The food forest - syntropic agriculture

I am creating a food forest inspired by the principles of 'syntropic agriculture', a term coined by Ernst Götsch in Brazil (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSPNRu4ZPvE ). This agricultural method is based on two principles:

• Imitate the ecological succession and the stratification of a natural forest.

• Prune 'auxiliary trees' frequently to self-fertilise the forest.

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I adapt these principles to my local context and add other agroforestry and agroecological practices to the system to create a locally-adapted highly-productive and aesthetically-pleasing system.

The base of the system is as following:

-every 4 meters I have planted a row of fruit trees and shrubs. In +-10/15 years, these trees will touch each other and there will hardly be any place left between the rows. Within every tree row, I have planted fruit trees and shrubs every 4 m and between the fruit trees I have planted 'auxiliary trees', or pioneer species. These trees grow quickly, produce a lot of biomass, and protect the vulnerable young fruit trees from wind and sun. They are pruned frequently and the biomass is put on the soil where they protect the soil against  evaporation and where they increase the amount of organic matter. This method of mulching mimics the functioning of a natural forest and stimulates a healthy growth of the fruit trees.

-in between the tree rows I have planted different vegetables and or fruit shrubs like potatoes, strawberries, eggplants, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, beans, raspberries, gooseberries and currants. These crops will grow only the first ten years or so when there is still enough sunlight available and they actually pay for the plantation of the fruit trees that take much longer to produce any value.

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Below I describe in more detail a system following these principles based on red fruits.