Permaculture in an Organic Vineyard at a Radical Ecovillage
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- čas přidán 28. 06. 2022
- I live in what is probably North America's most radical ecovillage, Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. I moved here over 15 years ago to live in the country closer to the land, and to devote my life to reducing my impact on the planet.
Spring is the time for getting the garden in. Part of my garden is in my organic vineyard. I don't just grow grapes. I grow cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, and melons between my grape vines. And in the past few years I've also been growing perennial flowers to provide an additional cash crop from the space. I use comfrey within the rows of grapes to smother the grasses and other weeds that would otherwise rob the grapevines of water and nutrients. Most vineyards would just spray herbicide to control the weeds. Permaculture is possible even in a vineyard.
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Thanks for sharing. I have had a few clients ask for permaculture designs for their vineyards and I’ll be incorporating some of these elements.
One project is a 5000 vine vineyard (to start) so it’s important that we have better solutions than constant chemical additions.
Well done! All looks so lush and healthy! Admire your work!
So nice to watch your video again!And everything looks fantastic!! Thanks!!🌱🎶
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
@@HardcoreSustainable I did!! And always inspiring!!
Some great ideas. I will try the comfrey in the vineyards I look after.
I like your comfrey grapes.
Production levels are just getting better and better, the garden and crops are looking amazing 👏
Thanks, yes, renewing the vines in the last couple years by cutting the trunks to the ground seems to be making a big difference. In one season they grow back to bigger than they were before I cut them down and it will get rid of the winter damage to the trunks that blocks the flow of nutrients.
I miss Banjo ❤️
Aw, so do I. Every day.
Good idea with the comfrey ,talking of bees have you thought about putting a bit of land aside for wildflowers for the bees etc?
Most of our 280 acres is just wildland that we maintain as prairie and some woodlands. That is amazing habitat for all kinds of wildlife, bird life, and wildflowers. Most of our land will always be wild natural habitat.
Honeyberry is a cool and rather trouble free novelty, I planted 2 this year and plan on planting a few more.
As to grapes - in my area (climate zone 5B) we can't grow table grapes, only wine grapes, because they get infected within a year or 2 with some fungus decease. I remember reading [1] that biochar helps permanently aerate the soil so that wheat barely ever gets a fungus decease in areas where it does. So I'm planning this fall to dig out 2 cubic meters of soil and mix in 20-30% biochar and plant 2 table grapes of different varieties to see how they fare. If it works it will work forever because biochar takes centuries to decompose. And one doesn't need to make it out of wood, dry grass works fine if not better because it's a lot softer and finer so one doesn't need to crush it. Today I raked a lot of dry grass and burned it in a cone pit and got 1.5 wheelbarrows of biochar (I used water to quench it). Though I imagine in your area it's forbidden to burn anything.
[1] Quote from "Biochar in 19th Century Europe and North America: A partial review":
Every observing farmer who has been accustomed to raise wheat cannot have failed to notice the luxuriant growth of cereal grain round about the places where charcoal has been burned, even more than thirty or forty years ago. The growing stems of wheat that are produced on such old charcoal-beds are seldom affected with rust; and besides this, the straw is always much stiffer than that which grows where there is not a dressing of charcoal.
Wow, that's really interesting info. I haven't yet done a lot with biochar, but someone here bought a biochar oven kind of thing for pretty large scale biochar production. It's basically a sheet of metal in a ring shape and you pile all the wood or grass and sticks in there and light it and then keep feeding it. It's meant to create an oxygen starved areas where the organic matter is burning below the gases released above. They've made a lot of charcoal with our village prunings and anything else they can burn. We are allowed to burn things here and do prescribed burns in our prairie. I don't know what they are doing with the charcoal to turn it into biochar, but I assume someone is doing that.
I tend to be skeptical of things suddenly become very popular, have all these benefits attributed to them, and then everybody's talking about them and doing them. Biochar has become that in the last several years. I like to keep an open mind and see the scientific studies about it to see if there is evidence it does all the things claimed for it. It does seem like there is scientific research supporting the benefits of burying charcoal and biochar to sequester carbon and improve soil. Finding references to it helping prevent disease in old books is good info to find, too.
@Cosmo Kramer I love your usernames. Now I'm more skeptical. 😀 Somehow I don't see there being massive profits to be made from biochar like there is oil and coal. And there wouldn't be any trees left if it was done on a large scale. I doubt that good soil building practices alone would stop climate change, but it's a nice thought. Biochar is something to keep studying and experimenting with.
I've found that CZcams doesn't like links to other sites in comments, even if you are trying to reference sources.
Just curious where you source water for all the crops from? I'm new to your channel, currently living in a suburb and making plans to come visit DR soon. My biggest question so far is about water...
Most of the water I use to water my garden and vineyard comes from rainwater catchment. I can only really use county water at my house garden sometimes. There is a large tank on a nearby building that I pipe water from as well, and then I have a couple rain barrels at my house. For the vineyard, all the water comes from our swimming pond. I have an older video where I talk about my water pump and tank for the vineyard and hoop house. If we have a drought and the pond level gets low I'll stop pumping water from it, but this season it's been very rainy.
I don't suppose you'd be interested in implementing some permaculture techniques into the Yavapai College vineyard out here in the Verde Valley?
I'm trying to get them to be more sustainable. They discard their crushed stems and skins into the dumpster!!
I'd love to find out more about that project. It looks like that's in northern Arizona? It seems like at least composting grape waste would be better.
@@HardcoreSustainable I know right! I'm actually trying to assemble a team for some investors right now. A team that goes around and implements permaculture techniques to anyone who will have them, including the vineyards and stuff. I have a certificate in permaculture design from Oregon State but I think this calls for more practiced hands. What i'd really love is for the college to designate 1/4 acre of their campus or vineyard to experimenting with and teaching permaculture.
@@specie44 That sounds like a good idea. If I was a little closer, I'd be up for helping out.
Hi. How has the project with comfrey in the vineyard gone? Would you call it a success? Do you notice a difference?
I would call it a success. I've planted it pretty extensively now and it's beginning to fill in. The only problem I've had is that some of the vines are midwire trained, so they are closer to the ground and shade out the comfrey somewhat. It usually takes about three years after the initial planting to see mulch coverage that blocks the grass growing.
Hi Dan. Do you get a consistent crop of grapes each year? I'm not aware of any other organic vineyards in your region. Also, have you tried commercial cropping of native fruits, such as pawpaw, saskatoon, and persimmon? I've been thinking about selling pemmican made very much like the natives did. I'll be there for the next visitor program- see you soon.
Hi Joe, I get a fairly consistent crop now that I've replanted with mostly varieties that can produce in our soil, climate, and using organic methods. The biggest problem now is the raccoons, possums, and birds in that order. I have to net the vines, which is a lot of work and expense, and the raccoons and possums will just bust through the netting or crawl along the top of the vines over the netting and eat the grapes they can reach. I'm now experimenting with a top wire that is suspended about 2 feet above the canopy and I put the netting over that so it's held away from the grapes and there is no flat surface for the animals to crawl over.
We grow some native persimmons, and there are a couple pawpaws growing here, but they seem temperamental. I've been thinking about trying some balsamic vinegar with my grapes because they are already so acidic and it tastes so good. Might be a more practical use of the grapes.
What kind of grapes are you growing?
I'm growing Norton, Concord, Fredonia, St Pepin, Frontenac, Foch, Leon Millot, Prairie Star, and Price. You may not have heard of any of those (except Concord) unless you are familiar with hybrids.
watching you on a front-end.
#GlobalWalkOut
Consider uploading to a Yt-alternative that allows us to interact with you and where you can get some payment. I am slowly eliminating publicly-traded companies from my life.
Well, if I can get enough funding and support independent of YT, I could turn off ads and just use it as a platform for access to an audience. I do have a Patreon and Paypal. Patreon takes a cut but currently Paypal doesn't.