Syntropic Agriculture

Creating a space to collect info for, share insights about, and have discussions on - Syntropic Agriculture.  

There seems to be a surprisingly limited amount of printed material about it. At least in English.  

There is this PDF available online:

https://www.healthy-mind-body.com/humanitarian/syntropic_guide.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0fvWEzMBtXRiuGe9Moj9dp6ikVwfIVfOm5eF6wr-K50hBSPLPBVAMnpgI

Which was found here:

https://adam.nz/syntropy?fbclid=IwAR28N7fPu1SuYd-g8LKY5fLNzlcx0_U8wNZH0Q_SVDVE_wwmMb6_cnH2fS8

When it comes to practicing a permaculture way of life, while trying to establish an income from the land itself, this seems to be an excellent way to do it.  

Here are some other posts I was able to find on the topic here on permies:  

https://permies.com/t/171635/Ernst-tsch-bluevision#1347098

https://permies.com/t/54007/Food-Forest-Ernst-tsch-Brasil#443602

What else can be added here for reference?  

The interview starting at 3:55 is my favorite resource on Syntropic Agroforestry so far:

https://youtu.be/CQ6kabPXkb8

The way the Brazilian man talks about being a part of the ecosystem (rather than being outside of it or above it) was not only deeply beautiful to me, but it also has influenced my gardening practices. Seeing myself as like an ant, helping decomposition occur more quickly, so that the ecosystem can accelerate through succession and build fertility more quickly... For me it just really gives a clear high-level understanding of what all of this seems to be about, and why it works so well.

Side note: Even though I now realize my gardening style that I've synthesized from many different people and sources is closest to Syntropic Agroforestry, and even though I've now been inspired quite a lot by Syntropic Agroforestry, I still don't claim to be a Syntropic Gardner/Farmer. I believe in the power of chop and drop, diversity, and maximizing the amount sunlight collected, but Syntropic is much more strictly defined than this, so I don't feel right identifying myself with the term 😕

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.

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

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.

Wow, Patrick, that's some great info. I've generally been skeptical of the Syntropic brand, as it largely seems to be an attempt to rebrand pretty standard permaculture food forestry techniques without adding a lot. But maybe that is just because I wasn't finding the good stuff. What you have shared here is some of the most fascinating info I've come across in a while, and will definitely be influencing how I approach my project.

At the same time, it was pretty hard for me to parse, so in the interest of making it more accessible to others, I've done some editing. I hope you don't mind me reposting your notes with corrected spelling and grammar. (To be clear, what follows is Patrick's notes from above, just cleaned up a bit to be more readable).

Condensing water from the atmosphere

You can use plants to condense water  from the atmosphere.  When plants are vigorous they can cool themselves below the condensation point at night.  This means water vapor starts condensing on their leaves. Dew droplets form and run down the leafs, where they collected by the root system or just accumulate in the soil. It is helpful to take your flashlight and go outside in the night. I did this and found a Künigskerze, the silvery fluffy leaf of the plant was covered  in dew droplets like pearls. Certainly this process would make an amazing time-lapse. You will soon learn which plants (and in which growth states) are exceptional water harvesters. Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) holds water in its cup-like leafs. Leaves grow opposite each other. On the lower part of the stem they  are fused and form a cup around the stem. Same is true for Silphium Perfoliatum (Cup Plant). Kale is also an exceptional water collector. But this plant guides the water directly to it's root system and stores it there. Its enough water to survive a droughts. When you plant kale next to your tree sapling, it will help establish your trees and help them through drought.

Vegetation can be shaped and pruned to encourage the condensation process.  When moist air starts cooling and condensing, its volume decreases.  A downward spiral of cooling air is created. Further air is drawn towards the plant further water can condense on the plant.

Multi story plantings are helpful for this process.  Young vegetation is especially effective. Old senescent vegetation does not have the ability to cool itself effectively, so it does not condense as much water. Some plants are extremely  effective  in condensing water such as Kale. You can plant a cabbage next to your young tree to water it.

I wonder if you will find water flow in the smooth bark of fagus sylvatica (European Beech). At least when it rains, this tree channels raindrops down its stem, so during rain you will often find a little creek flowing down its stem. Maybe dew will also be sufficient to induce waterflow.

To harvest water  from the atmosphere two things are key: First, vegetation needs to be in the growth state so it can cool itself below the condensation point during night. This is achieved by regular pruning /topping. Grasses and herbs need to be cut before seeds start ripening or during flowering. This can also be achieved with rotational grazing. In both cases, sufficient recovery time is key. When it comes to grazing you should graze only for 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 are still present they will seek out new growth and cripple the plants ability to regrow.  Even a few animals on a large area are sufficient to hinder plants regrowth. This is called overgrazing and is very common on extensive plots. Biomass production will plummet.

When a plot is over grazed, plants like stinging Nettle, Hawkweed, Buttercup, and other poisonous or thorny species will appear. If you into the topic of grazing and its positive and negative effects on the ecosystem, I recommend the books of Allen Savory and Gabe Brown.

When you cut grass, a clean cut is key to enable fast recovery. Brush cutter with strings (string trimmer?) should be avoided because they induce very bad squash(?) wounds on the plant, which drastically decrease the plant's ability  to regrow. If you use a lawn mower, make sure you don't  mow to deep. When grass is already laying on the ground, it can be difficult to make a clean cut. Also when you prune trees and hedges a clean cut is key for fast recovery.

The second key factor  is the structure of the vegetation. A multi-story forest/ forest garden allows 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 sufficient to condense and harvest water on the vegetation.
If a forest only is made up of one layer, the vertical downward air circulation is greatly hindered. A closed canopy layer without other layers of smaller trees and shrubs can encourage horizontal winds blowing through under the canopy and driving moisture out of 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. A multi-story forest on the top of a hill will be very effective at collecting dew. This is why our ancestors built dew ponds on the top of hills. This ponds were laid out with straw, then sealed with  a layer of clay. The straw works as a capillary brake and stops the water from infiltrating. It also keeps the clay in place. Dew ponds are known from Ireland, and even after centuries they still work. With topping/pruning the trees their effective can be increased.

An Air Well (condenser) is an ancient method to harvest dew. It's basically a large stone structure built in such a way that air can circulate and condense.
Yakhchāl are an other kind of stone structure. This one is used to generate ice in the deserts by utilizing the space cooling effect. It's made up of a shallow pond which is shaded by a stone wall. This stops it from heating up durring the day. During the clear desert night, it radiates out so much heat that it cools below freezing. The ice is harvest and stored in underground domes, where its used to keep food fresh.

A Waterbox is a dew harvesting  device I use to establish tree seedlings. It collects rainwater and dew and releases it via a wick directly to the roots of the seedling. I left one of these waterboxes standing for a few years on a dry hillside. After a while Juncus started growing.  This plant indicates waterlogged soils.
But the most efficient means of water collecting are still multi-story forest and agricultural systems like Syntropic agriculture which 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

Ernst Götsch says drought exists only in the mind. He gave the a example of harvesting water in an arid climate. For this, he made a demonstration plot. The area was divided into 4m x 4m plots. On half of it, he planted a multi-story succulent planting made up of Mandacaru Cactus as the emergent layer, Prickly Pear as the crown layer and Sisal-Agave as the ground layer. This planting was sufficient to harvest water not only for itself but also for the mixed crop in the other 4m x 4m plots.

When it comes to tree row plantings, Ernst recommends the planting of Wormwood (Artemisia  Absinthium). This plant is topped multiple times a year and kept in the vegetative state. When trees become of adequate size, it is shaded out and disappears by itself.

Benefits of regular pruning

When you prune or cute trees/herbs/grasses, the plants send a growth impulse into the soil that encourages the growth of all plants in the area. The cut material is then clipped or chipped so that it makes soil contact. Lignin rich material is food for beneficial fungi from the group of basidiomycetes. This fungi produces molecules such as vitamins and antibiotics which are beneficial to the immune system of plants, so plants are protected from disease. Also their fruit and leaves have higher mineral, protein, and vitamin content, which makes them a lot less 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 impulse consists of codified information root exudates such as carbohydrates, protein, and growth hormones. It tells the mycorrhizae and the soil food web to prepare the nutrients required for rapid new growth.

Plants store lots of carbohydrates in their tissues. Pruning makes the plant release this stored energy into the soil food web and mycorrhizae. The mixture of root exudates is fine tuned to encourage only the growth of beneficial microbes and fungi. Mycorrhizae are able to break down stones and extract nutrition from it. The exudates are kind of like the fuel in a mining operation. Just a more complex and elegant way of mining. That's why pruning cutting has a more beneficial effect than just mulching with organic material.

If you have lots of woody material in all stages of decay on the ground, there will be a diverse community of fungi in the ground, like early and late stages of succession in decomposition. This makes it very hard for Pacific fungi such as honey mushrooms armilaria to gain a foothold. It's important to feed the soil with woody material regularly.

You have this effect 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 its volume with in a vegetation period. Otherwise it is better to cut on the ground and start from a stump. If a tree is pruned too heavily it is not able to support its root system with enough assimilates. This will result in the root system dying back. You have the same problem when you cut herbs and grasses to often or to deep. Herbs and grasses are ready to cute when first seeds start maturing. A clean cut is necessary for good wound healing and fast recovery.

Irregular pruning or heavy topping can severely stress a tree ore even kill it. If you work with old senescent trees, start slowly. For example, Fagus, Acer, and Fraxinus take while to activate sleeping buds and form adventive buds, but once they do, they can handle a lot of pruning. The leaving area should be able to recover within a vegetation period.  Fagus can grow 80cm/year, Acer up to 2.5m/year.

You can encourage formation of adventive bud by doing a cut about 1cm in the wood. This will create pressure below the cut and stop growth, inhibiting hormones from above. The result is the formation of new shoots. In a year or two, you can use these shoots to create a new crown. This is a useful trick when you are dealing with old cheery trees, as often they loose all shoots in the crown due to shading and you have nowhere to prune back to.

Heavy pruning in late June (July?) and August can force the tree into a second growth. This second growth is not able to mature before winter, which can result in heavy frost damage or even the death of the tree. Do heavy pruning from late September to late July, but is best when tree starts growing in the spring.
Light pruning, removal of up to 1/3 of the leaf matter, can be done year around. So cherry can be pruned while harvesting as often done traditionally. If you harvest leaves for fodder or food, do this in late spring or early summer. At this time, the leaves have less fiber and are more digestible. In late summer many leaves are infected/covered with fungi. Such leaves are not fit for fodder.

Some tree species, such as willow, you can harvest twice every second year. But if you leave the new shoots over winter they will flower in early spring. Flowering buds are easy located as they are many times as big as leaf buds.

Here is a document on how different tree species react to pruning:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14aF4IVWcaRNSF2qJSJwfo8S9pGfVOauI/view?usp=sharing

Suggestions for soil improvement

Vegetation develops over time. First, pioneer species arrive, which prepare the soil. Pioneer species are a very diverse group of plants.
On a bare rock, pioneers like moss and lichen will be the first. But if you already have loose fine minerals like clay, sand, or gravel the story is a little different. Not only will mosses and lichens appear, but also other types of pioneers, from herbs to trees. Some species are very good at making nutrients available for others. Eucalyptus can exude acid from its roots and dissolve minerals and rocks. Legumes are able to fix nitrogen. Tilia can bring up calcium from deep in the soil and drop it with its leaves on the surface. Juglans is known to drop phosphorus with its leaves. Others like Celtis are experts in splitting rocks with a force of up to 50kg per cm2, or 500t per m2. That's why this tree is called rock splitter in Italy. There are even tropical species which are able to drill into solid rock via aggressive root exudates, resulting in fingers sized drill holes.

Often under appreciated is the role of pine trees on rocky mountain terrain, where there is not much  soil at all.  Pine trees cover the rocks with a sour (acidic) blanket of needles, which speed up the weathering process of the rock, helping form soil and prepare for other species.

The short lifetime of many pioneer species is also a key to soil formation. When the life of a tree ends, it falls over and is colonized by basidiomycetes, a class of mushrooms. These mushrooms not only grow in the wood but also in the area surrounding the wood. Similarly, logs colonized by the (oyster?) mushroom will colonize the soil in a radius 60cm around the wood. Fungi have the ability to loosen up all types of compaction and even dissolve solid rock, although this is a slow process. By doing this, fungi make the minerals available and transport it to where is needed. Fungi are also able to fix nitrogen with the help of bacteria.

Fungi are the transport system of the soil. They build a network across species. The fungal network wants to maximize photosynthesis in an area. To achieve this, it transports nutrients, but also carbohydrates, directly from one tree species to a other. Suzanne Simard describes this in her book:  "Finding the Mother Tree," how mycorrhizal fungi transport carbohydrates from Douglas Fir to Paperbark Birch in spring and the opposite direction during summer.

If a forest becomes stagnant and weak, fungi like armelaria melea take more extreme measures.  This mushroom is able to kill weak trees within weeks. It presses the reset button, sometimes killing whole forests and making the trees available for soil building organisms. In a healthy forest its presence is hard to detect as it does no harm, but when a soil is lacking in organic matter and woody material it can become problematic. This often happens in city parks or private gardens.
Tree pruning is a rare event in nature, mostly due to storm damage or fire. The woody material resulting from such an event are of great benefit for the forest over the long run, as it will build up soil via fungi. When trees are topped by 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 or topping event induces a growth impulse in the whole plant community, so that photosynthesis is maximized. Also trees start fruiting more heavily as this provides the optimal conditions to establish their seeds.

Understory plants like Yew often wait for centuries for such an event to occur. Storm damage or tree topping brings new live to a forest and lets it produce a bounty of fruits. Ernst Götsch observed this in his cacao plantation in Costa Rica. The plantation was a forest garden with many different tree species and cacao as understory plant. After a cyclone topped all tree in a 60m wide strip, the trees started regrowing quickly, but also the cacao responded very well  to the storm event. The yield went up by 100% for this season.

As the storm showed Ernst Götsch the benefits of topping trees, he does it now annually. The decaying woody material helps to build up soil very quickly, and the growth impulse given by the topped trees helps all plants near by. Rich topsoil is built at a rate of 1 to 3cm a year. Usually you can find topsoil increase by only 0.5 to 1mm a year according to scientific literature.

You can use this knowledge to improve your soil and make it sutble for demanding tree species. In nature, pioneers species are followed later 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 are improved to match their needs. Fast growing species will produce large amount of biomass early on. The topping of this pioneer species makes the woody biomass available early on for the basidiomycets fungi. This will speed up a process which in nature takes centuries down to only a decade or two.
Fungi will build up soil rapidly. Often exotic tree species can greatly accelerate the process: Eucalyptus, Robinia (Black Locust), or Ailanthus (Tree of Heaven) will produce lots of biomass very quickly,  but also Alder, Elm, Birch, and Poplar perform this function well.

Lets do a example for Central Switzerland, with deep but biologically inactive soil and about 600mm or more rainfall. The intended production species for this scenario are Cherry, Plum, Peach, Apple, Walnut, Oak, and Chestnut. To start with you plant the named species. But also, next to it, plant Silver Willow, Alder, Elm, Ash, Maple, Birch, and Lime (Linden). Maybe Poplar but it makes root suckers. Also exotics like Hippophae Salicifolia (Willow-leaved Sea Buckthorn), Paulownia, Gleditsia Triacanthos Inermis (Thornless Honey Locust), Toona Sinensis (Toon Tree, Garlic and Onions Tree), Xanthoceras Sorbifolium (Yellowhorn), Sophora Japonica (Styphnolobium japonicum, Japanese Pagoda Tree), or Morus (Mulberry) to name a few. They are planted at high density, about 10 plants per m2 (~10 square feet). From the first year onward, you top the pioneer 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 tall and top them at a a height of 5m (~16.5 ft). If you do this with Maple, Fraxinus (Ash), Gleditsia (Honey Locust), Cherry, Walnut, Chestnut, or maybe Morus you can produce high quality timber along side.

Some species like Willow continually regrow from the stump. You can cover it with plastic to prevent  that or plant them in a margin so that you can mow them. Also cattle and sheep will love to eat the new shoots and after a while it will give up. Brambles also help to improve the soil quality. You can cut them at the beginning. When the soil becomes loose over time and they have fulfilled their duty, they will be easy to pull.

Thanks for edeting

Syntropic agriculture is a new term for me. I stumbled across a nice little film from an outfit in New Zealand whilst looking a food forests :)
I haven't quite got my head round it yet.

There is a combination of succession planning and designed chop and drop with more intentional soil improvement through feeding soil organisms. I want to see what I may be able to apply (retrospectively) to my tree field and other garden areas here.

Thought I'd share this amazing interview from earlier this week highlighting some of the work Takota Coen is doing.
If I had to summarize it, it looks like he's taking the lessons learned from the greats (Gotsch, Sobkowiak, Lawton, etc) and distilling it down into an actionable blueprint anyone could follow.
(A plan which he's actively following and learning lessons from.)

K Eilander wrote:Thought I'd share this amazing interview from earlier this week highlighting some of the work Takota Coen is doing.
If I had to summarize it, it looks like he's taking the lessons learned from the greats (Gotsch, Sobkowiak, Lawton, etc) and distilling it down into an actionable blueprint anyone could follow.
(A plan which he's actively following and learning lessons from.)

Thanks for sharing that K.

I'll have a go at summarising some of the key principals that Takota mentions:

1) Strata: this can be considered to be equivalent to forest garden layers and is designed to harvest as much sunlight as possible.

2) Lifecycle: All plants go through growth, stagnation and senescens phases. The length varies according to the plant, from multiple generations in a year for some annuals through biannial plants, short and long lived perennials to centuries for some trees. The key is to harvest the biomass at the point at which the growth tends to senescence to gain maximum biomass production and maximise growth hormones. I liked the simile to a green lawn - cut regularly, that would go to a brown meadow if left uncut. "Chop and drop" becomes "mulch and organise". Planning to feed the shorter lived plants to the longer lived plants.

3) Succession: Appreciation of what stage your current vegetation and soil is, so as to implement the appropriate support system plants to build the soil. From ground cover, through soil building and transition to abundance.

4) Management: Logistics of cutting and management systems - How cutting and mulching and harvesting will be done (Tools, machines, animals) Management of energy and nutrients.

5) Synergy: Relationships between farm elements: how plants, landscape and animals interact.

For me I think #2 lifecycle is the key that separates syntropic agriculture as a permaculture system. This optimising the biomass production I find very interesting, although will need to do a whole lot more research to even think about starting a design!
I don't really appreciate the row elements as a design feature. I know it makes scaling up more feasible, but for me that is not an attraction. I wonder what other patterns would work well.

I actually listened to the whole while concentrating on my knitting, so I'm going to try and watch it again with the pictures, and see if I can pick out more significant points.

Oh - another thing! I thought it had some similarities with Miyawaki forests , what do others think?

Some lessons learnt from European start up - would apply just as well to other food forest systems I guess:

This one is the most complete free syntropic agriculture course I've seen in YouTube.

There is a new webinar recording that was just released over at Water Stories. Its all about Syntropic Agroforestry.  This is a really good one.  



And a PDF worth checking out "A Comprehensive Study: Ernst Gotsch's Agroecological Farm":  https://media2-production.mightynetworks.com/asset/d8215e41-7219-464c-8074-d8d6561a0eb9/A_Return_to_The_Garden_of_Eden_.pdf?

Thanks for everything you all are sharing, too!

"Syntropic Permaculture"

That sounds even better!  

I just came across an article written by Mike Hoag from 2018, and thought that it is worth adding to this thread:

https://transformativeadventures.org/2018/11/06/syntropic-permaculture-in-temperate-climates/?fbclid=IwY2xjawHWhX1leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHRZm3uGlRykPlvYB6A9rr_-sXKYypaTKeVL4GuahoVS7XOahhYHP350u9Q_aem_6grEhgzg9k_UZnjxY_iVSQ

Mike offers a great comparison between Syntropic Ag and Permaculture - helping to explain the similarities in terminology and key differences between the two very compatible approaches.  

By the way, there is finally a book out in English about "Syntropic Agriculture according to Ernst Gotsch"!  Here is an amazon link if anybody is curious about reading the description or wanting to buy it: https://a.co/d/5pC7FMQ

Hmm Ernst proposing his own evolution whereby selection is based on whatever is best for the ecosystem over darwinian evolution is uh, lets say a very bold idea...

Hard to put much credence into anything else they'd say, does anyone have hands on experience that can validate some of the efficacy of his methods?

Hi, Klaus.
Ernst has an unorthodox set of beliefs, which doesn't necessarily need to be valid or true, but it also happens that that set of beliefs is what has made him develop his farming system, which works well for him, and looks like it's working for more people. In my city there are people teaching the method, because they think it works.

I came across another video recently - a bit long so I haven't watched it all yet. It is more interesting to me because based on more temperate climates with a dormant winter season and less available daylight so talks about fewer strata for example.

Here's another one - a little maintenance on a new temperature syntropic system:

Nagotiate root space and activation pruning



After practicing syntropic forest garden in established forest I learn a few things I like to share.

Disturbance is necessary to establish new trees but in an old forest you like to keep the big and strong ones. Let’s look at this. What works and what doesn’t. I’m still in learning process. Disturbance needs to be strong so young trees can not only establish their root system but thrive. After disturbance root space is renegotiated, new and young trees get a chance to establish their root system. To achieve this old trees need to be pruned to the point part of their root system starts dying back. This seems to be a threshold for success. It should take the mother tree 2–5 years to recover its leaf surface.

Also planting trees in a young well established system can be challenging. First I tried to prune mother trees back in spring and again in summer. Mainly maple and ash. Not much foliage remained. Trees also were topped. I got somewhat of a growth pulse but the newly planted (plum trees 2–3 years ago) and mini kiwi (2 years ago) responded little to the pruning of neighboring mother trees. So I decided to cut some of the mother trees to 1 m, others to the ground. They were about 6–8 m high.

This gave much better response. Now mother trees and fruit tree seem to be synchronized and can grow together. Drastic steps like this are only necessary when you plant into established system. When you plant into shrubs like dogwood 3–4 prunings can be necessary in the first year to get sufficient synchronized growth. Keep in mind root system is much bigger than the canopy. With a bit of practice you can distinguish trees by their root.

For example:

* Walnut black fibrous yellowish inside distinct smell
* Ash white greenish
* Maple brown red somewhat brittle
* Spruce red brown scaly resin smell
* Elder white brown thick distinct smell
* Mulberry yellow brown light color fibrous and thick

When you dig planting hole you find roots and can tell where they come from. If multiple trees of same species around you can measure electric resistance from root to trunk and you should be able to find to which tree they belong. The biggest healthiest tree in the area dominates root space. He is responsible for what grows and what doesn’t. Roots can reach 10 to 35 m from the trunk, in extreme case over 50 m.

In good aerated soil roots of all species grow deep. We find spruce roots while digging a well at depth of 9 m. They followed a gravel layer that was well aerated. Spruce is known for its shallow root system usually 20–50 cm.

On soil with bad aeration most species remain on the surface. Surface soil becomes very crowded with roots. This can lead to water and nutrients competition. Shrubs and grasses can struggle in this case. To make deeper soil available to all species plant pioneers known for their ability to penetrate heavy soil and deal with low oxygen level. At my place I use combination of silver willow, black alder, poplar, elm. This combination can break up compaction. Silver willow survive 3 months of flooding and is able to actively aerate soil, at the same time it has some drought tolerance. Black alder is similar.

That was a little root excursion.


Let’s look at a practical example of planting in an established forest.

Benedikt Bösel from Gut & Bösel did exactly that. 3 trials as I remember correctly. Pinus sylvestris monoculture.

* Removal of 30%
* Removal of 60%
* Clearcut

The effects were drastically different.
Removal 30% and 60% are somewhat similar. Growth was medium to low. Slow establishment of new plants.

In the clearcut new growth was explosive.
It’s not about the species but the growth state of the trees. If you have senescent trees you will have this problem. Root space needs to be freed up so new trees can establish. After disturbance root space is renegotiated, new and young trees get a chance to establish their root system.

When you do heavy pruning on large trees it can happen that you have no effect. In my experience growth pulse is not linked to the pruning but to regrowing. Old trees can take a few years to start heavily regrow. Also some stumps can be active in the ground and slow down regrowth for a few years. Not entirely sure but for example: when you cut down large Fagus sylvatica the stump lives on for a few years. On the other hand pine and spruce roots die within months after tree is cut. When root dies mycorrhiza also dies unless there are living trees it is connected to or newly planted trees where it connects.

Mycorrhiza often have multiple host species. Truffle (Tuber aestivum) forms symbiotic relationship with following tree species:

* Tilia linden
* Quercus oak
* Pinus nigra black pine
* Prunus avium cherry
* Sambucus nigra black elder
* Corylus avellana European hazel
* Castanea sativa chestnut
* and more

This ability to colonize very different species enables mycorrhiza to exchange sugar and nutrients between trees. Actively growing trees with young crown mean also high activity in the mycorrhiza network. This should lead to more mushroom fruiting. Mycorrhiza benefit from tree, shrub and herb diversity. If you like to do a deep dive look up Paul Stamets *Mycelium Running* or Suzanne Simard *Mother Tree*.

What I describe here is the wood wide web.
The wood wide web wants to maximize photosynthesis and it benefits from plant diversity. Disturbance is necessary to renegotiate relationships in the root zone.

In a forest I tested time it takes to start regrowing. It is drastically different from species to species:

* Fagus sylvatica senescent 3–6 years
* Tilia ssp. senescent 1 month – 1 year
* Pinus sylvestris senescent 3–8 years
* Fraxinus excelsior senescent 2–3 years
* Salix alba 2 weeks
* Acer pseudoplatanus senescent 2–3 years

Young or actively growing trees respond very quickly, also the slow species above. To respond quickly I believe they need strong annual shoots to continue growth and give a good growth pulse. Sometimes it’s good to do pre-cut to encourage old trees to form new strong shoots so when you do disturbance they can recover quickly.

In old cherry and pear this is particularly important. Otherwise tree can die. So what I usually do is cut a few upward facing branches to break apical dominance and encourage new growth. Cherry particularly struggle to sprout from old wood. What you can do is increase sap pressure, this will help to resprout. To achieve increased sap pressure I leave a stump instead of cutting back to a fork. In this stump sap is trapped and new sprouts are more likely. I do this with upward facing main branches and also reduce upward facing side branches where I want them to resprout. What remains looks like deer antler.

In senescent cherry I take out about 30% of leaf mass to achieve this activation pruning. Afterwards I give the tree 2 years to build new shoots. After 2 years you see where the tree wants to grow. You remove where it didn’t. In this activated state cherry are capable of 3 m growth annually while before they did just a few cm.

When you want regrow on a specific spot you can do a cut there about 2 cm deep half way around. Below the cut buds will wake up and sprout. This because you break apical dominance and increase sap pressure. Apical dominance is due to auxin, a plant hormone produced in the tip transported down to the roots in the phloem. Auxin encourages root growth and keeps buds from sprouting.

Cherry has naturally a very open crown, light is penetrating deep inside the canopy usually to the trunk. If you rejuvenate a cherry keep that in mind. When it starts regrowing you need to thin it otherwise it can shade itself out. Only leaves at the crown surface get enough light. You end up with very bad ratio leaf surface to mass. Sometimes cherry regrow well for a few years but then die due to self-shading or at least end up senescent again. Open crowned species like birch, walnut, poplar, silver willow are more vulnerable than closed canopy trees like beech, maple, elm.

Pre-pruning is recommended for tree species which take long time to resprout due to the species or its senescence. If you climb up the tree and you find strong annual shoots in the inside the tree usually responds well to pruning.

Activation pruning and thinning is something fun to experiment. You can balance a tree towards biomass or fruit production. Strong annual shoots and enough thinning lead to increased fruit yield, quality and size. To learn this principle you can train on shrubs. First year you cut to the ground, second year you do thinning. Depending on the species you will have bumper crop in second, third or fourth year. Thinning is the key and needs to be repeated. A deep dive into that needs to be separate post.

If you can’t prune or long resprouting time is a problem you can also do root pruning around your new plants. We did this at the forest edge with a tractor and a 40 cm blade. The effect was clearly seen within a few months and dramatic after one year when grass became lush and green.

No need to say this stresses old trees severely. In my case trees lost about 25% of roots. We cut about 7 m from trunk.

You need to create an area with roots of young vigorously growing tree. Or at least no living senescent root. Cut off roots or cut down senescent tree are the second best option. But living senescent tree are no option for fast establishment. If that also not option at least do watering system.

You can cut down small groups of 2–4 trees then you have in the center an area with no competing roots of senescent trees. If you cut back roots give your new plants enough space. Old trees can do rapid root growth in loose soil 2–3 m annually. Have this from graveyard gardener who has plenty of experience. He says Taxus baccata does easily 2 m a year. From the book *Understanding Roots*: apple tree can grow down 2.5 m in one year if loose soil is given. Some tropical figs do 6 m aerial roots a year.

Your plant bed and seed nest are very attractive for hungry roots, they can smell it from meters away.

Last words.
With a bit of practice you can tell apart different tree roots. That is very useful skill to develop

Check out Byron Grows on YouTube, he made a video about Gut & Bösel planting trials.

Great post Patrick!
So you're finding that to establish a syntropic system in an establish woodland you can basically coppice the older trees during the growing season? I think I would be worried about killing the tree if they were that well established....I suppose that would be one way of making a gap in the canopy/root system though.

Basically yes. Then you have to set priorities do you want your mother trees to survive go gentel on them do activation pruning ahed.
You can afford loosing some mother trees go ahed wit polarding. Also dependes mutch on the species you deeling with.

If recover is top priority do pruning in fall or winter. If you deel wit bleeding tree do prun when it's warm enough.  Basically oposit when you would harvest maple sirup.
When you deal with agent trees give your self 10 year time to develop your skil. You can't unprun a tree. I cut down some old ones but each time i walk by the stump i regret.

I guess all we are doing is pushing nature a little - when a storm comes through, trees come down and make way for the new growth. We are just taking place of the storm to create a space for that new life.

I'll second Patrick's mentioning of Byron Grows YT channel, massive amount of high quality videos on syntropic agroforestry - from educational videos on different aspects of syntropy incl. planning, installing and managing to many farm tours around the world, from Brazil to Europe and Australia/New Zealand. Very practical in his approach which is highly appreciated.

Few videos I'd like to put forward:

The Food Forest Masterclass - 3 and a half hours of fundamentals, design, installation and management


Amadeco tour with Felipe Pasini - fenomenal demonstration farm in southern Italy, different systems af different sizes, by Felipe Pasini and Dayana Andrade, long term Ernst interns. I've learned a lot from this one, not just about practical issues but also on philosophy of syntropic principles


Here's another video of Amadeco farm and interview with Felipe, other yt channel, video complementary to the one above


For our Mediterranean permies here's another very good video from Byron - farm in Balearic islands


There's much more, from different climate types, there's something for everyone, some of them are linked in previous posts. I've focused on Med area since that's where I live. But even if you are in different climate, farm tour videos linked above are worth to watch due to the great understanding and experience of people managing those farms.

P.S.
If anyone needs a community that revolvs around syntropic theme, Byron's free Food Forest Family on skool is great. Not just for being able to exchange questions, experience etc with other community members, but there's more material uploaded, videos not just those on youtube but others, some webinars, videos of zoom calls between members etc. Very very helpfull!

[NOTE to admins - not sure if following is allowed here since it mentions a paid service - if not please let me know and I'll remove it]
There's also a paid one Food Forest Fellowship for anyone needing even more knowledge, interaction and help with their project. Huge amount of high quality stuff and bunch of people that can actually help with your dilemmas and questions etc, worth every cent in my opinion - for me even more so than many PDCs an what not.