When I worked with Ernst the first time at the beginning of his farm in bahia he was still in a struggle to get the degraded soil to grow crops and tried the organic way with gypsum and phosphate rockdust. He could only afford that on a fraction of the land. Later it turned out the areas without the input surpassed the amended because he had to rely on the correct assembly of accumulation species and their timely management. It was largely based on banna grass, castor and some native shrubs. Later introduced main cash crop cocoa caught up with the amended areas. This shows the best fertilizers are observation, understanding, DNA, and a sound strategy to arrange and manage it all based on biological intelligence.
So refreshing to hear people talk about their mistakes as well their successes. Interesting, Ernst was quoted as saying that 3 acres should be a good size for 1x household to manage all their food, fuel and fibre needs under Syntropics. Scott, how do you feel about Syntropics in Temperate parts of Australia?
Hi, I think that temperate and Mediterranean climates in Australia is where the big potential lays, I'm planning on heading south this coming Autumn to run some workshops in Victoria. We've only just started with syntropy and the future is very exciting
AWSSS... I did make a mistake with my farm, getting more from the ground with lesser biomass... I agree with you on this...I have been doing intropic instead of syntropic. I will definitely carry your inputs...thanks with this.
Marie, I have a special discount deal on The Syntropic Workshop where you can learn all of this, please check it out www.syntropia.com.au/syntropic-farming-course-membership
While working my way true all the videos (after having watched this one first) l decided to watch it again, because you know, it’s full of good information 😉
Yes much solid info in this video. I'm not part of the group yet as I have had constraints. But that didn't stop me attempting to get it right on my own place. This is uniquely terrible soil, spotted gum country, that has resisted all attempts at rehab. The ants just ramp up and eat everything. The more goes in the more ants are bred to consume it. I was never able to get above their consumption when using compost, etc. So the soil was always hungry and unbalanced. I thought I was winning one year then drought came again. It is a cycle here of 9yrs drought and 1 or 2 yrs reasonable rain with some deluges causing flooding in between which only make things worse. There is a reasonable year after the rainy years, then it is the old hard slog of drought, often with no wet season at all. I tried to begin again in one of those bad years because I was sick of pouring water on for no discernable result. With no way to hold the moisture in the soil, it hits the schist layer which is 5cm down and runs off to the neighbour's place. They have a green gutter from the water that should be staying on my place. Yes, the land is fairly sloppy but your place has a decent slope too. I tried a few types of grasses but all failed once the lack of rain became overwhelming. Even the strongest natives such as blady fail here in the dry. I did have marginal success with Rhodes grass but it overpowers everything and completely takes over expanding its range dramatically so nothing else could get a foothold. I really did think those two grasses, the rhodes and the blady would be excellent but there are more reasons than just the obvious. So eventually I will be able to afford to do a couple of courses on weekends away and learn more. Now I don't have the horses I can go away to some other part of the country and follow the teaching cycle to learn from others who hopefully are succeeding in arid climates. I have 16ac here but only trying to win on quarter acre to begin with. Still trying to get that bit right. But might sell the big farm and just start again with an ordinary house block.
Not anymore. Now the horses are gone to horsey heaven, there is no animal inputs other than wallaby poo! But I solved the whole dilemma. I sold the farm and bought 1500sqm of nice black soil well north of where I was previously. It's such a relief to have half decent soil to work with.
You can't turn on a light bulb without a battery, similarly it looks like you need the biomass established first before you plant your crop and you don't load the system with too much crop
Thanks for the video. This explains why I've done so badly at this. I started with a guave plantation (3x3m spacing) and removed every third line to allow for cropping. I started by planting bananas and other trees in the guave lines and cropping in between, but it looks like too much cropping. I've never managed to control the weeds and never have enough biomass for mulching the cropping areas. So it would be better to crop one third of the strip with grasses in the two thirds? Do you till the soil to start with? I am in Southern Philippines, humid tropics and this year we had no dry season. Thanks Eric
Very good stuff. Im new to syntropic so a few questions: Christine Jones claim that 8 or more species grown together is one of the secrets to quick soil building, does syntropic see the samme experience? And how is your soil treatment, is it strictly no-till from day one? Do you add any compost extract or manure at any time? Thx, John in Denmark
Hi John, you are talking about the Quorum effect, and yes, syntropic ag has a powerful Quorum effect. There are many ways to prepare your ground depending on context. I have now chosen to just use grass management for my preparation, with a little rock phosphate and I innoculate with biology
Thanks a lot! Do I understand it right, when I would provide inputs (hay) from another garden, I can go bigger in the plants/trees growing immediately?
You can apply inputs from elswhere to get started, but when the system provides its own inputs, you get the positive feedbacks, so it is important to include the grasses and weedy pioneers
Hi Scott and co., what’s the difference between a “hungry system” and early lifecycle plants that are boosting the macro system early in the life cycle. For instance, vegetables such as corn are heavy feeders, but aren’t they also feeding the macrosystem beneficially through heavy photosynthesis in the early stage ? Same goes for all these early vegetable crops, are they also helping the system a lot through early stage photosynthesis instead of being “hungry”? I don’t seem to understand the distinction between hungry plants and plants that actually boost the macro organism through early photosynthesis. thanks guys
I guess hungry can be translated to demanding, primarily in the sense of soil quality. Early life cycle plants can, but do not have to be demanding. There is the distinction between colonisation, accumulation and abundance systems- each having its appropriate species.
I create my garden for the garden, for the plants, the insects. If I get something for myself that's just a benefit. Just don't be selfish, that's the clue.
@@syntropia_regenerator hi, thanks for your feedback. Generally there are no perfect systems in nature. The caos is somehow necessary to diversity. Trying to understand systems is good for the most sustainable solution, one thing us certain, actual global agriculture based on soil exaustion, tilling and syntetic products is not the way. That is for sure. Perfection lies on human attitude to change its behaviours and learning with nature.
Hey dude, great video and explained very clearly. So in a a nutshell its the accumulation stage that youre dealing with here, getting the soil microorganisms et al all doing their thing before putting in trees and shrubs right? Here in Portugal I have real good results with Mombasa grass.
By accumulation I mean all species of lower succession which do the work of accumulating enough carbon in order to store nitrogen which supports higher succession species, accumulation phase includes many trees, such as eucalypt
@@syntropia_regenerator Thanks, but sorry, I should've been more specific. Why is it that every fourth row is a tree row, as opposed to every other row being a tree row, or something along those lines?
When I worked with Ernst the first time at the beginning of his farm in bahia he was still in a struggle to get the degraded soil to grow crops and tried the organic way with gypsum and phosphate rockdust. He could only afford that on a fraction of the land. Later it turned out the areas without the input surpassed the amended because he had to rely on the correct assembly of accumulation species and their timely management. It was largely based on banna grass, castor and some native shrubs. Later introduced main cash crop cocoa caught up with the amended areas. This shows the best fertilizers are observation, understanding, DNA, and a sound strategy to arrange and manage it all based on biological intelligence.
So true Klaus, upon this realisation I am much more confident moving forward
Sorry but I don’t understand a word you are saying
@@Anosha116try to cycle through the natural successions as fast as possible
So refreshing to hear people talk about their mistakes as well their successes.
Interesting, Ernst was quoted as saying that 3 acres should be a good size for 1x household to manage all their food, fuel and fibre needs under Syntropics.
Scott, how do you feel about Syntropics in Temperate parts of Australia?
Hi, I think that temperate and Mediterranean climates in Australia is where the big potential lays, I'm planning on heading south this coming Autumn to run some workshops in Victoria. We've only just started with syntropy and the future is very exciting
AWSSS... I did make a mistake with my farm, getting more from the ground with lesser biomass... I agree with you on this...I have been doing intropic instead of syntropic. I will definitely carry your inputs...thanks with this.
Marie, I have a special discount deal on The Syntropic Workshop where you can learn all of this, please check it out
www.syntropia.com.au/syntropic-farming-course-membership
Please consider my premium content at a massively reduced price - only 7.99 per month www.syntropia.com.au/syntropic-farming-course-membership
Thanks that you are sharing both your success and falures!
Very helpful info scott for somebody starting out with syntropic agriculture, very exciting! will be looking into your learning platform
Well spoken, informative and articulated. I'll be following your work if all your videos are like this
Thanks Matt, I'm trying my best to improve my communication methods. I have a lot to share, still learning the best way to do it
@@syntropia_regenerator I found the endless close-up face image irritating and would prefer photos with voice over. Hope that is helpful.
Solid expression of the problem
While working my way true all the videos (after having watched this one first) l decided to watch it again, because you know, it’s full of good information 😉
Yes much solid info in this video. I'm not part of the group yet as I have had constraints. But that didn't stop me attempting to get it right on my own place. This is uniquely terrible soil, spotted gum country, that has resisted all attempts at rehab. The ants just ramp up and eat everything. The more goes in the more ants are bred to consume it. I was never able to get above their consumption when using compost, etc. So the soil was always hungry and unbalanced.
I thought I was winning one year then drought came again. It is a cycle here of 9yrs drought and 1 or 2 yrs reasonable rain with some deluges causing flooding in between which only make things worse. There is a reasonable year after the rainy years, then it is the old hard slog of drought, often with no wet season at all.
I tried to begin again in one of those bad years because I was sick of pouring water on for no discernable result. With no way to hold the moisture in the soil, it hits the schist layer which is 5cm down and runs off to the neighbour's place. They have a green gutter from the water that should be staying on my place.
Yes, the land is fairly sloppy but your place has a decent slope too. I tried a few types of grasses but all failed once the lack of rain became overwhelming. Even the strongest natives such as blady fail here in the dry. I did have marginal success with Rhodes grass but it overpowers everything and completely takes over expanding its range dramatically so nothing else could get a foothold. I really did think those two grasses, the rhodes and the blady would be excellent but there are more reasons than just the obvious.
So eventually I will be able to afford to do a couple of courses on weekends away and learn more. Now I don't have the horses I can go away to some other part of the country and follow the teaching cycle to learn from others who hopefully are succeeding in arid climates.
I have 16ac here but only trying to win on quarter acre to begin with. Still trying to get that bit right. But might sell the big farm and just start again with an ordinary house block.
Do you have the animal manure inputs for increased soil biology? Poo is essential
Not anymore. Now the horses are gone to horsey heaven, there is no animal inputs other than wallaby poo!
But I solved the whole dilemma. I sold the farm and bought 1500sqm of nice black soil well north of where I was previously.
It's such a relief to have half decent soil to work with.
You can't turn on a light bulb without a battery, similarly it looks like you need the biomass established first before you plant your crop and you don't load the system with too much crop
That’s a good point.
Thanx buddy, im just starting, a small tao & banana garden too. Great advice and im feeling more confident.
Thanks for the video. This explains why I've done so badly at this. I started with a guave plantation (3x3m spacing) and removed every third line to allow for cropping. I started by planting bananas and other trees in the guave lines and cropping in between, but it looks like too much cropping. I've never managed to control the weeds and never have enough biomass for mulching the cropping areas. So it would be better to crop one third of the strip with grasses in the two thirds? Do you till the soil to start with? I am in Southern Philippines, humid tropics and this year we had no dry season. Thanks Eric
I try to improve so 2 square metres of biomass can cover 1 square metre of area as mulch. On my new farm I'm 13:1
czcams.com/video/mgbEhq2ZcWE/video.html
what kind of grasses should I be planting? My land is full of paspalum.
Mombasa grass is good, but paspalum will suffice if it is healthy
Very good stuff. Im new to syntropic so a few questions: Christine Jones claim that 8 or more species grown together is one of the secrets to quick soil building, does syntropic see the samme experience? And how is your soil treatment, is it strictly no-till from day one? Do you add any compost extract or manure at any time? Thx, John in Denmark
Hi John, you are talking about the Quorum effect, and yes, syntropic ag has a powerful Quorum effect. There are many ways to prepare your ground depending on context. I have now chosen to just use grass management for my preparation, with a little rock phosphate and I innoculate with biology
Thanks a lot! Do I understand it right, when I would provide inputs (hay) from another garden, I can go bigger in the plants/trees growing immediately?
You can apply inputs from elswhere to get started, but when the system provides its own inputs, you get the positive feedbacks, so it is important to include the grasses and weedy pioneers
salutes, Much love
Hi Scott, great information
Thanks Scott that was really great
Hi Scott and co., what’s the difference between a “hungry system” and early lifecycle plants that are boosting the macro system early in the life cycle.
For instance, vegetables such as corn are heavy feeders, but aren’t they also feeding the macrosystem beneficially through heavy photosynthesis in the early stage ? Same goes for all these early vegetable crops, are they also helping the system a lot through early stage photosynthesis instead of being “hungry”?
I don’t seem to understand the distinction between hungry plants and plants that actually boost the macro organism through early photosynthesis. thanks guys
I guess hungry can be translated to demanding, primarily in the sense of soil quality.
Early life cycle plants can, but do not have to be demanding.
There is the distinction between colonisation, accumulation and abundance systems- each having its appropriate species.
Hi Scott, what type of grass are you using at the half way point in this video?
That particular grass was Millet
I can say with confidence that I didn't make that mistake, but I made many others.
I create my garden for the garden, for the plants, the insects.
If I get something for myself that's just a benefit.
Just don't be selfish, that's the clue.
What is the machine/tool at 18:13?
Its a rotary hay rake
You should debate this issue with Ernst Goetsch...
This topic mostly comes from Ernst, he talks about it a lot, he calls them "hungry systems"
@@syntropia_regenerator hi, thanks for your feedback. Generally there are no perfect systems in nature. The caos is somehow necessary to diversity. Trying to understand systems is good for the most sustainable solution, one thing us certain, actual global agriculture based on soil exaustion, tilling and syntetic products is not the way. That is for sure. Perfection lies on human attitude to change its behaviours and learning with nature.
Good job
I like its
Hey dude, great video and explained very clearly. So in a a nutshell its the accumulation stage that youre dealing with here, getting the soil microorganisms et al all doing their thing before putting in trees and shrubs right? Here in Portugal I have real good results with Mombasa grass.
By accumulation I mean all species of lower succession which do the work of accumulating enough carbon in order to store nitrogen which supports higher succession species, accumulation phase includes many trees, such as eucalypt
Hey man, so where did you buy the seeds for the mombasa grass? I’m also in portugal and can’t find any in europe so far..
@@pietsnot7002 the seed is hard to get, I had some given to me by someone who brought them from Brazil, I will endeavour to harvest the seed from it
Can you direct me to a book or article with a comprehensive overview of the Syntropic Agroforestry method?
I'm just about to publish a book on this, stay tuned
Why is it that every fourth row you have is a tree row? Thanks!
Because it is agroforestry and trees have a positive effect
@@syntropia_regenerator Thanks, but sorry, I should've been more specific. Why is it that every fourth row is a tree row, as opposed to every other row being a tree row, or something along those lines?
@@matthewfletcher7710 This ends up being the optimal spacing for the trees
Please put me on your mailing list. If it’s any help, I’m a good proof reader.
@macrooganism thanks!