I want to hear from you!

[Rogue]

Permaculture needs to become widespread basic knowledge, it doesn’t get any more sustainable than that.

Water harvesting is an essential part of this.

Diversity of species is extremely important.

Swales that serve as productive walking paths by filling them with woodchips inoculated with mycorrhizal mycelium and spores / spore slurry, every garden and farm should have that as its first implementation.

It hits 3 purposes at once: water harvesting, walking paths which when you strictly stay on them avoid compaction so no need for tilling or plowing, ever. And mushroom production.

Design swales on contour, and when you are working with flat land then design a geometric swale/footpath system that makes sense. Triangular perhaps with nitrogen fixing or fruit trees in the middle of each triangular patch, bushes like cannabis around them, then beans, and lots of other lower growing species at the edges near the footpaths.

The trees can be pruned continuously in such way as to cast the ideal amount of shadow.

I would completely forego nurseries and sow directly on the land, it ensures the natural selection of the strongest, it saves space, material, time, energy…

When starting out, sow 10 times more seeds than you think you’ll need, sow many species mixed together and let the land figure out what is best because we know fuck all about what is going on in soil, we’ve barely scratched to surface when it comes to microbes…

Unwanted weeds have no chance to grow when you sow and abundance of desired plants.

Harvest only half of everything that grows and let the rest fertilize the soil and self seed.
You really only need to sow abundantly once.

Keep it simple and above all, be lazy, that’s when we are most efficient when it comes to gardening and farming. Let nature work for us, let her show us how she effortlessly keeps herself in balance when we interfere minimally rather than dominate.

The main tasks should be sowing, harvesting, pruning and observing.

Digging swales only needs to be done once. Observe carefully when flooding happens and make adjustments where necessary.

No machines are necessary apart from initial swale making perhaps, although a big group of people with a shovel or pickaxe can move mountains too. Small tools like that go a long way; sytches and pruning sheers are low cost and last a very long time, don’t need petrol or electricity, low maintenance…

The tremendous amount of money that is saved from not using machines can be invested in paying people for harvesting and pruning.
Prioritize vets and anyone with PTSD, which is just about everyone I suppose, these days…
Give them each a wheel barrow or some sort of cart and when they are filled up they can all gather at a central walking path wide enough for a pickup truck to collect the harvest for example.

Thank you for being willing to explore different perspectives!

[GreenBhoy]

Permaculture is the future.

[GrouchyOldMan]

Congratulations @ThePotanist on what must be a dream job!

Here in New England the most pernicious problem is the weather and pest issues that surface reliably every fall. If the bud rot doesn’t get you, the caterpillars or WPM are lined up to take their turn.

So I hope your interests include pest and disease resistant strains. I’d love to get back to the pleasures of adding Cannabis to my normal veggie & flower beds, but the last few attempts have been cruel disappointments.

Best of luck,
-Grouchy

I Fought Botrytis (and got my ass kicked!)

[Rogue]

@GrouchyOldMan seems like autoflowering varieties might be the way to go for you?
They’ve come a long way you know!
And they keep improving.

The Hot Cakes I’m running from @Going2fast is blowing me away.

[DirtySlowToes]

How are you planning, if you are, to apply your studies to indoor grows? I’m all in for the outdoor ideals and am obsessive about sustainability myself but have a hard time meshing sustainability and commercial cannabis. We’ve spoken before and I really value that you’re placing your efforts into more small scale operations. Just curious how you’ll apply it to indoor as indoor is the most common thing currently.

I know it’s not necessarily your wheelhouse at the moment but I’d like more use studies… use as in adult use. It’s tough to get people to respond to surveys but the landscape of who is buying vs who is growing is changing and I haven’t found much solid info about it all and I consider very helpful in making longer term plans in the industry.

I’d also love to begin the battle of waste management in a lot of places. I know some do well but a lot of places don’t allow composting/recycling of trimmed material and add that on top of waste rockwool and you see hundreds and hundreds of pounds of ‘trash’ leave every week… though I suppose this falls under sustainability. Anyway. Thanks for letting me rant and giving many other an outlet to do so.

[emeraldbullfrog]

@DirtySlowToes

I’d like more use studies… use as in adult use

Hopefully more of these studies will be approved & funded when cannabis is rescheduled (or maybe even removed entirely from the CSA scheduling - link to The Hill article). Fingers crossed that it will happen this year

[ThePotanist]

@GrouchyOldMan love where you’re going with that, and part of my philosophy concerning sustainable agriculture is that it must be regional. That means identifying traits necessary for different climates and screening cultivars, so we talking the same language!

@DirtySlowToes that is a great question! I think some of the stuff done outdoors, with the right data and technology, could work indoors. Mostly concerning soil as a substrate, but helping to reduce substrate waste and encourage use of nutrition sources that are more sustainable would help. I really like outdoor and hope to change a lot of opinions on the quality of outdoor, but indoor absolutely has to be on my radar. My biggest concern with indoor is energy use, so finding ways to incorporate solar or alternative energy sources is something I am interested in.

[logangrowgan2020]

@GrouchyOldMan

Here in New England the most pernicious problem is the weather and pest issues that surface reliably every fall. If the bud rot doesn’t get you, the caterpillars or WPM are lined up to take their turn.

Autoflowers are perfect for you, give em a try!

[Calyxander]

I began switching from my in ground outdoor guerilla plants to container portability because I became quite frustrated with battling PM and Botrytis every fall in the NE US. The only way that I could consistently harvest nice, unblemished buds was to bring the container plants indoors with a dehumidifier, A/C and some fans. That was about 40 years ago, and I still move my outdoor plants indoors every evening and then back out in the morning, even though I no longer live and grow in the NE. For me, this not only helps in avoiding bud rot and PM, but IMO, it’s the best way to produce sun grown flowers which have not been ravaged by the whims of Mother Nature. BTW, I also move the plants out of any heavy rains or high winds or hail.
For me, this is the best of both worlds… indoor climate control combined with the Sun’s superior light. This method provides me with the most enjoyable buds that I have yet to smoke.
Having grown many clones from the same plant both indoors and out, I always prefer the sun grown version.
This has been my experience with growing cannabis in/out for a little over 53 years now.

I have been itching to try growing in a greenhouse with climate control, but, alas, that does not seem likely, as I am probably in my last decade of growing this magnificent plant.

[RainToday]

Thank you for sharing! As I read this I thought how lazy I am with my plants, and imagined the glory of a setup where all the plant pots are on a track, and every suitable morning a hatch with a high tech sensor array opens and a little train takes them out to the sunny field, and runs them back in again.