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Registered: 08/05/12
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Subtropical Permaculture Design, Food Forests, and Agroforestry 2
#20277439 - 07/15/14 04:01 PM (9 years, 6 months ago) |
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Greetings,
I have a Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) and work at a 1/2 acre community food forest here in southwest Florida.
Although most of my job consists of organizing and leading volunteers, I often help students and community members design and install their own sustainable home gardens. I also maintain my own 1/20th acre home garden based on agroforestry design, ethics, and principles. My most recent community project was a food forest design for a local elementary school.
I'm also a course assistant for a 2-part PDC class at my local state university.
Furthermore, I'm an avid amateur mycologist and founder/president of the Southwest Florida Mycological Society. I'm teaching a 5-hour "Home-scale Mushroom Cultivation" class in Tampa, FL in early August, and am leading a wild mushroom hunting and identification seminar in Naples, FL in September.
I'm decently knowledgeable about many different types of systems, but I'm focused on subtropical and tropical agroforestry (or permaculture)- so keep that in mind if you have questions regarding colder climates.
Here's a sample "pop quiz": identify at least 5 different plant species in this picture: 
 Answers from left to right: Moringa oleifera, Morus nigra, Malpighia emarginata, Cajanus cajan, Vigna unguiculata, Manihot esculenta, Carica papaya, Persea americana........ all within less than a 1/4 acre!
Here's a fun exercise: what is the large shrub in the left-center with all the white flower pods coming out of it?

Is it: A. Bananas (Musa sp.) B. Moringa (Moringa Oleifera) C. Chaya (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius) D. Pigeon Pea (Cajanus cajan)
The answer is C. Chaya (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius)
So, if you need tips and tricks about what nitrogen fixers you should put around your mangoes, lychees, or jackfruits- ask me about it. If you have any questions regarding banana circles, making living fences, designing and building water catchment systems, what species to put where, when to coppice passion fruit, urban gardening, or how to germinate those trickier seeds- ask me. Need help designing a space? Need help building a chicken coop or how to take care of meat rabbits? I got your back.
I LOVE what I do and I'm here to help. Ask away.
PS- I don't have to have a masters to be a professor at the Shroomery U, do I?
Edited by Mykes logos (07/15/14 11:08 PM)
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matsc
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Re: Subtropical Permaculture Design, Food Forests, and Agroforestry [Re: Mykes logos]
#20279159 - 07/15/14 10:40 PM (9 years, 6 months ago) |
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Perhaps off topic, but I'm curious if you have an opinion about the Rainbow papaya. I found it odd how fiercely Hawaii went anti-GMO when one of its most profitable industries owes its continued existence to one. And the only tropical agro folks I know deal with rice (and rice pathogens) exclusively, so I just wondered.
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Re: Subtropical Permaculture Design, Food Forests, and Agroforestry [Re: matsc]
#20279315 - 07/15/14 11:50 PM (9 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
matsc said: Perhaps off topic, but I'm curious if you have an opinion about the Rainbow papaya. I found it odd how fiercely Hawaii went anti-GMO when one of its most profitable industries owes its continued existence to one. And the only tropical agro folks I know deal with rice (and rice pathogens) exclusively, so I just wondered.
Profitable industry? Maybe monetarily speaking... but ask yourself- is it sustainable? Is it building soil, or destroying it? Why would you pick a fruit before it's even ripe and ship it thousands of miles to market? Why would you grow thousands of one plant species without any companion plants- are you asking for nature to produce super bugs and super diseases!?
Perfect example of how unsustainable our global agriculture system is... besides years of research and studies and tests, etc., that industry is perpetuated by subsidies and cheap labor and cheap fossil fuels... we're putting more energy into our food than what we're getting out of it! Insane.
Our non-GMO papayas are nice and healthy- besides the fact that white fly or the occasional ballsy squirrel will mess with fruit as they're ripening up, our multiple varieties do great amongst scores of other plant species. Do I fertilize or spray any herbicides? No, I add homemade compost to the root system, sheet mulch or plant a nitrogen- fixing groundcover, and pour a little bit of water on top from the aquaponic tilapia tanks. Did they do that to their GMO papayas? No, they sprayed all kinds of nasty shit around them and probably bred harmful chemicals into their DNA.
I prefer them green, however- they make a great vegetable!
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matsc
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Re: Subtropical Permaculture Design, Food Forests, and Agroforestry [Re: Mykes logos]
#20279499 - 07/16/14 01:18 AM (9 years, 6 months ago) |
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Ah I brought up the Rainbow because it was a GM designed with a single purpose. The Hawaiian papaya industry was almost wiped out when papaya ringspot virus arrived on the island. It was almost impossible to get anywhere near a sustainable yield. The Rainbow (or more specifically the Sun-up, the Rainbow's parent) has a gene from the virus itself (one of the coat proteins if I remember correctly). The plant sees the protein as its growing, and triggers its immune system so it can destroy the virus before an infection takes hold. The protein itself never actually gets made as its destroyed at the mRNA stage. And the mRNA/protein themselves are harmless as theyre already there in infected papayas which are perfectly edible, just small and ugly and unmarketable. Its one of the very very few GMO "success" stories, in terms of market acceptance.
I do agree that sustainable agriculture is a great option when it can be done though, and hate seeing natural ecosystems being uprooted for monoculture (Especially oil palm, I hate oil palm! ....but I do love palm oil, tis a conundrum)
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Re: Subtropical Permaculture Design, Food Forests, and Agroforestry [Re: matsc]
#20280472 - 07/16/14 10:08 AM (9 years, 6 months ago) |
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Yeah, you made a good point- it really helped; however, that situation could have been avoided altogether by utilizing different varieties within a multifunctional agroforestry system and only producing enough for the local bioregion.
I know folks who have worked on organic oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) plantations in Central america, and they had really cool polyculture systems. Eric Toensmeier was telling us about it. They also used biochar.
Coconut palms with pineapples underneath is a good one, and although Elaeis guineensis is a DHP (Destructively Harvested Perennial), you can use it as your main cash crop/investment in a NDHP (NON-Destructively Harvested Perennial) system. While you're waiting for your main investment to come through, you can flip stuff grown in the multiple layers underneath to local markets in your bioregion.
Here's a little info on Eric Toens:
Eric Toensmeier is the author of Perennial Vegetables, Paradise Lot, and edible forest gardens... but he's coming out with a new book soon that's going to be one of the most important books coming out in a while IMO. I've been to a couple of his lectures and he completely blew me away.... His website is http://www.perennialsolutions.org/
Definitely check it out.
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AGUARES


Registered: 02/16/15
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Re: Subtropical Permaculture Design, Food Forests, and Agroforestry [Re: Mykes logos]
#21285982 - 02/16/15 11:22 PM (8 years, 11 months ago) |
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I'm glad I found this thread you've sparked my interest!
Do you use any fungi in the forest gardens? I have heard they can be helpful to certain plants rather than being just parasitic.
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Registered: 08/05/12
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Re: Subtropical Permaculture Design, Food Forests, and Agroforestry [Re: AGUARES]
#21288038 - 02/17/15 01:27 PM (8 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
AGUARES said: I'm glad I found this thread you've sparked my interest!
Do you use any fungi in the forest gardens? I have heard they can be helpful to certain plants rather than being just parasitic.
Awesome! Welcome to class  
I usually just stick with oyster species b/c they're easy, but I've inoculated areas like banana circles and sweet potato patches with king stropharia. Haven't had too much success, but I'll keep trying.
I wanna try mixing annual veggies in a polyculture setup with some elm oyster BRF cakes mixed in, as well as mixing biochar compost with king stropharia mixed in around the edges... haven't done it yet tho.
There's a lot of unknown factors regarding many annuals and certain fungi species that we like to eat... so its worth a shot!
There's a ton of native fungi everywhere tho, which is cool. Let it do its thang!
cheers
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