Old thread (v1):
https://leftypol.org/hobby/res/7136.htmlThe practice and principles of Permaculture are one of the most important tools for not only creating a sustainable socialism, but also for repairing the damage done to the global ecosystem by capitalism, and lessening your individual reliance on the current capitalist system.Permacultural practice and socialism are two very powerful allies, and learning about permaculture should be necessity for modern socialists and communists.
Figs are almost ripe. I wish tastier fruit grew in my area.
>>34648Not to discourage you from gardening, but I find a lot of the discourse around permaculture is utopian nonsense. North Korea is a good case study on an actual de-mechanization of agriculture. It's doable, but not quickly, and ties up more labor in food production.
Can regular gardens play too? I planted root vegetables today!
>>43891My mom's planning to grow a potato. We had a tomato go pretty good for a year but got too much salt becuse we tried using sweat from washing a shirt with bottled water when the water cut off. Potatos seem hard to fumble.
>>43891Next thread should probably just be /grow/ or something. Permaculture is good but the barrier to entry should be as low as possible.
Almost time to plant for northern hemispheroids. What you growing this year?
>>45484still 1½ month away up here in the norf. I've figured out my soil is nitrogen poor so I'm thinking legumes this year. and taters. I'm not going to hope for seed potatoes to be available. if there are none then it's regular potatoes in the ground. I would like to plant some yams too I think
I'm also hoping the seeds I planted in trays last year will sprout
>>45484Some of my previous stuff is already coming back. I'm already seeing flowers on my plum trees and strawberries.
>>45484I've got tomatoes and peppers started indoors and I'm thinking carrots, celery, potatoes, spinach and kale come spring.
Semi excited this year because an epic ice storm took out a bunch of trees, giving me more sun
So far up for our main beds here:
- Two cultivars of cherry tomatoes.
- Moschatas (Butternut, Long Island Cheese, Seminole, Thai Kang Kob)
- Cucumbers
- Red Russian Kale
These all seem especially easy to get going.
We haven't had as much luck with other plants this year.
Hoping where we have multiple varieties growing for some interesting crosses.
north anon here. started turning over the soil in my potato patch. found a bunch of potatoes and carrots that survived the winter. I'll be replanting them, along with some early, mid and late harvest potato cultivars. I've also started pulling a bunch of dead wood towards it which I plan to set on fire to put ash and charcoal into the soil. might pick up some cow poop from a friend of mine
I also plan to plant beans together with hemp. the idea is to have the beans climb on the hemp. should be interesting
>>45792>tomatoes, squash, 'cumbers and kalenice
>>45857taters planted. put 2/3rds of them under silage as a no-till experiment, the rest of them planted as normal. nights are still around 0°C but with heat from the ground they should still be fine
All the perennials I planted last year at my grandma's house came back this year. Yay!
>>45884more progress: broad beans, carrots and bell peppers planted
>>45891cool! none of mine have taken :[
>>45910oh and bell peppers somewhere in the middle but it seems I forgot to jot down where
>>39606there anything sketchy about the UN doing all this? seems too good to be true
Perfect
Alright long story short, I used to be poor but rented a space with some gardenspace which was cool.
I moved and had to give that up (which really kinda depressed me) but now I have an easy, good paying job right now. I'm just planning to save some money and buy a field somewhere where I can put a small enough living space (or with a few people). With some luck I can turn this in a fully remote job too.
I'll love this thread. I used to work for am organic farm. It was pretty cool but I couldn't keep working there, also I want to go further.
Thank you for reading my blogpost.
>>46071The UN sometimes does good things. Not everything about it is the security council. They probably are taking advantage of the situation somehow but it's still good to slow down desertification.
>>46171Thank you for writing it. Good luck on turning it into a remote job and getting the field.
>>46071>there anything sketchy about the UN doing all this? seems too good to be truethere's nothing sus about it, they're just forced to respond to China's publicized success in reversing desertification. Some Western countries were forced to give their populations some succdem healthcare during the cold war because the USSR was doing it. Now China's advances in greening deserts is forcing the UN to finally follow some good policies.
>Ripe guaraná fruits resemble human eyesincredible plant, possibly divine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarana >>46210Not anything wrong with what you posted but it's important to remind people on this point:
They are REVERSING desertification, not erasing desert environments. I have seen a lot of gigabrain professional contrarians arguing that it's bad because it's an ecocide against desert biomes but it's literally trying to hold back ongoing ecological catastrophes.
We've got two or three apple trees here, but they're too young to produce much.
Older varieties from around the area, and one which is just a ton of grafts.
We had a red russian pomegranate but we dug it up and moved if further south to my grandparents.
It's a very sturdy plant, to have managed to have been moved or died back to the ground three or four times.
It seems like it's doing much better at its current location though, it was just maybe a zone or two too cold here.
We've also got a small plot of russian kale.
Another very resilient plant that tends to do a little better in the fall when there's no butterflies to eat them.
Have a theory that the coloration of scarlet kale would make it undesirable to the green worms, and so would really like to cross them.
Getting something like a red russian kale!
I've never been able to get the scarlet kale to grow however. sad.
We've got some monstrous golden everglades tomatoes that grow like mad.
Most of them came back from unharvested fruits (this is because it's everglades).
Or fruits that went bad and so were composted.
I've selected one that was crossed so as to produce larger fruits (but still ripen on time unlike most of the crosses).
I'm hoping to grow it next year in a secondary plot somewhere.
Although for aesthetic reasons we've lost our previous secondary tomato plot.
A perennial battle!
Other crops include a large collection of thai kang kob mocshata pumpkins.
Only one vine of these really produced, so I'm going to select from this one.
Pumpkins are very resistant against over selection issues.
Have seem some really great Seminole derivatives, and would be very interested in crossing with these.
Some spaghetti squash grew from out of the compost, so we harvested several of these.
We planted a lot of half-runner beans, but not sure any actually produced.
A favorite from around the area.
We've also got a collection of jerusalem artichokes, we've never eaten them.
Overall it's tough to go wrong with local, or wild crops, gathered like folk stories.
Things like wild new jersey broccoli fascinate me, or eating wild mustard greens.
>>46749>like folk storiesor… you know… mass line.
>>46749pomegranates are very easy to root from cuttings. like so easy that fallen sticks will root themselves and in a couple years whole new tree
>Have a theory that the coloration of scarlet kale would make it undesirable to the green wormsme too. it works somewhat but you also want the waxy farina cuticle skin trait. they still eat it but prefer no wax, and the wax melts when you put it in a skillet and tastes the same. i have a lot of perennial kale and they regularly get to six feet tall and last around 4 years until the stem and root borers take them down. theyre all hybrids between galacian/jersey cabbage and purple tree collards
i picked loopers off mine yesterday and they were only on the plants in the shade which are all shorter and more delicate with floppy thin leaves. the ones in full sun have a full wax cuticle and no worms and very crisp firm turgid leaves. you could spray BT but im stress testing for drought and pests and selecting for purple
>>46751>waxy farina cuticleInteresting, have to dig into this sometime.
<Cabbage Leaf Epicuticular Wax Deters Female Oviposition and Larval Feeding of Pieris rapae
>The small white butterfly Pieris rapae is a major pest of brassicaceous crops, causing extensive damage to cabbage Brassica oleraceae[…] Wax removal treatments, in which the leaf surface was rubbed with cotton balls, significantly increased female oviposition and mid-stage (2nd–4th instars) larval feeding compared with untreated (intact) leaves. Spraying treatments with n-nonacosane standard on wax-removed leaves significantly suppressed female oviposition and mid-stage larval feeding[…]This suggests that young larvae are more susceptible to wax feeding inhibition than older larvae and that increasing leaf wax content enhances the resistance of cabbage against P. rapae. Acquiring these traits in cabbage leaves through improved breeding and cultivation methods may reduce and control the oviposition and feeding damage by P. rapae.https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11937181/
<Environmental Conditions and Agronomical Factors Influencing the Levels of Phytochemicals in Brassica Vegetables Responsible for Nutritional and Sensorial Properties
>Anthocyanins were detected in Brassica vegetables and described by several authors [13,29]. They are present only in bright coloured species and varieties with red, orange and purple pigmentation, such as some kales, purple broccoli, and red and black cabbage[…] In particular, red cabbage possesses eight main types of anthocyanins (for a total of up to 190 mg Cyanidin−3-Glucoside equivalents/100 g of fresh weight) [30]; cyanidin−3-diglucoside is the most represented [31]. In broccoli, more than 17 anthocyanins were detected [29].https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/4/1927
<PLANT ANTHOCYANIN INSECT FEEDING DETERRENTS
>A few studies have determined that some anthocyanin compounds can reduce insect feeding. Of several anthocyanins tested, we found that delphinidin-3-O-glucoside added to insect diet at 1000 ppm significantly inhibited the growth of fall armyworms and cabbage loopers while cyanidin-3-O-glucoside only reduced the growth of fall armyworms. We also fed cabbage looper larvae leaves of an Arabidopsis thaliana transgenic mutant that accumulates cyanidin-3-O-glucosides. Leaves of the wild type control were more heavily damaged than the cyanidin-accumulating leaves. Lastly, we conducted insect feeding studies on floral tissues of Petunia hybrida, which can synthesize large amounts of different anthocyanins depending on the variety. Mortality rates of corn earworm and cabbage looper larvae were the highest on a lightly colored petunia flower that accumulates a precursor to the visible anthocyanin pigments. Together these results indicate that expression of relevant anthocyanin molecules at suitable levels may be an effective means to reduce insect predation of plant tissues. https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publication/?seqNo115=155544 >>46763update: the Queen Annes were good. could maybe have boiled them for a few more minutes
>>46763brought the almond potatoes to a party which were turned into gratiné and much appreciated by the guests
it's not a lot of potatoes for the amount of work, but the fact that I successfully grew them and that I have seed potatoes for next year is pleasing
I've thought about getting into gardening for myself, I learned some stuff about it as a kid when my family grew a vegetable garden in the backyard for many years. I'm not really clear on what "permaculture" is or what the benefits of it are exactly compared to traditional gardening, but the way I learned to do it was to first start a compost pile, throw lawn clippings in there and use a lawnmower to chop up raked leaves and pine needles and sticks and shit like that throw it in the compost pile as well and mix it around with a stick every few days or so to air it out, then when you have enough compost for the size garden you want go buy/rent a gas roto-tiller and buy bags of composted manure from a farmer's market, 4 parts composted cow shit, 1 part composted chicken shit for extra phosphorus, till a plot mixing your compost and cow and chicken shit with the natural dirt and just plant according to the season, also bury food scraps, egg shells, fish/animal carcasses in the garden, avoid synthetic fertilizers, etc. I don't know if this is the right way to do it but it seemed like it worked pretty well.
Due to the recent closure of the Straignts of Hormuz fertiliser will be getting expensive.
Any –magic– I mean, low fertiliser high yield systems out there?
>>47418Look into plants that can fix those nutrients in the soil. Look into composting - you can get a lot from food scraps. Research the soil in your area and test if possible because some plants are more suited to the soil than others. There's a good chance you have some kind of food plants native to the area.
>>47418companion planting can improve yields, although it's mainly used as a form of natural pest control.
>>47419whats the best way to test soil? ive been hearing about some closed loop water systems to grow potatoes or something. maybe grown w fish?
>>46775>I'm not really clear on what "permaculture" is permanent agriculture. its when you change the landscape to catch and store water and succession plant species long term so that with minimal input you have an edible forest that takes maybe a decade to implement and provides food for a couple generations with only basic seasonal maintenance to chop overgrowth
this year i planted zero seeds and did nothing because im really busy was kinda sad i missed planting cause its getting hot early and my whole yard is covered in food and wildflowers birds and bees anyway. its like a whole field of kale broccoli mulberries figs citrus pomegranates grapes toms peppers wild sage and herbs running off rainwater
>>47430controlling pests will improve crop yields in the sense of stopping pests eating as much of the crops
>>47435depends what you're testing for, pH and moisture can be done with a simple meter that's reusable but you'd need a soil testing kit for NPK levels. Should be available at your nearest store that sells gardening stuff. Not super complicated or expensive. Just take multiple samples from the places you'd plant because it'd vary.
https://overgrow.com/t/soil-testing-a-tutorial-for-ph-n-p-k-solves-most-problems/4719 whats a way to store food? filter rain water? im right next to a lake but are there better places to move to?
>>47418let me tell you about
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>>47458storing food typically involves removing water, not adding it
anyone know about organoponicos
https://parkrosepermaculture.substack.com/p/mutual-aid-is-not-charity-it-is-strategy?
>>47419>Beans and other nitrogen fixersGood
>>47430>>47437>control pests through mixed crops and other means, very good
And
last resort because this will spread disease although you can lower the risk by cooking it; Excrement, as in literal shit and piss
>>47503You can treat excrement so that it no longer has diseases but still has the good stuff.
https://ranchomastatal.com/blognewsletter/2020/3/10/composting-toiletshttps://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-12-08/permaculture-sewage-treatment-first-aid-and-future-proofing-for-our-rivers-and-seas/What this won't take care of though is heavy metals and other stuff that bioaccumulates in the human body, but there are ways of getting that stuff out of the soil too. Sunflowers are generally pretty good at sucking up everything in soil so they can be used to help reduce contaminants (just make sure that once they are grown you go bury them somewhere else to help return the contents to the sedimentary layer).
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