wolfyvegan

That's awesome. Please post back with an update on how it goes! Would you ever get fruit from the mulberries, or do the birds eat them all where you are?

Yes, convert that lawn! Two plants worth considering are Prunus persica 'Kernechter vom Vorgebirge' and Amelanchier × lamarckii. I've heard great things about them, but they were growing in SW Germany, so do your own research first. What do you use for a ground cover? Clover can be a valuable ally in the fight against the grass.

That is an impressive agroforestry system. :) Which chestnut species do you grow?

You have a ton of potential in South Florida! (Until sea level rise floods everything, of course.) Will you add more fruit trees? The nurseries in your area have some amazing options. Which mangos and avocados do you grow? I'm curious about the quality of 'Monroe' and 'Oro Negro' avocados.

It's strange what's happening with your avocados. Do you know if the bloom timing of avocados in your area has changed at all? If they were previously getting pollinated by trees that now bloom at different times, then that could explain the lack of fruits.

If it's a choice between banana and grass, I recommend banana 100%. Pine Island and Excalibur both sold Dwarf Namwah last I checked, and that should be very productive. Excalibur also sells FHIA-18, which doesn't taste so much like banana. I recently posted about it here, though the linked PDF is in spanish.

Off to a good start! Do you know what else you want to add? Forelle pear might be worth considering for your area, but do your own research.

Sounds like you've got a great thing going! Maintaining fertility by mulching with cut vegetation and composting "waste" is really important. How big is your fruit forest? Do you plan to diversify further and fill up the field? How small do you plan to keep the trees? I've found that pruning tall trees with a pole saw is really tedious and exhausting. Do you have a particular method that's easier?

Nature is a horrible place, but every animal deserves to be free. Perhaps it's the concept of freedom that people have trouble accepting. Until someone manages to design an improved version that functions without hunger and disease and predation, natural forests are still the superior habitat.

The whole book is available here for those interested.

Yeah, I hate when the temperature falls below 18 degrees Celsius! There have been times when I've gotten so uncomfortable that I've had to put some pants on. It's possible to survive it, for sure, but it sucks.

If Iceland can grow bananas, then oil palms don't seem like much of a stretch. But whether they are grown outdoors in the lowland tropics or in a greenhouse somewhere else, that's land that cannot be native forest. At least in the tropics, it's possible to implement an agroforestry system that includes both oil palms and native trees, but in a greenhouse somewhere cold... nope. Even if the yield would be greater than that of more cold-tolerant oil crops, more energy would be needed for heating in the winter, so intuitively, it doesn't seem practical except where there would be large amounts of "waste" heat anyway, like near geothermal vents or power plants.

Fortunately, palm oil is not essential for nutrition, and many industrial applications could use (e.g.) hemp oil if palm oil is not available, so it's not necessary to increase production of palm oil. About half of world production goes to "livestock" feed anyway.

Solving world hunger, improving banana access... In practice, it's largely the same thing. But yeah, if there were crops that grew well year-round in Iceland, then that would be great. But if that were the case, then they probably wouldn't be building geothermal banana greenhouses in the first place.

When asked why he doesn’t irrigate his crops to increase yields, Dr. Johnson simply replies: “Well, then what would we pray for?” Hopi farming is a testament to his faith. And faith is tied directly to water. That’s what makes Hopi agriculture so resilient–it’s faith-based. This means it can withstand droughts, seasons with minimal growth, and the cycles of life. It's important to Dr. Johnson to continue this practice, and part of that practice means not bringing man-made lines to irrigate crops. Hopi seeds, or what he refers to as “hardy” seeds, would not know what to do with all the extra water. They have been adapted to grow within an unmanipulated environment—a quintessential trait of Hopi farming: raising crops to fit the environment, rather than manipulating the environment to fit the crops.

I'm all for rational and scientific approaches to agriculture and to engineering problems in general, but these faith-based farmers who have learnt to grow and eat the crops that do well in their environment make the people growing bananas in Iceland look pretty foolish. Imagine what could be achieved with a scientific approach to working with natural systems instead of trying to overcome them. (And imagine what could be achieved if those banana growers in Iceland simply moved to the tropics.)