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A brain dump: I've been investigating a few systems of agriculture. - There's Small Plot INtensive (SPIN) which is specialized for market production, emphasiz

A brain dump: I've been investigating a few systems of agriculture. - There's Small Plot INtensive (SPIN) which is specialized for market production, emphasizing minimizing labor and maximizing market crops. https://spinfarming.com/ https://spinfarming.com/ (Be aware that these folks are selling their system as a course, and this is a sales site not an info site. You can get the details from reading carefully and watching the videos that practitioners have made.) https://www.transitionculture.org/2011/09/05/spin-farming-basics-a-book-review/ https://www.transitionculture.org/2011/09/05/spin-farming-ba... Quitting Your Job To Farm on a Quarter Acre In Your Backyard? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJx1SPClg6A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJx1SPClg6A Backyard Farming: 2 Year Market Garden Update of Nature's Always Right Farms https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpn1oGkQrrg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpn1oGkQrrg Profitable Farming and Designing for Farm Success by JEAN-MARTIN FORTIER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92GDHGPSmeI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92GDHGPSmeI https://www.themarketgardener.com/ https://www.themarketgardener.com/ Neversink Farm in NY grosses $350,000 on farming 1.5 acres (area in production). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5IE6lYKXRw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5IE6lYKXRw - Then there's the "Grow Bioinstensive" method which is designed to provide a complete diet in a small space while also building soil and fertility. They have been dialing it in for forty years and now have a turn-key system that is implemented and functioning all over the world. http://growbiointensive.org/ http://growbiointensive.org/ (These folks are also selling their system, but they also have e.g. manuals you can download for free. I find their site curiously hard to use.) - Permaculture (which could be called "applied ecology" with a kind of hippie spin. I'm not a hippie but I'm sometimes mistaken for one.) and a similar school (parallel evolution) called "Syntropic" Agriculture. Both of these systems aim to mimic natural ecosystems to create "food forests" that produce crops year-round without inputs (no fertilizer, no irrigation.) The process takes 5-15 years or so but then is self-sustaining and regenerative. For Permaculture I find Toby Hemenway's (RIP) videos very good: https://tobyhemenway.com/videos/how-permaculture-can-save-humanity-and-the-planet-but-not-civilization/ https://tobyhemenway.com/videos/how-permaculture-can-save-hu... https://tobyhemenway.com/videos/redesigning-civilization-with-permaculture/ https://tobyhemenway.com/videos/redesigning-civilization-wit... There's a very lively and civil forum at https://permies.com/forums https://permies.com/forums For Syntropic agriculture: https://agendagotsch.com/en/what-is-syntropic-farming/ https://agendagotsch.com/en/what-is-syntropic-farming/ (FWIW, I find Gotsch's writing (in English) to be impenetrable, even though I pretty much know what he's doing. Anyway, his results are incontrovertable.) I'm afraid I don't have a good link in re: Food Forests and eco-mimetic agriculture yet. This "Plant Abundance" fellow's youtube channel might be a good place to start, in any event it's a great example: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEFpzAuyFlLzshQR4_dkCsQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEFpzAuyFlLzshQR4_dkCsQ - If you really wanted to maximize food production and aren't afraid of building insfrastucture (like greenhouses and fish tanks) there's the (sadly now defunct) Growing Power model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growing_Power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growing_Power https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs7BG4lH3m4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs7BG4lH3m4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV9CCxdkOng https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV9CCxdkOng They used an integrated greenhouse/aquaculture/compost system to produce massive amounts of food right through Milwaukee winters. - Then there is the whole field (no pun intended) of regenerative agriculture, e.g.: "Treating the Farm as an Ecosystem with Gabe Brown Part 1, The 5 Tenets of Soil Health" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUmIdq0D6-A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUmIdq0D6-A and "Symphony Of The Soil" Official Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXRNF_1X2fU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXRNF_1X2fU This is very much non-hippie, very much grounded in (often cutting-edge) science (ecology, microbiology, etc.) and ecologically and economically superior to artificial methods (e.g. Brown makes money. It's actually weird that more people aren't adopting these methods faster. You make more money, have fewer expenses, and your topsoil builds up year-on-year rather than washing away in erosion.)

roboben 6y ago
Wow, thank you so much for this list! It looks like you spend some time there and I would love to talk to you more! Please reach me at hello at permapeople.org if you want to chat more!
- carapace 6y ago
  Cheers! Yeah, I'm all over this. I'll definitely reach out. I first got into Permaculture from reading my parents' copy of the Next Whole Earth Catalog ~25~30 years ago. (Yeah, I'm a California cliche. lol) Right now I'm living in a small townhouse in San Francisco with a tiny yard. Somehow the covid virus pushed me to do what I can in the space available. I got some chicks and we're raising them and I've been growing things in large containers. I can't really grow a lot of vegetables, we're out by the ocean so we don't get the warm climate typical of CA and it's the wrong season for annuals anyway. It was foggy 50F this morning. So I've been concentrating on building rich soil (for when I eventually get access to more land.) I take wood chips that have been amended with chicken manure and feathers and layer it with Kellogg's GROMULCH[1], about four or five layers, water it well, then broadcast a dense seed mix (different mixes in different bins, whatever I have on hand at the time.) I call it "layer cake". The GROMULCH mycelium rapidly pervades the wood and converts it to an almost chalky consistency. (The earth "akin to the vegetative" of the hugelculture quote.[2]) Part of the idea here is to see how well various plants' roots integrate with the mycelium. Another aspect is that the seedlings are so dense that their roots will form a mat or fiberous layer over the whole surface. The leaves will cover the soil quickly, protecting it and creating a moist micro-climate. Before long the bin will be all soil (instead of half wood chips and half soil) and it will be enriched by the growth of the fungus and plants. At that point, I put the bin in the chicken run and let them eat the plants, then dump it out and cover it with more wood chips and let the chickens kick and scratch it out. I'll store it there and rake it up for building planting beds in the Spring. Eventually, I can use the material itself to make layer cake instead of buying more GROMULCH from the store. In one bin I added some starting-to-rot lettuce and some woody growth trimmed off a hedge, in another it's just wood chips and GROMULCH. In a third bin I added some nightcrawlers... Meanwhile, I'm starting perennials like dwarf tamarillo and alpine strawberries, again for when I have access to more land. Enough about me. In re: your project, first, congratulations! I think you've identified two key pieces of the puzzle: a plant database and a specialized online marketplace. (The garden log and planner is also awesome, just I personally don't see it as as big of a barrier as the other two.) I think we also need a marketplace for land (Airbnb for small plots of garden/farm, eh? Hosh mentioned https://sharedearth.com https://sharedearth.com but I didn't get any response from the site when I tried it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23887329 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23887329 Hosh if you read this, sorry for not contacting you yet, I fully intend to...) There are a few existing plant databases, mostly not as useful as they could be, my advice there is to focus on standards and open data, don't try to reinvent a wheel, rather engage and cooperate with the folks who are already ahead of you. Same thing with the specialized marketplace: there are e.g. online/digital Farmer's Market systems and sites, but again, they don't seem as useful to me as they might be. I'm thinking Craigslist+Etsy for handmade food and food products, combined with scheduling and bidding features (e.g. I am a chef and I want to plan out meals for my restaurant, the site should help me pre-order ingredients. Or I am a grower and I want to pre-sell my crops before I even sprout them... Eh?) [1] https://www.kellogggarden.com/products/kellogg/gromulch-2-in-1-planting-mix-and-mulch/ https://www.kellogggarden.com/products/kellogg/gromulch-2-in... They don't mention it on that apge but to me the big advantage of GROMULCH is the rich and active mycelium culture. [2] "Then the earth itself will have the tendency to come inwardly alive and become akin to the vegetative." ~ Herrman Andrä, 1962 http://pubs.cahnrs.wsu.edu/publications/pubs/fs283e/ http://pubs.cahnrs.wsu.edu/publications/pubs/fs283e/

roboben 6y ago

Wow, thank you so much for this list! It looks like you spend some time there and I would love to talk to you more! Please reach me at hello at permapeople.org if you want to chat more!

carapace 6y ago
Cheers! Yeah, I'm all over this. I'll definitely reach out. I first got into Permaculture from reading my parents' copy of the Next Whole Earth Catalog ~25~30 years ago. (Yeah, I'm a California cliche. lol) Right now I'm living in a small townhouse in San Francisco with a tiny yard. Somehow the covid virus pushed me to do what I can in the space available. I got some chicks and we're raising them and I've been growing things in large containers. I can't really grow a lot of vegetables, we're out by the ocean so we don't get the warm climate typical of CA and it's the wrong season for annuals anyway. It was foggy 50F this morning. So I've been concentrating on building rich soil (for when I eventually get access to more land.) I take wood chips that have been amended with chicken manure and feathers and layer it with Kellogg's GROMULCH[1], about four or five layers, water it well, then broadcast a dense seed mix (different mixes in different bins, whatever I have on hand at the time.) I call it "layer cake". The GROMULCH mycelium rapidly pervades the wood and converts it to an almost chalky consistency. (The earth "akin to the vegetative" of the hugelculture quote.[2]) Part of the idea here is to see how well various plants' roots integrate with the mycelium. Another aspect is that the seedlings are so dense that their roots will form a mat or fiberous layer over the whole surface. The leaves will cover the soil quickly, protecting it and creating a moist micro-climate. Before long the bin will be all soil (instead of half wood chips and half soil) and it will be enriched by the growth of the fungus and plants. At that point, I put the bin in the chicken run and let them eat the plants, then dump it out and cover it with more wood chips and let the chickens kick and scratch it out. I'll store it there and rake it up for building planting beds in the Spring. Eventually, I can use the material itself to make layer cake instead of buying more GROMULCH from the store. In one bin I added some starting-to-rot lettuce and some woody growth trimmed off a hedge, in another it's just wood chips and GROMULCH. In a third bin I added some nightcrawlers... Meanwhile, I'm starting perennials like dwarf tamarillo and alpine strawberries, again for when I have access to more land. Enough about me. In re: your project, first, congratulations! I think you've identified two key pieces of the puzzle: a plant database and a specialized online marketplace. (The garden log and planner is also awesome, just I personally don't see it as as big of a barrier as the other two.) I think we also need a marketplace for land (Airbnb for small plots of garden/farm, eh? Hosh mentioned https://sharedearth.com https://sharedearth.com but I didn't get any response from the site when I tried it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23887329 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23887329 Hosh if you read this, sorry for not contacting you yet, I fully intend to...) There are a few existing plant databases, mostly not as useful as they could be, my advice there is to focus on standards and open data, don't try to reinvent a wheel, rather engage and cooperate with the folks who are already ahead of you. Same thing with the specialized marketplace: there are e.g. online/digital Farmer's Market systems and sites, but again, they don't seem as useful to me as they might be. I'm thinking Craigslist+Etsy for handmade food and food products, combined with scheduling and bidding features (e.g. I am a chef and I want to plan out meals for my restaurant, the site should help me pre-order ingredients. Or I am a grower and I want to pre-sell my crops before I even sprout them... Eh?) [1] https://www.kellogggarden.com/products/kellogg/gromulch-2-in-1-planting-mix-and-mulch/ https://www.kellogggarden.com/products/kellogg/gromulch-2-in... They don't mention it on that apge but to me the big advantage of GROMULCH is the rich and active mycelium culture. [2] "Then the earth itself will have the tendency to come inwardly alive and become akin to the vegetative." ~ Herrman Andrä, 1962 http://pubs.cahnrs.wsu.edu/publications/pubs/fs283e/ http://pubs.cahnrs.wsu.edu/publications/pubs/fs283e/