cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/27122330
This page continues the explanation: https://rainforestsaver.org/how-to-and-the-science/
related information:
- Agroforestry
- Abundance Agroforestry
- An Illustrated Guide to Agroforestry
- Natural succession of species in agroforestry and in soil recovery
Syntropic food forests are the way to go. The forest produces abundance, if only we are willing to work with it.
Someone gifted me a bunch of inga this past month. I’m really hoping I can get them to grow but it might be ambitious since our temperatures go below freezing every year.
Yeah, that is questionable in your climate… Do you know which species you have? Some of them are native to higher elevations and could possibly survive the winter if you protect them from a hard freeze.
or you could move to the tropicsThe ones around here are all said to be Inga vera. But I am not sure that’s actually true.
With how many different Inga species there are, I can’t even tell them apart except for a very select few. If your plants are in fact Inga vera, and if the information online about that species is correct and it does grow only up to 1000m in its native range, then I doubt that your plants would survive freezing temperatures… but we’ll see, I suppose.
Whatever they are, I’ve heard rumors that people have been able to grow them to fruiting size, but that they are easily damaged here if it gets slightly colder than normal. That’s one reason I’m skeptical it’s. I. vera though. I also heard it could be I. fuellii but I have no idea what the differences are.
I probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference either. What’s the climate change situation there, in regard to temperature? Do you get extreme cold spells, or is it just warmer at all times of year?
The climate here is pretty unique. Summers are extremely hot with near zero precipitation. Basically indistinguishable from desert. Winters are cold, rainy, and sometimes foggy. Our weather, especially in winter, is moderated by the Pacific Ocean. So we don’t get extreme cold like other parts of North America, but we also get very little winter warmth. Typical temperatures would range from 30-50F. One thing I learned this past winter is some tropicals, even when not directly damaged by frost simply can’t take the consistently cold damp conditions and rot away. This happened to tree spinach and water spinach I tried to overwinter.
Other than native species, plants from Europe, the Middle East, dry parts of Asia, Australia, Southern Africa, and Argentina seem to do best here. Tropicals are a challenge.
This year I planted a banana so we’ll see how that goes. I might keep the Inga indoors to let it size up a bit more before its first winter. Right now they’re small seedlings.
Fascinating! That’s like an alien world to me. How is your Ipomoea aquatica doing this summer?
(If you plan to stay there for a while, I could recommend you a few plants to try…)
