5 ms·

Perennial Crops

114 points by Breadmaker 7y ago

nerdponx 7y ago
From the Vision page (https://www.forevergreen.umn.edu/about/vision https://www.forevergreen.umn.edu/about/vision): Minnesota has 27 million acres of farmland, occupying nearly half the 55.6 million acres in the state. Two highly productive and profitable crops, corn (8.7 million acres planted in Minnesota in 2012) and soybean (7.1 million acres) are the foundation of our agriculture, along with other important production systems such as animal agriculture, small grains, horticultural crops and others. The proposed initiative aims to build on these strengths by adding to the productivity and profitability of our current agriculture. Most of our current crops are ‘summer-annuals’ that are grown during the summer. By selectively adding winter-annual and perennial crops to our agricultural landscapes to create new crop production systems, we can enhance the prosperity of Minnesota agriculture, support rural communities, and provide major benefits to all Minnesotans. A strong base of evidence indicates that these new production systems will enhance yields of our summer-annual crops, enable production of new commodities, enhance our soils and wildlife, and improve our water resources. All of these benefits are possible because perennial and winter-annual crops are active during a large portion of each year, including many periods in fall, winter and spring when summer crops are absent. For this reason, perennial and winter-annual crops—working in tandem with summer annuals—can capture solar energy, water and nutrients with very high efficiency.
gdubs 7y ago
This is exciting to see on the front page. If anyone’s looking for more in depth reading on the subject, I highly recommend Mark Shepard’s book, “Restoration Agriculture”. In it he gives a good overview of farming with perennials, and why it can be beneficial for the planet.
- AnthonBerg 7y ago
  I want to explicitly second this. It's a good book and it stimulates thought.
- 2sk21 7y ago
  I agree - we will need to adopt permaculture on a wider scale in the future to survive climate change. I will definitely check out the book you have mentioned.
bayareanative 7y ago
Isn't Silphium extinct or are they referring to another fennel-like species? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium
- pygy_ 7y ago
  http://forevergreen-umn.info/17FG-Silphium.pdf http://forevergreen-umn.info/17FG-Silphium.pdf > Silphium integrifolium—rosinweed—is in the early stages of domestication to become a part of diverse, sustainable, and productive cropping systems that will protect Minnesota soil and water resources by providing continual cover of the landscape. Silphium is a relative of annual sunflower and is a native forb in the tallgrass prairie region of the U.S.
mobilemidget 7y ago
(non native English) How does that work when you learn a new word and then you see it everywhere in the following future time? I scanned a color yesterday, it said, perennial color (I just wanted to determine if it was green or yellow). Googling it did not make it much clearer but I now know it has to do with plant colors :)
- kfrzcode 7y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baader%E2%80%93Meinhof_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baader%E2%80%93Meinhof_effect
  - iamcurious 7y ago
    Contrast with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity
- nerdponx 7y ago
  plant colors That's unfortunately not correct. A "perennial" plant grows back every year and does not need to be planted again. An "annual" plant needs to be planted every year. The word "perennial" comes from the Latin "per annum", meaning "through the year", in the sense that the plant does not die part-way through. The word "annual" also comes from the Latin "annum", in this case meaning that it needs to be re-planted "annually", i.e. "yearly". https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/perennial#Adjective https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/perennial#Adjective As a native speaker, whenever I encounter a word I don't know, I find it helpful to look up its etymology, which helps me remember what it means: https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=perennial https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=perennial
  - beat 7y ago
    Or as I like to say, English can absorb words from any other language, simply by mispronouncing them.
  - mobilemidget 7y ago
    thanks, been very informative. I'm still a bit puzzled how perennial relates to a color, the app literally stated 'perennial color' in the end, I settled on green :)
ptah 7y ago
I am currently doing free osu intro to permaculture course and perennials are much preferred over annuals in permaculture as there's less soil erosion and less overhead and less work!
- Gibbon1 7y ago
  I read a page on some agriculture professors home page. The plants were rely on for food are mostly annuals because the short life span allowed for faster selective breeding. That comes at a very high cost. There is a litany of problems with annuals. The need to constantly replant every year Leading to soil erosion. Need for herbicides to control weeds. Continual harvesting results in depleted soil. Requiring fertilizer. Short roots means low drought tolerance Need for irrigation. irrigation --> salinization Perennials are more drought tolerant, need less water and fertilizer because of their deeper root systems.
- someone7x 7y ago
  Permaculture is like A Pattern Language, but for useful plants instead of buildings. I like the first principles approach it takes.
- simonebrunozzi 7y ago
  What's "free osu intro" ?
  - mgsouth 7y ago
    Oregon State University "Intro to Permaculture" https://open.oregonstate.edu/courses/permaculture/ https://open.oregonstate.edu/courses/permaculture/
drinane 7y ago
Is there any genetic modification that can be performed on a plant to make it a perennial?
- 8note 7y ago
  theres a two pager where they're hybridizing sunflowers with artichokes to that effect, but they've so far steered away from the targeted genetic modification
- ericathegreat 7y ago
  Interesting thing about annuals, is that they needn't be anywhere near as problematic as they have become. Consider - any plant which died after three months without reproducing is pretty improbably as far as evolution is concerned. And yet, there are millions of naturally occurring annuals. That is because naturally occurring annuals are "perpetual annuals" - annuals which reproduce within that three month period, but effectively lie dormant in seed form until the next time the climate is beneficial. In nature, these are plants which have evolved to thrive in a specific climactic condition. They optimize _hard_ for those conditions, to grow fast, to make babies (seeds), then self seed either in-situ or far and wide. Then they die off to improve the available nutrition in the soil (ready for the seeds to sprout next year) rather than burn up a whole lot of energy just keeping themselves alive through the rest of the year. It's highly efficient. A single corn plant can produce potentially dozens of new corn plants in a subsequent year - one plant per kernel. These are the "perpetual annuals" - technically annuals, but self managing so that they continue to produce every year. Perpetual annuals are highly resilient. Their short reproductive life cycle makes them very quick to adapt to local conditions. The same physical space can be productive for much longer periods of time, with spring plants dying down to make way for summer plants, then for autumn plants, then a winter where the land lies fallow, building up rich sediment to feed the next year's crops. They also make polycultures very practical: smart sequential plantings can mean that, say, a nitrogen hogging plant like a broccoli can be sequentially planted after a nitrogen _fixing_ plant like a pea, so that plants aren't always sucking up the same type of nutrient and effectively wasting the rest. Unfortunately though, many modern annuals are not actually _perpetual_ annuals. And it is precisely our genetic modification that has made them into problems. We have selectively bred these plants to the point where they produce seeds which are infertile, because that makes it possible for the breeders/suppliers to keep selling seed year after year (rather than selling seed once, knowing that farmers can then propagate themselves in perpetuity). In particularly extreme cases, we've bred plants that _literally have no reproductive organs at all_ - seedless watermelons and seedless grapes, for example. With these plants, the "annual" life cycle is genuinely plant, grow, die. End of the line. Start again from scratch. Planting hybrid perennials is definitely better in terms of human labour, in that you will get multiple harvests from the same plant. They're also good for the environment, because they provide stability to soil. However, in the grand scheme of things, the best option is a blend of _both_ perennials _and_ perpetual annuals. Ideally while allowing the plants to reproduce naturally, rather than trying to optimize genetics for short term commercial traits.
mitchbob 7y ago
Classic book on tree crops for permaculture: Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture https://www.amazon.com/Tree-Crops-Permanent-Agriculture-Friends/dp/1523641231 https://www.amazon.com/Tree-Crops-Permanent-Agriculture-Frie...
rudolph9 7y ago
A similar initiative is The Land institute https://landinstitute.org/ https://landinstitute.org/ They actually just got one of the crops they’ve been working with into a cereal. It’s seems like crops that better perversive the balance of our planet will have a huge impact on the longevity of our tenure here on earth

114 points by Breadmaker 7y ago

From the Vision page (https://www.forevergreen.umn.edu/about/vision https://www.forevergreen.umn.edu/about/vision): Minnesota has 27 million acres of farmland, occupying nearly half the 55.6 million acres in the state. Two highly productive and profitable crops, corn (8.7 million acres planted in Minnesota in 2012) and soybean (7.1 million acres) are the foundation of our agriculture, along with other important production systems such as animal agriculture, small grains, horticultural crops and others. The proposed initiative aims to build on these strengths by adding to the productivity and profitability of our current agriculture. Most of our current crops are ‘summer-annuals’ that are grown during the summer. By selectively adding winter-annual and perennial crops to our agricultural landscapes to create new crop production systems, we can enhance the prosperity of Minnesota agriculture, support rural communities, and provide major benefits to all Minnesotans. A strong base of evidence indicates that these new production systems will enhance yields of our summer-annual crops, enable production of new commodities, enhance our soils and wildlife, and improve our water resources. All of these benefits are possible because perennial and winter-annual crops are active during a large portion of each year, including many periods in fall, winter and spring when summer crops are absent. For this reason, perennial and winter-annual crops—working in tandem with summer annuals—can capture solar energy, water and nutrients with very high efficiency.

gdubs 7y ago

This is exciting to see on the front page. If anyone’s looking for more in depth reading on the subject, I highly recommend Mark Shepard’s book, “Restoration Agriculture”. In it he gives a good overview of farming with perennials, and why it can be beneficial for the planet.

AnthonBerg 7y ago
I want to explicitly second this. It's a good book and it stimulates thought.
2sk21 7y ago
I agree - we will need to adopt permaculture on a wider scale in the future to survive climate change. I will definitely check out the book you have mentioned.

bayareanative 7y ago

Isn't Silphium extinct or are they referring to another fennel-like species? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium

pygy_ 7y ago
http://forevergreen-umn.info/17FG-Silphium.pdf http://forevergreen-umn.info/17FG-Silphium.pdf > Silphium integrifolium—rosinweed—is in the early stages of domestication to become a part of diverse, sustainable, and productive cropping systems that will protect Minnesota soil and water resources by providing continual cover of the landscape. Silphium is a relative of annual sunflower and is a native forb in the tallgrass prairie region of the U.S.

mobilemidget 7y ago

(non native English) How does that work when you learn a new word and then you see it everywhere in the following future time? I scanned a color yesterday, it said, perennial color (I just wanted to determine if it was green or yellow). Googling it did not make it much clearer but I now know it has to do with plant colors :)

kfrzcode 7y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baader%E2%80%93Meinhof_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baader%E2%80%93Meinhof_effect
- iamcurious 7y ago
  Contrast with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity
nerdponx 7y ago
plant colors That's unfortunately not correct. A "perennial" plant grows back every year and does not need to be planted again. An "annual" plant needs to be planted every year. The word "perennial" comes from the Latin "per annum", meaning "through the year", in the sense that the plant does not die part-way through. The word "annual" also comes from the Latin "annum", in this case meaning that it needs to be re-planted "annually", i.e. "yearly". https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/perennial#Adjective https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/perennial#Adjective As a native speaker, whenever I encounter a word I don't know, I find it helpful to look up its etymology, which helps me remember what it means: https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=perennial https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=perennial
- beat 7y ago
  Or as I like to say, English can absorb words from any other language, simply by mispronouncing them.
- mobilemidget 7y ago
  thanks, been very informative. I'm still a bit puzzled how perennial relates to a color, the app literally stated 'perennial color' in the end, I settled on green :)

ptah 7y ago

I am currently doing free osu intro to permaculture course and perennials are much preferred over annuals in permaculture as there's less soil erosion and less overhead and less work!

Gibbon1 7y ago
I read a page on some agriculture professors home page. The plants were rely on for food are mostly annuals because the short life span allowed for faster selective breeding. That comes at a very high cost. There is a litany of problems with annuals. The need to constantly replant every year Leading to soil erosion. Need for herbicides to control weeds. Continual harvesting results in depleted soil. Requiring fertilizer. Short roots means low drought tolerance Need for irrigation. irrigation --> salinization Perennials are more drought tolerant, need less water and fertilizer because of their deeper root systems.
someone7x 7y ago
Permaculture is like A Pattern Language, but for useful plants instead of buildings. I like the first principles approach it takes.
simonebrunozzi 7y ago
What's "free osu intro" ?
- mgsouth 7y ago
  Oregon State University "Intro to Permaculture" https://open.oregonstate.edu/courses/permaculture/ https://open.oregonstate.edu/courses/permaculture/

drinane 7y ago

Is there any genetic modification that can be performed on a plant to make it a perennial?

8note 7y ago
theres a two pager where they're hybridizing sunflowers with artichokes to that effect, but they've so far steered away from the targeted genetic modification
ericathegreat 7y ago
Interesting thing about annuals, is that they needn't be anywhere near as problematic as they have become. Consider - any plant which died after three months without reproducing is pretty improbably as far as evolution is concerned. And yet, there are millions of naturally occurring annuals. That is because naturally occurring annuals are "perpetual annuals" - annuals which reproduce within that three month period, but effectively lie dormant in seed form until the next time the climate is beneficial. In nature, these are plants which have evolved to thrive in a specific climactic condition. They optimize _hard_ for those conditions, to grow fast, to make babies (seeds), then self seed either in-situ or far and wide. Then they die off to improve the available nutrition in the soil (ready for the seeds to sprout next year) rather than burn up a whole lot of energy just keeping themselves alive through the rest of the year. It's highly efficient. A single corn plant can produce potentially dozens of new corn plants in a subsequent year - one plant per kernel. These are the "perpetual annuals" - technically annuals, but self managing so that they continue to produce every year. Perpetual annuals are highly resilient. Their short reproductive life cycle makes them very quick to adapt to local conditions. The same physical space can be productive for much longer periods of time, with spring plants dying down to make way for summer plants, then for autumn plants, then a winter where the land lies fallow, building up rich sediment to feed the next year's crops. They also make polycultures very practical: smart sequential plantings can mean that, say, a nitrogen hogging plant like a broccoli can be sequentially planted after a nitrogen _fixing_ plant like a pea, so that plants aren't always sucking up the same type of nutrient and effectively wasting the rest. Unfortunately though, many modern annuals are not actually _perpetual_ annuals. And it is precisely our genetic modification that has made them into problems. We have selectively bred these plants to the point where they produce seeds which are infertile, because that makes it possible for the breeders/suppliers to keep selling seed year after year (rather than selling seed once, knowing that farmers can then propagate themselves in perpetuity). In particularly extreme cases, we've bred plants that _literally have no reproductive organs at all_ - seedless watermelons and seedless grapes, for example. With these plants, the "annual" life cycle is genuinely plant, grow, die. End of the line. Start again from scratch. Planting hybrid perennials is definitely better in terms of human labour, in that you will get multiple harvests from the same plant. They're also good for the environment, because they provide stability to soil. However, in the grand scheme of things, the best option is a blend of _both_ perennials _and_ perpetual annuals. Ideally while allowing the plants to reproduce naturally, rather than trying to optimize genetics for short term commercial traits.

mitchbob 7y ago

Classic book on tree crops for permaculture: Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture https://www.amazon.com/Tree-Crops-Permanent-Agriculture-Friends/dp/1523641231 https://www.amazon.com/Tree-Crops-Permanent-Agriculture-Frie...

rudolph9 7y ago

A similar initiative is The Land institute https://landinstitute.org/ https://landinstitute.org/ They actually just got one of the crops they’ve been working with into a cereal. It’s seems like crops that better perversive the balance of our planet will have a huge impact on the longevity of our tenure here on earth