So today I stumbled upon an article about how some park managers are collecting bear poop in the wild and then sprouting the seeds that they contain and planting them for conservation projects. Here's the article:
What happens when you plant a pile of bear scat? I found this super fascinating and I think it is a super smart and simple way to sprout berry producing plants. This got my mind churning and gave me a great idea about how to possibly plant a lot of berry producing plants on a somewhat large scale. So I've been contemplating over the past few years about how I could create a huge berry patch/thicket for not only myself but also for creating wildlife habitat. Well after reading this article and brainstorming some ideas I think I may have came up a super simple idea on how to create my giant berry patch or at least an idea that deserves experimentation.
Step 1. Locate the area you want your berry patch. Step 2. Set up a temporary fence and fill it with chickens. Step 3. Depending on how many chickens and how large the area is leave them in there for a few weeks or so to weaken the vegetation and disturb the ground enough that there is a good amount of bare soil. Step 4. Collect as many berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, serviceberries, roses, hawthorns, currants, gooseberries, etc.) as you can find/buy in season and feed them to the chickens. Step 5. Leave the chickens in there several more days to weeks to poop out the seeds across the land and scratch them into the soil. Step 6. Remove the chickens and remove the temporary fencing. Step 7. Observe the area and watch to see if any of the seeds begin to sprout. It might take until the following spring for the seeds to sprout depending on the species. Continue to monitor and after 3 to 4 years you should be able to tell if it was successful or not and hopefully you will have a young berry patch developing.
A potential problem may be competition from weeds especially if the area is grass. You may need to create a more drastic disturbance in the beginning than the chickens would be able to such as by using pigs or a plow/tiller. You also might be able to broadcast certain companion cover crops to nurture the seedlings once they sprout and help protect them. There could be other potential problems as well but I think this is a good start for a possible experiment to happen. Has anyone else ever attempted anything like this? I would love to hear some other thoughts and experiences.
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