Nitrogen fixing trees for orchards, forest gardens, food forests and permaculture designs.

[@haydnhades2730]

You could consider Red Alder as a shelter tree. I'm north of you on a small treeless island and we have managed to transform our land and create a microclimate . Red Alder has been a great discovery for us, growing up to 3 feet a year in very very windy conditions.

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

Those are impressive results! Thanks, I'll have to give some a try.

[@haribo666adler]

Hi! I stumbled upon your videos an hour ago or so and I have to confess I like your channel especially a video about nitrogen fixing trees-shrubs. Good work and keep up making many new videos. Cheers mate

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

Awesome, thank you!

[@BioGartenReich]

Great! Thank you!

[@peterellis4262]

With black locust, it needs to get to about 9 inches diameter before the rot resistant quality fully develops. At that point, it's been measured to contain 30% fungicide by weight! That's a pretty crazy number, but it helps explain the adage that it lasts one day longer than stone ;)

[@tanyawales5445]

Black locust is also a very hot burning wood. The flowers are edible. The rest of the black locust is toxic to both livestock and humans and has been reported to cause symptoms from gastrointestinal distress to nervous system disorders. I planted a purple locust (Robinia pseudoacacia 'Purple Robe'), which does not set pods, when it was 4 ft. tall. It grew 5 ft./year until it was over 20 ft. tall. Then we moved. I miss that tree. It shaded our house and when it bloomed it was glorious to behold.

[@jodylagos4543]

We have the thorny locus and we call it cow crack. They will break the fence to get to them

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

Ah interesting!

[@escapetothequinta]

Where did you source the seeds for the black locust really interested in growing these in Portugal and moving over from the UK so wanted to try and source some before I leave, thanks!!!!

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

www.openpollinated.co.uk/ I use them for a lot of seed, I'm always happy with the quality.

[@alexandrakastanopolous7128]

WONDERFUUL

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

Thank you so much!

[@earthsbounty341]

Great video! Although I’m surprised you listed autumn olive! Here in NJ they’re very invasive, you often find them all throughout edges of farmland. They produce at least 200,000 seeds a season so I would be afraid to add this to my forest!

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

Ah that's interesting! Here in Scotland they don't become invasive, it's a different climate. There's plenty I'd love to have that would just be irresponsible though, because they'd become a serious problem.

[@kevin.malone]

Are they really invasive if you find them prolific in nitrogen depleted soil surrounding farmland? My thought is that this is just the natural cycle trying to return the land to equilibrium. If the land was being managed properly, other native plants would be thriving in the fertile soil and wouldn’t be outcompeted by a plant that provides its own nitrogen. Also, if the entire soil system was allowed to remain untouched for long enough, the Russian olive would likely bring fertility back into the soil, allowing the less hardy native plants to return to the landscape.

[@peterellis4262]

@@kevin.malone Exactly! Autumn Olive are self-limiting, in that they produce conditions in which they cannot continue. The "invasive" trait is actually Nature responding to human disturbance, trying to restore the forest biome normal to the locale. I've had people get very irate about Autumn Olive - but they're describing a situation where man is working to hold an area at a static point rather than allowing natural succession, and nature keeps throwing Autumn Olive at it to move it forward. It's not the plant that's the problem ;)

[@allanparker20]

Thanks

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

Thanks!

[@adrians-croft]

Thanks for this Andy; very interesting. Do you sell any of your trees as saplings? My siberian pea seeds didn't germinate; I probably didn't give them the right attention 🤣 I find gorse makes a really useful stock proof fedge on my croft boundary and the new growth seems to make palatable fodder for the sheep as well as protecting the other species.

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

We don't have any for sale yet, but we're hoping to have some by next year. Watch this space!

[@tanyawales5445]

Untreated seeds will germinate in 15 days after sowing, but the best germination (87 to 100% in 5 days) can be obtained by soaking seeds for 24 hours in cold or hot (85 °C) water. To be plantable, seedlings should be 30 cm (12 in) or more in height at the time of lifting.

[@davejones4269]

There’s loads of sea buckthorn growing wild Along the coast at Skegness acres and acres of it. The female bushes were loaded with berries and it was late in the season when I saw them so they were over ripe and rotting. It doesn’t seem that anyone goes to pick them. I would like to grow some of the improved varieties can you tell me where you bought them from? I hear you can get in without Thorns please let me know thank you

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

I bought them as seed from the US before Brexit made seed buying more difficult. I've not come across any thornless varieties, but I'd be very interested if you find any!

[@jonroberts2445]

Black locust is also a spectacular bbq wood.

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

It's an amazing tree!

[@alexandrakastanopolous7128]

can you write down a list with the trees you mentioned? That would help us a lot with th spelling. :)

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

That's a good suggestion, I'll try and get it done this weekend.

[@alexandrakastanopolous7128]

@@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture Thanks soo much!!

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

Done!

[@kabodick]

Fantastic information!!! First video I watched and you’ve got a new subscriber 😃.

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

Great! Glad you're enjoying them.

[@georgecarlin2656]

I was transplanting a sea buckthorn today and saw those N fixing root nodules, I uploaded a video on my channel.

[@kirstyleitch863]

Could you tell me where you sourced your Pea Shrub please (apologies if you mention it in the video, in a rush to get bare root order in!)?

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

It came from www.openpollinated.co.uk/ but as seed.

[@stonedapefarmer]

I had to go check on the chickens in the middle of the video, so I don't know if I just missed it, but did you cover how you start all of these nitrogen fixers from seeds? I have seeds from a variety of nitrogen fixing trees and shrubs, but even after scarifying the seeds, I didn't get any germination. Not sure if it was a temperature issue, moisture issue, or what. They don't need to be cold stratified, do they?

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

The locusts need soaking in hot water first, so do the Siberian pea tree. The wax myrtle need cold stratifying. A few of the others like the autumn olive I bought as seedlings, but the rest should be fairly straightforward to grow.

[@stonedapefarmer]

@@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture I definitely did not do the hot water. I'll give that a go when I'm ready to start my next round. Just hot water without any scarification?

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

@@stonedapefarmer The Siberian and black locust just need hot water, but the honey locust benefits from a little filing to the seed coat. You can soak them, and then file the ones that don't swell up, it's obvious which ones need it. I've had a lot of success buying from this firm www.foodforests.eu/

[@stonedapefarmer]

@@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture Thanks again! I appreciate all the extra info. And unfortunately, I'm in the U.S., and importing seeds from overseas is a legal nightmare. Even if you can get all the the paperwork sorted out, most companies just don't want to deal with the extra hassle. Which sucks, because there are a lot of really great perennial foods that I haven't been able to find here, but are readily available from European suppliers. The upside, at least with black locust, is that it's native here. If I don't have any luck with the seeds I have, I can walk up the street and pull more seeds off my neighbor's tree...

[@priyankasoren8184]

Is drumstick ( moringa) a nitrogen fixer plant?

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

Yes, I understand moringa fixes nitrogen. I wish we could grow it here, it's an amazing tree!

[@alexjames4315]

Thanks for the question because I was actually checking out videos just to see if the mornings was a nitrogen fixing tree 👍🏻

[@kevin.malone]

Not sure if honey locust is actually nitrogen fixing. I don’t think you can find the root nodules on them

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

There is research that suggests they fix nitrogen using a different pathway from most species, not using root nodules.

[@carolday3381]

I was told through research that black locust is very toxic to livestock and people. You better re check that? Honey locust is great and safe especially thornless honey locust but black locust its flowers are edible but thats it i was too. I am going to go re read about them to see if i got my understanding mixed up.

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

You're right, but cases of poisoning are very rare. We also grow plants like foxglove, that's even more poisonous.

[@MrSummerbreeze01]

It's not killing off any deer on my property, unfortunately. They buzz cut all new growth

[@rootsandreturns]

How do you spell the name of the tree at 7:37 please?

[@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture]

It's Elaeagnus umbellata. The autumn olive.

[@stanleyquaranta4182]

Tell KZbin to Stop putting 2 ads at the start of your videos. Thanks