Here are the results from the second year of our home garden polyculture study where we're looking at the inputs and outputs of annual herb and vegetable polycultures and how we can grow nutrient dense food whilst enhancing biodiversity.Our market garden polyculture study results are coming soon. For original post see link below https://balkanecologyproject.blogspot.bg/2015/11/how-productive-can-polycultures-be.html Results in Summary From a 9.5 m x 7 m piece of land we harvested 218 kg of vegetables including Tomatoes, Basil, Beans, Garlic and Winter & Summer Squash, a 57 kg increase on last year.The time spent in this garden, including propagating all the plants from seed, preparing the beds, tending the plants, irrigating and harvesting amounted to 52 hrs and 51 mins or approx 14.5 minutes a day from April - October. I'm pretty sure it takes me longer than that to write it all up 218 kg works out at just over 6 kg of food produced per m² with an estimated local market value of just over 700 BGN, that's 10.63 BGN per m2 with an hourly rate of pay at 13.59 BGN (€6.95). Not exactly going to pay for lunch at the Restaurant Le Meurice, Paris, but when you consider the food is as good as you would get there, that the soil and general garden ecosystem is in better condition than it was this time last year, and that the garden provides habitat to all of the below organisms (to highlight but a few) it all starts to look pretty encouraging! Our goal is to create garden ecosystems that are productive for man and for nature.Photographs taken from the garden.by Paul Alfrey and Peter Alfrey. Here's some details on where and how we do it. You can find the full spreadsheet that includes all of the data entries here For an overview of the cultivation methods we use see here and for last year's results see here Garden Overview Climate: Continental Temperate Latitude: 42° Elevation: 580 m Average Annual Rainfall: 588.5 mm Co-ordinates:42°42′N 25°23′E The Polyculture beds on a mid spring morning Garden Layout Garden area: 66.5m2 Cultivated beds area: 36m2 Paths: 30.5m2 Path and Bed Layout Crop and Cultivar List 11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Black Krim' 11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Tigerealla'11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Mixed Saved Seed' 11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Rozova Magia' 11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Paulina F1' 11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Citrina' 66 x Basil - Ocimum basilcium 'Sweet Genovese' 24 x Runner Beans - Phaseolus coccineus 24 x French Beans - Phaseolus vulgaris 'Cobra' 24 x French Beans - Phaseolus vulgaris 'Blue Bean' 2 x Courgette - Cucurbita pepo 'Black Beauty' 4 x Bush Scallops - Cucurbita pepo 6 x Butternut Squash - Cucurbita pepo 'Waltham Butternut' 12 x African Marigold - Tagetes erecta 12 x French Marigold - Tagetes patula 12 x Pot Marigold - Calendula officinalis The table below shows the floral species composition of each bed including the different cultivars and the dates that the plants were sown or planted. Beans, courgettes and winter squash were sown, tomatoes, basil, marigolds and pot marigolds were planted.Other crops such as volunteer sunflowers and nasturtiums were also allowed to grow within the beds. The yield of these plants are not considered in these records. Also not included are the native wild plants that are encouraged to grow around the perimeter of each bed. Many of these plants provide a harvest of salad greens and tea ingredients as well as mulch material when chop and dropped on the beds. SEE ORIGINAL POST FOR TABLE Planting Scheme Below is a typical representation of the planting scheme within a bed. Vegetable Guild/Polyculture Soil Analysis Mineral Analysis - Soil samples were taken in early spring before fertility inputs and sent to the NAAS of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Soil Microbiology Analysis - We had a lovely response after publishing last year's results from Vitalia Baranyai and Birgit Albertsmeier who volunteered to study the microbiology of the soil samples from the gardens. Below are Vitalia's results from samples taken in the spring and high summer. We thank them both for their input and support. Spring Sample Number of Bacteria per ml Micrograms bact./ ml Length in cm of fungal strands / ml Micrograms of fungi per ml F:B Biomass ratio 3573656000.00 7147.31 445.19 270.84 0.04 Summer Sample Number of Bacteria per ml Micrograms bact./ ml Length in cm of fungal strands / ml Micrograms of fungi per ml F:B Biomass ratio 4675584000 9351 274 177 0.019 Results: Inputs Input:Time Spent in Garden Tasks Minutes Hours Set up/Pack up 470 7 hrs 50 mins Propagation 104 1 hr 44 mins Fertility 235 3 hrs 55 mins Planting out 611 10 hrs 11 mins Mowing Paths 60 1 hr Irrigation 540 9 hrs Garden Care and Harvesting 1091 18 hrs 11 mins Total minutes 3111 Input: Fertility Inputs Over One Season Fertility Inputs Fertility Inputs Fresh Comfrey Material 96 kg Wood Ash 20 L - 5.6 kg Chicken manure 5.76 kg Autumn Compost for Garlic 120 L Spring Compost 480 L Kitchen scraps 18 kg Compost for planting out toms 22 L Straw bales 9 (standard bales) Seedling Mix for Squash 9 L Lawn Mower Box of Clippings 128 kg Seedling mix for Beans 18 L Results: Outputs Output: The Harvest The total produce from each of the main crops in the polyculture were as follows;Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum : 89.84 kg Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum : (Blemished with cracks or blotches but suitable for processing) 40.58 kg Basil - Ocimum basilcium : 1.62 kg Fresh Runner Beans - Phaseolus coccineus French Beans - Phaseolus vulgaris : 24.33 kg Courgette - Cucurbita pepo : 33.25 kg Winter Squash - Cucurbita pepo :21.7 kg Fresh Garlic - Allium sativum :6.74 kg Chicken Eggs - 54 Garden Produce All produce was weighed directly after harvest and unless otherwise stated, all of the produce recorded was in excellent condition and fit for market. Produce not fit for market was composted or fed to our animals and is not included in these records. Table summarising input and outputs from October 31st 2014 - October 31st 2015 You can find the full spreadsheet that includes all of the data entries here
Thanks for sharing in such detail. incl spreadsheets. I suspect that your micro climate is much different that the surrounding "Continental Temperate". Do you have stats on sunshine hours and actual hi\lo for months or days. It would be really interesting.
Excellent documentation (and design!) work Permaship! Thanks for posting this. As your work is so thoroughly scientific, have you give any thought to sharing with the Permaculture International Research Network (PIRN)?
Hi mullerjannie, You should be able to find this info from the below site using co-ordinates posted in the article https://www.samsamwater.com/climate/?gclid=CNj70vqauMsCFVYo0wodeNgKig cheers
Great work and wonderful results thus far with your project. Thank you for such a complete, detailed report of your methods and results. I am sure others here can benefit greatly from your sharing this information. I am always happy when polyculture results show what a great method it is for food production and wild life. Wolf, my wife, has declared a portion of our land to be where she wants to put in a polyculture food forest. I have been showing her just how well the old ways work for growing food and she is noticing that many of the current ideas are off shoots of our native planting ways. With her current illness taking the front seat for the next six weeks, I am getting to do all the work that gets done on Asnikiye Heca (Buzzard's Roost) so our progress currently has slowed quite a bit. I look forward to seeing more of your research as you continue to improve your soils. Great results so far by the way, it looks like you will increase productivity next year too. Thanks again for this post.