuls or handfuls of damp vermiculite on one side of the hole.
· Add a few centimeters of good topsoil in the middle.
· Lay two acorns down.
· Fill the hole with the remaining topsoil.
· Sprinkle small seeds (vetch, arugula, alfalfa) on top.

Results: The acorns did very well, despite some losses to field mice or other creatures—which we accept as natural. We found many young evergreen oaks growing, specifically the Palestine oak (Quercus calliprinos). We’ll continue monitoring them.

This year, we had difficulty finding common deciduous oak acorns in the area, so most planted were Palestine oaks and holm oaks.

Future recommendation: Use this method again. Optionally, mix 20–30% damp vermiculite into the topsoil just below the acorns. Using damp vermiculite is especially important if the soil might dry out before expected rains. However, we’re cautious about using too much vermiculite, as it might cause seed rot—time will tell.

We also visited other nearby areas where we simply dug holes and put small seeds on top. We observed young oaks in various conditions and performed the "bend test" on a young oak that hadn’t yet developed green leaves. To perform the bend test: bend the trunk 180°. If it snaps, it’s likely dead; if it bends without breaking, it’s alive.

We have several acorn-planting sites around Thessaloniki and will share more updates as interesting developments arise.

Kostas

Mediterranean soils are mostly neutral to slightly alkaline from calcareous parent materials, yet there are pockets of acidic soil in northern mountainous Greece, according to this article:

Soil Resources and the Role in Agriculture Sector of Greek Economy
Environment and Ecology Research 8(3): 70-75, 2020

Are different types of oaks growing in these areas? In the humid and non glaciated parts of US where soils are acidic from heavy leaching, the red oaks are thriving. They grow slower and have higher tannin content. The acorns take two seasons, up to 18 months to mature and are more bitter. I am wondering if you plant acorns from other Mediterranean that have more alkaline soil, will the seedlings have a hard time adapting? What caused the low yield of acorns from local oaks last year?

Thanks for the info May,

Your knowledge of the different soil types is beyond me.

If you can try different types of acorns for different types of soils and report back to us, it would be greatly welcomed and appreciated.

Kostad