I have a couple acres of former industrial-ag cornfield I am planning on converting to a permie orchard over the next year or so. I’ve got a general design outline, but since I am relatively new to all of this, I wanted to run it by folks here and hopefully get a discussion going that would be helpful for everyone.
Goals:
- long-term perennial crops, especially nuts for a resilient source of fats and proteins for family and community
- low- or no- input, at least after the first year or two for establishment
- low upkeep
- simple harvesting process
- revenue/income generation only enough to cover property tax or similar ongoing costs (ie. non-profit)
Land properties:
- open field, high sun
- 4-5% slope, so gentle/moderate slope
- clay, acid soil with low-ish organic content
- historical avg. 40″ of rain per year, but trending more towards extremes with flood events and draught
Crops (tentative):
- Heartnut/Butternut (40%)
- Hazelnut (20%)
- Chestnut (10%)
- Honeyberry (10%)
- Mulberry (10%)
- Pawpaw (10%)
This isn’t so much intended to be the end-goal crop composition so much as an initial test to see how things perform and scale from there.
Orchard Design:
- Crop plants on 20′ – 30′ rows
- More dense plantings grown from seed vs. cultivars
- Swales on contour, crops planted on or near berms downslope
- Alleys cover cropped with nitrogen fixation from clover, vetch, and general biomass grasses
- Interplanted densely with nitrogen fixers such as goumi and native alder
- Hybrid willows, native alder, and black locust planted in the swales for biomass coppicing and water management
- Coppiced wood goes into the swales, lasagna’d with mowed alley grass clippings as a sort of lazy/in situ hugelkultur
- No irrigation or input fertilization – hoping the passive setup will be enough to grow suitable genetics
“Business” Design:
After initial establishment
- Personal harvesting for food, nursery seed stock to grow more locally hardy cultivars, farmer’s markets etc
- work with local community services that offer volunteer work for harvesting in exchange for food for food banks or similar food distribution
- WWOOFing, similarly primarily for community distribution
Thoughts? Feel free to tear any of this apart. I’d rather find out I’m wrong now than find it out five years later!
submitted by /u/Vast-Wash2775
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