Chop and Drop to Syntropics Part 1 A Journey of discovery

[@chessman483]

Awesome work. I’m trying to minimise my input of these large trees. I’m using more smaller trees like pigeon peas but I smother the ground with qld arrowroot, canna lilies, perennial basil. But I mainly only have fruit trees. I found the sticks from trees were a pain to make things quick and efficient. My fruit trees look great , so I’m sticking with what I’m doing .

[@GardeningMyFathersWorld]

Welcome to my garden and thanks for watching! Great to hear you have found a system that works for your garden. We often forget that the most important part of a garden is the gardener. They are the factor that works the space and helps it to thrive. You gotta do what you can to help you work the system. I'm working on Part 2 of this journey of discovery. There's a lot more to learn!

[@SyntropicSchool]

Find Eucalyptus that are suitable for your area. In regards to them be allelopathic, this won't apply for your situation. Eucalyptus typically only become allelopathic when they reach a much older age, and are left unmanaged. I would personally recommend planting them every 1metre, as you will find this is fairly standard practice in Syntropics. After a few years, you will of course be able to start selecting and thinking them out. Then adding other tree seeds into the mix that grow well in your region to add diversity and succession will be beneficial, as you need something to take the place of the eucalyptus in 7 years or so (Morton Bay Chestnut OR Blackbean might be a good option to look at). You may also want to consider adding bananas to the trees lines. It is a common saying in Syntropics that Eucalyptus is the father of the first, and banana the mother. Also, when chopping and dropping, especially once you've established species that produce a lot more biomass than what you're getting. Organising it around your target tree species is recommended. Hope all this helps a little.