On 09-09-2009 00:26, “Maarten Hoogesteger” wrote:

Willem,

Thank you, wonderful idea. …………………..

The fruit trees I am very familiar with are stone fruit (nectarines, peaches and plumbs). They are hardy, deciduous (loose their leaves in winter), grow in poor soils and produce very abundantly. However, they need a lot of care to get fruit that is enjoyable. The district where I live has large stone fruit orchards and I have personal friends who are highly successful orchardists in stone fruit. I know by experience that growing stone fruit is now an exact science. Variety selection is critical, disease control sometimes is so critical that a few hours can make the difference between a failed and a successful crop. Stone fruit also requires 365 day per year attention.

Of the 3 fruits, I would consider plumbs the best option. In a dry climate like Mongolia ( rainfall 250 mm > 0 mm per year) leaf and skin diseases will be minimised and with the gravelly soil root rot should also be reduced. Fertilisation will be very necessary because you only get out (the fruit) what you put in (the N, P, K) + water. Irrigation will be essential for stone fruit. In my district the trees are all watered by drip systems. This requires pumps, pipes, etc.

Do you think it would be a better method of reforestation, to first establish indigenous species in coppices (Google : “thickets or grove of small trees or shrubs, especially the ones maintained by periodic cutting or pruning to encourage suckering”) and, when these are established, to establish fruit trees in the center of the coppices where the “climate” will be softer (more soil moisture and less wind) ?

I am thinking of “wagon wheel plantations“. The circular shape deflects the wind from all directions and also creases a tail of reduced wind on the down-wind side, where native grasses have an opportunity to grow.

Vegetation growth in Circular Spirals

The Australian government organisation CSIRO has done extensive work on desertification and one of the cheapest methods of getting plants to grow in desert prone areas (in Australia) was to plough circular spirals. The idea was that the spiral brings the occasional rain that does fall to the centre of the spiral bringing increasing amounts of water and any seeds that are in that area to the place where increasing amounts of water are collected. Eventually there comes a point in the spiral where there is sufficient soil moisture for those seeds to sprout. So the plants at the centre of the spiral get the most moisture and grow the quickest, but over the years, as water continues to move towards the centre of the spiral, it is blocked by the growing vegetation at the centre.  Then it stops and begins to collect further out from the centre, thus providing new locations for new plant growth. The natural tendency of the circular plantation that grows is to deflect wind around the circle, sheltering the plants in the middle where the growth will be the most vigorous. The spiral ploughing also prevents wind erosion, because, unlike straight farrows, the wind does not scour the land. the spiral also traps seeds more easily.

In Australia, an area which is scoured by wind becomes so devoid of any top soil that seeds have no soil into which to catch and grow. We call it a “scald” (like a burn). The spiral plough breaks this scald up and gives opportunity for wind blown seeds to catch in the broken soil AND at the same time, the wind can not erode the circles.

Our intention in Mongolia is

1. To set up a nursery to propagate thousands of indigenous trees and vegetables
2. To test the spiral ploughing concept
3. To set up village based clubs who want to own a plantation
4. To supply plants and know-how to operate their own plantation.

A major issue is to show that Mongolia can make money doing this, so that they will consider it a commercial activity. Your idea of combining timber growing with fruit production is a very good idea because it increases the commerciality.

Maarten HOOGESTEGER

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MY REPLY (Willem VAN COTTHEM)

Dear Maarten,

Thanks for this excellent ideas about stone fruit orchards and, especially, the ploughing of spirals to harvest water and stimulate the development of vegetation in dry areas.

I am still very much in favour of combining indigenous tree species for the production of timber wood with orchards of local fruit trees (not only stone fruits !).

Let us just dream about ploughing big spirals in the Mongolian field, with a furrow becoming slowly deeper and deeper towards the center (to enable rain water to run towards that center of the spiral).  Let us then plant timber wood trees and fruit trees IN THAT FURROW (where to can profit from the rain water running from time to time in the spiral). If any irrigation water is available, it would be easy to pump it at the top of the spiral in the furrow and it would facilitate the growth of all plants. We could also dream of a number of spirals radially around a well.

If the dimensions of the spiral(s) are big enough, I foresee also a possibility to install small kitchen gardens in between the spiral windings.

To me it sounds like music.  Do you hear that “PASTORALE” too ?  Even Beethoven would be happy.

Willem VAN COTTHEM