Conversion from wheat monocrop to fruit and veg Orchard

Jul 14, 2015 03:13:49

I want to turn a 1.5 hectare land into a food forest with vegetables, grains, fruit trees and flowers as eye candies and treats for my bees. The land is in a dry Mediterranean climate, hot in the summer reaching 50 degrees celsius and temperate in the winters around 10 degrees Celsius, frosting 4 or 5 days a year, we get 300mm of rain in winter, the land has been irrigated from a well and used for wheat crops for many years, it has an OK yield but the soil is extremely dry and needs rebuilding.
What do you suggest for this conversion? Can i go from wheat to fruit trees and flowers straight away? tilling before planting or no-tilling?

Thanks you

Jul 14, 2015 08:40:11

Norah sun wrote:I want to turn a 1.5 hectare land into a food forest with vegetables, grains, fruit trees and flowers as eye candies and treats for my bees. The land is in a dry Mediterranean climate, hot in the summer reaching 50 degrees celsius and temperate in the winters around 10 degrees Celsius, frosting 4 or 5 days a year, we get 300mm of rain in winter, the land has been irrigated from a well and used for wheat crops for many years, it has an OK yield but the soil is extremely dry and needs rebuilding.
What do you suggest for this conversion? Can i go from wheat to fruit trees and flowers straight away? tilling before planting or no-tilling?

Thanks you

Our property is former wheat fields. Soil is terrible but earth works and cover crops have made a difference. I think I would till if I were you. Till the wheat stalks under and cover crop the area!

Jul 14, 2015 08:47:40

Hi, could you tell me a bit more about your conversion? how long did it take to have an acceptable soil for fruit trees and roses for exemple? a season? a year? more?
Also what kind of cover crop did you use? Also which earth work did you do? what's your climate?
Thank you

Jul 14, 2015 10:19:40

Norah sun wrote:Hi, could you tell me a bit more about your conversion? how long did it take to have an acceptable soil for fruit trees and roses for exemple? a season? a year? more?
Also what kind of cover crop did you use? Also which earth work did you do? what's your climate?
Thank you

Well our land was wheat field that was subdivided. We are the second owners of our home. The home is now 15 years old. So 15 years out from wheat field. However, it was severely over grazed by the previous owners. This is me basically saying we have extremely dead ground even this far out. We have this low growing weed and cheat grass on most of the land.

So we are on the experimental 5 still. I have done swales with berms and mini kraters. You can see most of that on my blog www.peacockorchard.com or in my projects thread here on permies.

It is my personal opinion that people think fruit trees are pickier than I've found them to be. Sure, some die, but some flourish. It's all about finding those flourishers. Lodi apple seems to be our solid apple tree. We also have a well growing plum. And this is all stuff I just plopped into berms in the middle of July and abused. They came back!

I've cover cropped with a huge variety of things but it is mostly clover on the berms and swales. The kraters have such a diversity I couldn't even name it all but to abbreviate it's Amaranth, grasses, different grains and clovers, sunflowers, quinoa, and various wild flowers.

Jul 18, 2015 02:54:37

Very helpful, thank you very much

Jul 29, 2015 05:55:01

What is you anual rainfall, or what country and city do you live in.

Sep 29, 2015 03:44:58

Hi Johsua Pendleton, Annual rainfall is 300mm and i live in Morocco Marrakech region

Hi elle sagenev Thank you for these precision, i just read your blog, plenty of good tips, i like the mini krater with the pawpaw tree in the middle, i will start by tilling the wheat roots then experimenting with different types of earth works to see what works best, i will then plant some seeds: clover, sunflower, alfalfa, amaranth, and flowers. Mulch it with straw and let it grow for few months, Autumn in starting here and i will wait for spring to plant the first fruit trees.

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