I will give you a concrete example of the creation of a syntropic agriculture row which works very well for me.
The first step is selecting your main fruit trees.In my context, I chose apple and fig trees. You can also choose other species, the most important thing is to know the final distance between the trees. In my case, it's 5 m.
Then I prepare a row; I weed a row of 50 cm wide (at least, ideally 1 m) and once done, I plant my fruit trees every 5 m. Between the young fruit trees there is plenty of room in the early years and I use this space to grow raspberries and strawberries.
I put a drip hose in the row that waters the trees and at the same time the raspberries. Every 30-40 cm I plant a raspberry between the trees. Then, if you have cleaned a row with a width of one meter, you can put another drip hose 50 cm in front of the raspberry row. Along this pipe you can plant strawberries every 30-40 cm.
You can also plant some emergent species between fruit trees, e.g. poplar or paulownia to give a little more shade to your red fruits.
Last step: you put wood chips on the ground to reduce the weed pressure and to keep the humidity. You could also make stakes to keep the raspberries upright and to keep the system manageable. The first years you harvest strawberries and raspberries and after 5-10 years, you will be able to harvest apples. At that time, there will be so much shade that the raspberries and strawberries no longer produce well. You can cut them and use as mulch for the apple trees.
Comments