Pascal Poot and his tomatoes that grow without water

I'm living 15 minutes from this interesting figure called Pascal Poot, who grows tomatoes and other things without water. Really it's true. It works because he puts a lot of compost with BRF (woodchips) and also his specially selected seeds. I can very much recommend buying seeds here. Probably among the best seeds in France. You can order from other countries also.  According to a quick search he was mentioned twice on this forum, but deserves more mention!

His website:
https://www.lepotagerdesante.com/

Some article about him in English (you can find a lot of youtube and Facebook videos also but it's mostly French)

https://www.livingcircular.veolia.com/en/eco-citizen/pascal-poot-grows-organic-tomatoes-desert


https://www.livingcircular.veolia.com/en/eco-citizen/pascal-poot-grows-organic-tomatoes-desert

Also I think there is something about his selling these seeding being illegal, which we don't give a s**t about of course. It's a complicated thing in France (or EU or the world for that matter) and involved a lawsuit between one of France's biggest seeds producers, Baumaux, and Kokopelli, an association founded to bypass the need to register each variety in some catalogue before you can sell them. (If someone can clarify this or explain it better than I have please do)

https://www.infogm.org/5725-kokopelli-vs-baumaux-une-victoire-en-demi-teinte?lang=fr

The fields are located in a maritime climate, which means moderate temperatures, lots of overcast days, and regular rain. Though the rain might only amount to 1.5" to 2" per month, it arrives regularly.

In my high altitude desert garden, I consider 4.5 inches of water per month to be the amount necessary for growing tomatoes in a non-enhanced field.

If I understand correctly, it sounds as if the tomatoes get the water they need to grow, and that what is happening here is he is growing tomatoes without additional hand watering or irrigation?

I do that as well AND my tomatoes are in a pollytunnel greenhouse, it's just the weather here, it rains enough and the soil is light enough that rain outside runs through the soil to inside. we've not had rain in 3 weeks now but the tomatoes are still fine as they have deep roots and can tap into the water in the chalk under them.

I get a lot less water than Joseph says his tomatoes need, but on the other hand we have very little evaporation and constant high humidity so there is also less transpiration. In fact we cannot grow tomatoes outside uncovered, they get blight and other fungal diseases before they start to ripen just before the night temperature drops to low (we had 3C 2 weeks ago in mid august)

My understanding is the ancestors to our modern tomatoes grew very small fruits in the deserts of the SW US/Northern Mexico, at the foot of mountains. They received very little rain, but had snow melt available underground to deep root systems. This explains a plant that grows quickly (using water to do so) but seems intolerant of wet foliage.

Hi all, okay let me explain a bit more. First about the climate, we're 1 hour from the sea and at the southern most feet of the massive central mountains. An unpredictable climate in a way, but we have a lot of rain in the winter (Like 1000ml) and in the summer it can get very very dry with Mediterranean summers: last year we didn't have real rain for 3 months from mid june till mid september, with clear skies most of the time.

To explain Poot's method a bit more, he works about 10 hectares with very little machinery. He does use tractors to make didges in the land I think, then he puts loads and loads of compost: 100 or 150 tons per hectare. As I mentioned he makes the compost with 1 part manure and 5 parts BRF woodchips (that amounts to 10 or15 kilo per m2 if I'm correct) in those ditches, and then in there he transplants his tomatos. Himself he prefers much more direct seeding, whenever he can he will direct seed, yet he says because he only grows vegetables for seed, he needs to be sure that the tomatoes are of the right variety, and so he has so transplant.
He does weed a bit, because he says as the saying goes "one time hoeing is ten times irrigating". The weeds they use a lot of water he says.

Then if he direct seeds then he irrigates really well until the plants sprout, after that he doesn't irrigate any more, or perhaps once.

He also has some interesting theories about hard crusts on the soil. he says that under the ground the water evaporates but is than kind of blocked by this hard crust on the soil and condenses down again.

I'm sure there is much more to say even, but I find his work quite interesting. Sepp Holzer says similar things, he says he doesn't irrigate because if you start irrigating you'd need to irrigate all the time! also it would wash away nutrients. Of course Austria is not so dry as the south of France.

Also while saying all of this, myself for my vegetables I prefer to do bio-intensive like Jean-Martin Fortier and so I irrigate regularly! But for some broadacre things I think this method is great.

It does seem to really help ripening and quality to withhold water late in the season, and to only water deeply and infrequently. I just gave our tomatoes their last watering in early September.

I've found tomatoes adapt very quickly to no watering. So far I'm transplanting mine mid June, but I plan to direct seed at some point. I do what I think Carol deppe called mudding in, digging a hole for the transplant, dumping in enough water to make a mud bog, then planting the tomato into the mud. I mulch really well and that's the only water they get until it starts raining enough for water to get through the mulch. That's usually some time in September. I have silty sand with almost no organic material in it, and hot, sunny summers. I've grown about fifteen tomato varieties like this and they've all produced just fine. If we get more than a couple weeks of temperatures close to 40° I sometimes get some blossom drop. Some varieties are worse than others for that. The plants often look stressed, but they still produce.

Hola! I am very interesting in following his method, as I am in the mediterranean and I guess we have very similar conditions.

So, as I understand, first thing is to invest a lot in soil creation with compost and woodchips. Are there any proportions? How are his beds? Raised, deep? Does he intercrops?  How is everything organized?

I guess he gets tons of seeds (as the Lofthouse landrece), direct seeds most of them in specific beds and waits? Others, he starts them in pots and when he thinks is the moment, transplants them and no more water from that moment onwards?

I think that this way should be THE way. Water is going to be an increasing problem (it is a problem now indeed) so I want//need my vegetables to grow like weeds. If weeds are making it every year, I need tomatos growing like weeds, kale growing like weeds, etc.

But I need some “Pascal Poot for dummies”, including all the details and howto

he grows 10 hectares so he doesn't have beds etc. he doesn't seed directly because he needs the plants to be certain of a variety. he is a seed grower. Did you read everything above? doesn't look like it. first read a bit further, look at the links and the videos on google.

Han Kop wrote:he grows 10 hectares so he doesn't have beds etc. he doesn't seed directly because he needs the plants to be certain of a variety. he is a seed grower. Did you read everything above? doesn't look like it. first read a bit further, look at the links and the videos on google.

Han, I read it all. But you said (or I understood) some things he like to direct seed, some other he doesnt.

I checked all the links and descriptions, but what I am looking for (and maybe it is a nonsense) was more a "for dummies" approach. Like "he puts the woodchips here, and then the seedlings, and then nothing", or "he plans such and such"

Maybe what I am looking for it is something that does not exist!

Okay my apologies. it's true that he really recommend direct seeding for almost everything, but then adds that because he has billions of tomato seeds laying dormant in his fields, he needs to replant the tomatoes to be sure that it's the right variety. A lot of this is also very specific for each place. For example, i'm next to a river in a very moist place with a lot of snails, so i can't direct seed cause they eat everything. I need to plant the plants out when they're bigger and able to withstand a few slug bites.

he has a course, which i have done the basic module of and i thought it was quite entertaining, pretty good. it's in French though.
https://www.formationpotagerdesante.com/

I think work in very much in line with a lot of permaculture principles, it's kinda that he (claims that) he just naturally learned to work like this. bit like Sepp Holzer.

Where are you located, in Spain? where in Spain? Edit: ah Alicante. Yes that's getting pretty dry. In that case just check out some of the stuff of Geoff Lawton (greening the desert etc), david holmgren, etc who often write from Australian perspective with very dry seasons. geoff lawton is doing a course in Morocco soon I saw somewhere. There is Tamera in Portugal.

Han Kop wrote:Okay my apologies. it's true that he really recommend direct seeding for almost everything, but then adds that because he has billions of tomato seeds laying dormant in his fields, he needs to replant the tomatoes to be sure that it's the right variety. A lot of this is also very specific for each place. For example, i'm next to a river in a very moist place with a lot of snails, so i can't direct seed cause they eat everything. I need to plant the plants out when they're bigger and able to withstand a few slug bites.

he has a course, which i have done the basic module of and i thought it was quite entertaining, pretty good. it's in French though.
https://www.formationpotagerdesante.com/

I think work in very much in line with a lot of permaculture principles, it's kinda that he (claims that) he just naturally learned to work like this. bit like Sepp Holzer.

Where are you located, in Spain? where in Spain? Edit: ah Alicante. Yes that's getting pretty dry. In that case just check out some of the stuff of Geoff Lawton (greening the desert etc), david holmgren, etc who often write from Australian perspective with very dry seasons. geoff lawton is doing a course in Morocco soon I saw somewhere. There is Tamera in Portugal.

Hola Han! I think I might be able to do the course. My french is alright, it will depend on the accent but I migh try. I do also have the slug problem, wich is terrible, very aggresive slugs this days (it has been raining almost non stop for 2 weeks, after months of nothing).

It is very interesting that he mixes woodchips with compost and my main challenge might be how to get that kind of woodchips in such amount.

About Alicante, yes, it is pretty dry, although Denia is rainier than the rest of the province, wich is something really curious. The "comarcas" of Marina Alta and La Safor are rainier than some parts of Asturias (north of Spain), but the rain is more concentrated in intense periods