"Good, better, best" - Stefan Sobkowiak and the Permaculture Orchard

Stefan Sobkowiak.... and Beyond Organics Permaculture Tour of NZ

Stefan lives and works in a much harsher climate than we do in New Zealand. In his permaculture orchard near Montreal, Canada he combats ice storms, metres of snow and temperatures that get down to -40, a spring that lasts 10 days and then summer temperatures averaging 35C.  It's a short but  good growing season.  There are some advantages to working in such a cold climate - you can do other things over winter where in the warmer parts of New Zealand there is always something to be done in the garden or orchard.

Stefan grows a permaculture orchard using the principle of food forest design but in a structured commercial orchard way.

Stefan with the wire trainers he uses to train tree branches.  They
are left in place for 2-3 months and if the branch still bounces back he will
keep them wired for longer.  He makes a number of lengths over winter ready for use
in summer.

At the Habitate Heritage Fruits Nursery in the township of Waitati (15 minutes north of Dunedin) we were treated to a half day practical workshop on the training and pruning of orchard trees. Stefan managed to impress not only the novice orchard growers like me, but others experienced in pruning.  Many left this workshop with a completely different view on training and pruning orchard trees.

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Stefan showed us step by step how to train and prune apple trees.

Training to Reduce Pruning by 80%

Training a tree involves selecting branches to grow in a downward slope from the trunk rather than up in the vase shape we have previously been told an apple tree shape should be.  By encouraging the branch downward it reduces the vegetative growth of new branches and increases the number of fruit spurs on each branch. A fruit tree only has so much energy and so it's important to focus that energy on producing fruit rather than vegetation.

The branches should slope like our arms on our bodies (Stefan demonstrating below) but the lead trunk should keep growing upward until it reaches it's ideal height.

Stefan illustrating the angle the branch should be off the trunk.
Photo by James Samuel Beyond Organic Tour NZ

 It's up to you what height you want but Stefan aims for a 4 metre tree simply to get the productivity he needs for a commercial orchard.  Once the lead trunk reaches your height, do not cut off it's head or it will sprout a number of branches from that cut. Just like us Stefan says a tree needs just one head.   You now bend this lead branch down so that it fruits but doesn't continue to grow upward.

If your tree has previously been pruned to cut out a central branch you have two choices. Treat each of the main branches like one tree, or select the strongest upward branch to become the new head.

Train in the middle of summer when there is enough sap flow for the branches to be supple and can be manipulated without the danger of cracking.

Small upward branches you do want to crack to lay in a downward position.  The tree quickly repairs the crack and this will mean you won't need to use wires next year to shape this branch.

Avoid doing this job if it's going to rain or is raining.  You need a few days of sun to avoid disease on the cracked twigs. A healthy tree will quickly wall off the break from infection. Stefan doesn't use pruning paste taking his cue from nature.  If the soil has a healthy soil biology the tree will repair itself fast.

When training choose the branches that are less than 50% of the size of the main trunk.  Each tree should have 12-14 branches so at this time you might identify the branches that may have to go at pruning time because they are either too big or is growing in the wrong direction for the line you want in your orchard.  If you have a pathway between your trees you do not want branches sticking straight out and blocking ease of movement and you don't want the branch touching the next fruit tree at the sides either.  So you aim to create an "X" shape to your branches.

Stefan said it was not the best time to train as the branches were
beginning to stiffen up...but then his byline throughout the day was
"good...better..best". Not always do you get the opportunity to do things at the
best time but it's better to do it now than wait for another year.

To train hold onto the branch where it meets the trunk while with the other hand twist towards you and gently but firmly push down the branch.  When at the position you want, with the hand that was at the trunk hook the wire from this branch to another branch to keep the branch in this downward position. Alternatively you can use ties but these wire hooks are easy to put on and take away.

After a couple of months the branch should stay in place.  If it doesn't put the wire back on the branch.

For established trees it could take three years to train the shape from a vase to branches in a downward motion.

Note Pear trees require branches to be in a horizontal not downward position for maximum fruiting.

Stefan Sobkowiak on tree training:
The French primarily from the research at INRA originally led by Dr. Jean-Marie Lespinasse progressed the art and science of pruning to a simple and far more efficient system... It has cut my pruning time by 80%. Training branches to a 100-120 degree angle (resulting in below horizontal branches) produces branches that are fruitful instead of being branchy. In the end do you want to grow branches or do you want to grow fruit. Each tree has a limited amount of energy and will put it into branch growth or fruit growth or both. Focus the trees energy in its youth to grow branches and once mature to grow fruit...
Limit your tree to 12-14 branches and you will get a commercial crop.
Each branch below the horizontal should be left intact or almost so and the pruning is simply the removal of growth BELOW the branch. This growth is usually shaded anyway so not as productive. This is pretty well the only pruning you do to a branch. Do not cut the tips. The branch continues to be productive by adding a little bit of growth to each spur which will give next years fruit. Eventually that spur bends down with the weight of fruit on it and becomes a spur or branch below the branch which you will dormant prune off. We use a heavy glove and just rub them off. Try it since you already understand that that branch angle is productive.
As a transition to having a fully trained tree I dormant prune one or 2 of the most vertical main branches each year until I get a tree with all branches below horizontal. Follow up with 1-2 years of summer training and you will enjoy years of FAR easier pruning. My trees have gone from: OK where do I start (since there is so much to remove) to now Ok is there ANYTHING to remove. A dramatic change.

Pruning

Stefan doesn't use secateurs for pruning, just a pruning saw for large branches and his hands. 

You prune when the tree is in a dormant stage

There are three major actions you take in pruning a fruit tree:

1. Create a Chimney

Just like in a compost heap you need to create a chimney up with central trunk of the tree to aid in air circulation for the tree and light to ripen the fruit.  Take every set of leaves off branches up to a handspan length from trunk. As the trunk increases in size you extend this distance.  

You can see from this tree that there is a section of the branch clear of
vegetation next to the trunk.

2. Select the best 12-14 branches only

There is a three point rule to follow in selecting what branches get pruned or stay... LBL 

- Low hanging branches

- Big branches

- Line

Low Hanging Branches - It is best practice to have the first branch between 1-2 metres from the ground.  Remember the branches will be trained downwards so you need height for this to work.

Stefan does leave one or two low branches for the rabbits because his theory is that "If you don't give it to them, they will get it" and to get at the higher fruit could end up damaging the bark of the tree.

Big Branches - 

Branches should never be over 50% of the trunk size so on an established tree select what 12-14 branches to keep.   You may have to reduce larger branches over a couple of seasons as the rule is no more than 33% of the tree should be removed at pruning.  If the branch is not required to grow again in this area then simply cut 2mm from the collar (the collar is the thickened area where the branch meets the trunk.

You can see the raised area around the branch where
it comes out from the trunk - that's called the collar. 

Always cut off the branch first further down so that the weight of the branch isn't a problem with making the important cut close to the trunk. If you want the branch to return then encourage it with a Cocks Spur cut - slant the cut downwards from 2mm at the top to approx 1 cm out from the collar at the bottom of the cut. This extra wood will wake up latent buds and create new branch growth.

If you want to instead encourage a branch somewhere else on the trunk then simply cut a small slit in the trunk and this should stimulate a new bud and over time a new branch.

The Line - 
Avoid favouring a branch that is going towards another tree or jutting out into the working isle in your orchard.  The X pattern is the ideal shape to work to. Stefan recommends 1 metre between sets of branches.

3. The Finish

It's important to maintain the integrity of the tree - don't cut out the top or trim off the end of branches. Think of the top of the main trunk as the head and the end of the branches as the fingers. 

Stefan's last job is to put on gloves and run hand under each branch knocking off the fruiting spurs on the underside of the branch.  This is to encourage larger fruit and to ensure all the fruit is ripened as one time as any fruit on the underside wouldn't get the sun to ripen.  This may not bother you if you are not wanting to harvest all at one time, but there is also a danger once you pick the fruit from the top of the branch then the underside fruit will be exposed to sun all at once and could get sunburnt.

Stefan's orchard design

Stefan has used the French principles of tree training and pruning but his orchard design is more like a Permaculture Food Forest with plant tiers - but still looks like an orchard.

He has designed the layout so no apple tree is beside another apple and has a pattern with this combination of trees:  NAP

Nitrogen Fixing tree

Apple

Pear or Plum

To further complicate things he has each orchard row fruiting at the same time so that his customers can go down that row and pick their own and have the choice of variety.  If all he had were apple trees then this would be a demand on the soil fertility, but with a nitrogen fixing tree nearby and a plum or pear that may have different soil biology needs it's all in balance.   And a big plus is that pests may hit one apple but will not easily find the next apple tree.

Under each three he plants 4-6 shrubs especially fruits like gooseberry, raspberries, currants that don't need full sun.  (We need to note that Stefan mentioned that our plants seem to be on steroids the size they grow so some of our shrugging plants would be too big for an understory - he says for example that sage bushes in his orchard are about half the size of what grows here.)

Then he adds another 16 perennials and these are often perennial vegetables like NZ Spinach, seakale, sorrel, garlic chives, Egyptian onions, lovage, mint and herbs.

He uses plastic over the ground around this area, cutting holes for the planted shrubs and perennials.

This suits his situation and he says he explains why in his film.

On the Good, better or best scale - this half day workshop was BEST.  I now feel I can have a try at growing fruit trees.  Thank you Stefan.

Under the nitrogen fixing tree (he uses Honey Locusts) he plants a grapevine.

Enhancing Photosynthesis with Compost Teas at Chaos Springs

Our Go Organic horticulture class had the privilege of a half day with Steve and Jenny Erickson at their 200 acre organic farm close to Waihi where they do dairy grazing, make certified organic compost that is shipped all over the country, sell lemons, garlic, potatoes and Steve's famous compost teas.  We were primarily here to understand more about compost tea production.

They purchased the 200 acre property in 2001and looking at the lush pastures today, it's hard to imagine it was once covered in gorse and ragwort. The ragwort problem inspired Steve to try compost teas.  Dr Elaine Ingham of the food soil web fame talks about weeds having a purpose as part of plant succession to build bacterial soil into a balanced bacterial and fungal soil flora. Pioneer plants in plant succession are often annual weeds with high nutrient value that grow quickly, die, and then lay down organic material to aid in building the soil biology. Pasture needs a bacterial fungal balance to be productive.  Weeds are the fixers or bandages on bare or depleted soils.

So if Steve was to just remove the ragwort it would not have served its purpose and next season would pop up again, just as it does for farmers who spray it.  He had to remove the ragwort because he needed to make an income grazing stock. In a home garden situation you could allow this cycle to play out before cultivating. So Steve collected the ragwort and made a plant extract and returned it to the land as a sprayed on tea.  Within one year he had got rid of the ragwort.

Steve showing up the mechanical
stirrer to replicate
the Bio Dynamic stirring process.

Steve makes aerated teas from diluted compost and plant extracts. He aerates mechanically to reproduce Steiners Biodynamic stirring process.

This machine creates a vortex one way and then the other.  The action changes the anaerobic solution into an aerobic one and the action of the churning the water separates the microbes from the plant material. This is important if you want to spray sieved material to ensure the microbes will be in the remaining liquid.

This vortex action is mesmerising.

Foliar feeding with compost teas create a liquid carbon pathway bypassing the solid state of carbon breakdown. This means the plant exudates grows the soil microorganisms faster.  The plant feeds the microbes sugars and in return the microbes through the plant's root system deliver all the minerals the plant requires to grow well. The pasture the animals graze or the vegetables and fruit produced have a sweet vitality.  Steve says the dairy farmer is over the moon about the condition of the cows when they leave his place at 18 months old.  They are fit for the task as milking cows.  Compost teas enhance the photosynthesis process - speed up the whole cycle.

Foliar feeding of plants with compost teas have created one inch of topsoil in a year in Australia.

Steve told us about the work of Australian, Dr Christine Jones and the Soil Carbon Coalition. Christine is a Soil Ecologist and has the nickname over there of "Carbon Goddess".

Steve doesn't use any other form of fertiliser apart from the compost teas on his land except for fine lime that he sprays on in a liquid form at the rate of 50 kg/hectare. Application with water also makes the lime available to plants faster than a powder form.

Steve has used Bio-dynamic preparations because he could see the results but being someone who needs to know how things work he was pleased to discover the work of  scientist Philip S Callahan who has been able to explain in scientific terms concepts such as paramagnetism affecting plant growth.

The other tool he has used has been plant diversification. He sites that the growing popularity of a herbal lay is good but 30 different plant species should just be the starting point.  He stated "a bag of seed is worth ten times more than a bag of fertiliser".   He suggested when we grow cover crops not to stick to one other species but add variety as plants do best living in a mixed community.

Trish taking a close look and sniff of comfrey plant extract that
Steve will usually add to each of his Compost Teas.

We then braved the rain and had the opportunity of seeing just how Steve makes his brews.

He uses plant extracts in two ways:

1. To deal to problematic weeds by putting the problem weed exudates back on the land.  He and others have had success with ragwort, Scotch and Canadian thistles, lawn daisies and one woman claims to have got rid of comfrey using this same method.
2. A general biological nutritional feed of soil biology and minerals for the soil.

To make his teas he may use a selection of extracts and add some sea water as there are so many valuable minerals in seawater. He makes plant extracts of hay, cut pasture, comfrey, and even gorse (chopped up) as it's an excellent source of nitrogen. Every plant has different mineral compositions and the pioneer weeds like nightshade are often especially high in nutrient value. He had us all thinking of the weeds we would dearly like to get rid of on our properties.  If nothing else making a tea of them will be satisfying because at least we can get the positive of that weed's nutrient value back on the soil. The effort of weeding them out is rewarded.

Steve showing us the tanks of different extracts.
He says the hay extract when he looks under the microscope
is "buzzing with protozoa..millions of them"

He has large plastic and stainless steel containers up to 2000 litre capacity. For a 2000 litre container of material and water he is likely to get 12-1300 litres of extract.

The 2000 litre stainless steel container has California thistles in it.  Usually he covers the containers but this one was left uncovered and the pasture seed in amongst the materials have started to grow on top of the liquid.

Steve pointing out the plant growth on top of the  California thistle extract tank.

He decided to leave the plant topping because  "those plants are photosynthesising stuff into the liquid". 

To make the extract:

Harvest weeds or plant materials including roots and attached soil, press down until it fills your container.
Fill with water.  They will become fairly smelly for a few days but the smell will go away.  Comfrey seems to always stink no matter what you do.
The plant material will float but will eventually over 3 to 8 weeks drop to the bottom and change in colour indicating it should be ready to be drained off as the nutrients have been extracted from the plant material.

To make a nourishing tea he mixes a number of extracts using about 10 litres of each including a dilution of his compost and seawater.  This is all diluted at least 20:1 with water.

To put on the land he has to first aerate with his mixing machine to change from anaerobic to aerobic.  This addition of oxygen kills any pure anaerobic microbes, and allows other microbes to convert from anaerobic to aerobic. Anaerobic pathogens that can cause harm are eliminated.

He has always made his extracts anaerobically and has found 30 minutes aeration is all that is needed to change it to an aerobic solution.  Spraying of course also aerates.

At home you can aerate by hand for half an hour stirring one way with your hand to make a vortex, then change to other way.  If doing this by hand I would add some warm water as part of the dilution to make it a more pleasant task as they do in Biodynamic stirrings.

Steve says you can just keep the extracts in the tanks until you need them.  He has some extracts that date back to one year.  Like with seaweed extracts the visual sign when its ready to use is when the materials sink to the bottom.

Steve did a number of tests to see if the visual signs of colour change and material sinking to the bottom stacked up with other scientific methods of monitoring.

He checked the temperature.  The temperature only raised a couple of degrees above ambient temperature and dropped down to ambient temperature in 4-5 days.

The other measure was pH.  The pH after 3 days had dropped down from neutral to 3 and over time it gradually returned to neutral.

He used an EC  (electrical connectivity) meter that measures the amount of minerals in the solution.  It doesn't tell you what minerals just how much. The EC metre measure started low and gradually rose until it started to level off.  The time it started to level off was the same time that the material dropped to the bottom.

Steve then showed us his mixer and spraying unit. His spraying unit
has no filters as there will be small bits of plant material in the tea.

On our way to visit his compost making set up he showed us his saltwater feeding station for the stock.  He says his cows fight over getting first licks of the fresh salt water he gets from the ocean 20 minutes drive away.

Seawater feeding station for stock

 Steve has been a commercial compost maker for many years both in the US and at Chaos Springs so he has an impressive array of machinery to enable him to make compost in large quantities.

Compost silver. The fine material is used in the compost tea.

Compost is made in long strips. He monitors for temperature, moisture and odour and writes down the results every day for the first month. For Biogro certification you have to have records of the heap reaching a temperature of 55 degrees C for 15 days and it has to be turned five times.

If the mix is perfect it will only need to be turned half a dozen times. You turn the compost to homogenise the materials and every heap can vary.

If it heats up too high over 65 degrees then he knows he has to add some more carbon. The test on whether the carbon nitrogen ratio is correct is if the temperature rises as expected.

 If it is taking too long to increase in temperature he knows that more nitrogenous material needs to be added and he will add some more grass or fish fertiliser to correct.

He prefers poplar, willow, aspen or avocado trees to pine as the carbon component because the tannins in pine make the compost process more difficult.  He told us that adding seawater can help raise the temperature of the heap.  He puts on 100 litres of seawater over each pile which is 30 cubic metres.

Manure is vital to the compost process and Steve has made a pen close to the compost area where he can put 100 cows overnight. The purpose is to gather their manure from one concentrated area.

Compost heap with fleece cover

The heaps are covered with a poly fleece that is light, black to attract heat and is permeable enough to let in some moisture but to keep excess moisture out.  Steve imported this fleece from the US.

So much easier to handle and looks so tidy compared with the recycled carpet we as home gardeners have to use.

The compost was impressive as was Jenny and Steve's home garden.
Jenny dug into her garden and the soil was picture perfect full of worms, dark, fine aggregates all holding together well.

Everything including Jenny and Steve looked full of life. The landscape with native bush backdrop was lovely including the hedgerows dividing up the paddocks.




Steve curses the Barberry Barberis vulgaris hedges as they are such prickly customers to maintain but I immediately spied the fruit ready for the picking.  He said we could help ourselves so I enlisted the help of Sinead with the promise of a jar of Barberry jelly for her efforts.