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Before you get into this document, be sure to READ THIS PAGE."Although natural farming — since it can teach people to cultivate a deep understanding of nature - may lead to spiritual insight, it's not strictly a spiritual practice. Natural farming is just farming, nothing more. You don't have to be a spiritually oriented person to practice my methods. Anyone who can approach these concepts with a clear, open mind will be starting off well."
- Masanobu Fukuoka
The teachings of Masanobu Fukuoka can be viewed from two distinctly different perspectives.
The first is to consider his teachings as a spiritual guide that uses farming (or gardening or agriculture) as a
path that can lead to personal enlightenment. A spiritual perspective if you will. We will examine his teachings
from this perspective in the "Philosophy" section of this website.
The second perspective is to look at his teachings as an inspirational guide on how to grow food and fiber in an
ecologically beneficial and sustainable way. That is what we will do in this section.
Which perspective you choose to use is entirely up to you.
This document, and indeed the entire website, came about because of the need, often expressed in the Fukuoka_Farming
mailing list, for better access to the teachings of Masanobu Fukuoka. His books have long been out of print, and
used copies that occasionally become available command exorbitantly high prices. This is beginning to change slowly
as English translation reprints become available from a publisher in India. But in the meantime, this document is
offered, with deep respect to Sensei Fukuoka, as a way to bridge that gap.
This document contains the following sections. Keep in mind that in this document, as in others on this website,
the terms gardening, farming, and agriculture are used and considered to be, for our purposes, synonymous and
interchangeable. It is the scale of implementation that actually differentiates them.
Farming in Today's World
What is Sustainable Agriculture?
What is Organic Farming?
Biodynamic Farming
Nature Farming
Biointensive Farming
Permaculture
Synergistic Agriculture
Forest or Woodland Farming
Fukuoka Farming
The Four Principles of Fukuoka Farming
No Cultivation
No Fertilizer
No Weeding
No Pesticides
On Growing Fruit Trees
On Growing Vegetables
On Seedballs
Agriculture today is awash in terms, theories and practices that can be contradictory, complementary, misused, misunderstood, and generally confusing. To sort it all out and give you a useable picture of the Fukuoka Farming Method a little background, terribly generalized and simplistic, is needed.
When humans gave up hunting and gathering and turned to agriculture to fill their bellies more than 8,000 years ago they started using sticks to scratch the soil and plant desirable seeds. Sticks eventually turned into plows. Back and arm muscles were eventually supplemented by domesticated animals and then machines. When they ran out of plowable land they simply leveled nearby brushlands and forests using machetes, axes and fire, and then plowed and planted some more. This became the dominant agricultural model in almost all of the world, and still goes on today in some parts.
At the end of World War II this model began to change, at least in "developed" and "developing" countries. Companies that used to sell synthetic chemicals to fight the war lost most of their market in 1945. Rather than go out of business they switched to selling their chemicals to farmers by starting what they called the "Green Revolution." By using synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides along with large and expensive machines to spread them (the tank and truck manufacturers didn't want to go out of business either) a new method of farming was developed that dramatically increased yields. Unfortunately, it also increased chemical contamination of the foods produced and depleted the soil's ability to support life and produce more food.
Using chemical fertilizers was nothing new to farmers. Rock phosphates, bat guano, kelp and all the other things that are sold today as "organic" fertilizers have been used for centuries. But those were natural chemicals and natural ecosystems have a way of successfully coping with the things they make. The new chemicals were man-made concoctions that were either intensely concentrated natural chemicals or completely synthetic ones. This was something that natural ecosystems had a hard time dealing with. A lot of ecological damage was done, and in some parts of the world damage from these chemicals continues.
By the 1960s people were beginning to see and understand the ecological disasters brought on by this "Green Revolution" and began looking for a better way to grow things. They looked to the past and began to borrow or adapt farming practices from the pre-synthetic chemical era. What they found were practices used by indigenous people who hadn't taken up the plow. They found practices that could produce high yields of quality food from the same piece of land year after year without "wearing out" the soil. And they found the teachings of people like Sir Albert Howard, Jerome Rodale, Lady Eve Balfour, Ruth Stout, Masanobu Fukuoka, and others.
What started out as a movement away from synthetic chemical agriculture has become a movement
toward something more ecologically beneficial and sustainable. It has become a movement toward
something which can be generally described as sustainable agriculture.
What is Sustainable Agriculture?
In general, it is a term used to describe the practice of producing food and fiber from a
healthy living plant/soil ecosystem without the use of synthetic fertilizers or pesticides of
any kind.
In 1985 Andrew Kang Barlett wrote:
"Sustainable agriculture cannot merely be a technical exercise in input substitution and appropriate technology; sustainable agriculture must be part of a social movement that spans the entire economic and social relations of society from credit to the health of the soil, from the seeds and inputs needed to the producers and their families, from those who distribute the food and the distance it travels, to the demands and health of the consumers."
One of the first definitions of sustainable agriculture adopted in the US was published by
the American Society of Agronomy [1989, pg. 15]:
"A sustainable agriculture is one that, over the long term, enhances environmental quality and the resource base on which agriculture depends; provides for basic human food and fiber needs; is economically viable; and enhances the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole."
In 1990 the US Congress passed a farm bill that defined the term sustainable agriculture as
an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application
that over the long term will:
1. Satisfy human food and fiber needs.
2. Enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends.
3. Make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate,
natural biological cycles and controls.
4. Sustain the economic viability of farm operations.
5. Enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.
By the time the U.S. Congress finally got around to passing that bill and "officially" defining sustainable agriculture, many farmers in the U.S. and around the world had already begun to practice methods that met or exceeded the definition's requirements.
While there is general agreement about the goals and worthiness of sustainable agriculture,
approaches to actually implementing it differ significantly. These methods can be broadly
referred to as "natural" or "organic". In the following list we will first try to clarify
exactly what is meant by "organic farming" and then look at some of the most common methods
currently being used and discussed.
What is Organic Farming?
The term "organic gardening" first appeared in "Look to the Land" written by Lord Northbourne in 1940. In 1942, J.I. Rodale published the first issue of "Organic Gardening and Farming." While the term "organic farming" is a fairly recent creation, many of the fundamental organic farming practices are as old as agriculture itself. Simply defined, it is the growing of plants without the aid of synthetic or artificial chemicals.
In December of 2000 the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued the first U.S. standards for labeling and processing of organic foods. All synthetic fertilizers and pesticides for food crops, antibiotics for meat, irradiation, biotechnology and sewage sludge fertilizers were banned from use in growing or raising food products labeled as "organic".
Within that definition and legal description lies a very wide range of methods and techniques. At one extreme lies soil-less hydroponic plasticulture where plants are grown in an artificial medium using artificial light in an artificially controlled climate (the only hi-tech missing is genetically modified seeds).
As you move away from that extreme you start using soil, but there are still a lot of uses for plastic - plastic shelters, plastic mulch, containers, and drip irrigation. As you move further away plastic shelters are replaced by planting schedules and plant selections that don't require shelters. Plastic mulch is replaced by organic mulches such as leaves, grass clippings and other plants. Containers become plots of soil, raised or otherwise. And drip irrigation is replaced with rainfall and lo-tech irrigation.
And when you finally get to the other extreme you find Masanobu Fukuoka.
In trying to sort through and understand this wide range of choices it might be helpful to look at how each method deals with the same questions all farmers, organic or otherwise, must answer. Those questions are "how much or how little (if any) and in what way do I…"
1. Till or dig?
2. Fertilize?
3. Water?
4. Weed?
5. Mulch?
6. Use pesticides?
7. Prune?
In the following pages we will take a necessarily brief look at some of the most common "organic" methods being used and
discussed. Links to more information on these methods will be provided in the "Links" section of
this website.
Biodynamic Farming
The Biodynamic farming method was originally developed by the Austrian scientist-philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). In 1924, Steiner gave a series of eight lectures to farmers near Wroclaw, Poland. The lectures, along with four supplemental lessons, were later published under the title Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture, and in English as An Agricultural Course.
Steiner presented a philosophy he called anthroposophy, "A path of knowledge that strives to lead the spiritual in man to the spiritual in the universe". He believed that soil contained the essence of life and should be treated with various preparations to enrich the life force and microbiological life within it in order to create ideal conditions for growing food. This philosophy forms the foundation of biodynamic farming.
Biodynamics promotes the idea of the farm as a self-contained, mixed operation providing its own seeds, fertility and feed for a wide range of animals and environments; from ponds and hedges to orchards, woods and pasture. The use of nine specific preparations described by Steiner and manufactured in exacting and sometimes mystifying ways is a unique part of this method. The preparations use mineral, plants, and animal manure extracts, usually fermented and applied in small portions to compost, manure, the soil or directly onto plants. The method also uses composting, landscaping, mulching, specific plant selection, companion planting and other organic techniques.
At the heart of the method, and permeating its practices, is a belief that the influence of planetary rhythms and cosmic forces is as important to the growth of plants and animals as the effects of gravity, chemistry, and physics. Lunar and astrological cycles play a key role in the timing of biodynamic practices. The method attempts to find a balance between the physical and the non-physical realms (which include etheric, astral and ego).
"Biodynamics uses scientifically sound organic farming practices that build and sustain soil
productivity as well as plant and animal health. The philosophical tenets of biodynamics —
especially those that emphasize energetic forces and astrological influences — are harder to
grasp, yet they are part and parcel of the biodynamic experience." --- Steve Diver, Agriculture
Specialist at the National Center for Appropriate Technology
Nature Farming
Nature farming is similar to biodynamic farming in that it has come to use prepared solutions, called Effective Microorganism (EM), as a microbial inoculant, and focuses on restoring or adjusting the vital energy in soils and plants. There is also a strong emphasis on the Asian philosophy that man learns from nature.
The method was first advocated in 1935 by Mokichi Okada (1882-1950), a Japanese philosopher and holistic health advocate, in his 84-page pamphlet "Health and the New Civilization". Okada emphasized the use of natural composts and the avoidance of all chemical fertilizers so strongly that his method was known as Non-Fertilizer Farming until the 1950s. The use of EM, a specific trademarked mixture of known beneficial and naturally occurring microorganisms such as yeasts and lactic and photosynthetic bacteria, was a later development.
According to Steve Diver, Agricultural Specialist at the National Center for Apropriate
Technology:
"Microbial inoculants are a new feature of organic agriculture systems and show promise as a means to facilitate or enhance the microbial processes in the soil. However, they are still rather new and research results are limited geographically. Like any biologically-based farming system, there are many factors that influence performance and therefore the conditions under which these microbial inoculants will enhance yield and/or soil conditions may vary. Nevertheless, results at NaturFarm and numerous other locations have shown the Nature Farming methods improve soils and produce healthy, nutritious crops."
In addition to the use of EM, Nature Farming uses other common organic techniques such as
cover cropping and green manures, animal manures, reduced tillage, mulching, composting,
permanent beds for vegetables, biological pest control, grazing, and landscaping.
Nature Farming has become the predominant certified organic farming method in Japan.
Biointensive Farming
Also known as the French intensive method, it was developed in the U.S. by Alan Chadwick (1909-1980) and is considered a cross between Rudolp Steiner's biodynamic method and the intensive market garden systems used around Paris around 1900. The method uses: double-dug, permanent raised beds; intensive (closely spaced) planting of seeds; compost; and companion planting. It has gained wide acceptance for use on small farms, which are often referred to as BioIntensive Mini-Farms (BIMF).
When compared to conventional agriculture on similar sized plots, this method appears to yield two to ten times more produce using only one-third to one-tenth the water.
John Jeavons is a popular proponent of this method and has written several books about it including:
"How to Grow More Vegetables And Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, & Other Crops Than You Ever
Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine."
Permaculture
In the book "Permaculture - a Designer's Manual" Bill Mollison defines permaculture as: "The harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way." Mollison and David Holmgren launched the concept of permaculture (PERMAnent CULTURE or PERMAnent agriCULTURE) in 1978 with the publication of "Permaculture One." As you can see from Mollison's description, permaculture is concerned with a lot more than farming.
In the words of Steve Diver, Agriculture Specialist at the National Center for Appropriate
Technology and permaculture design course graduate:
"Permaculture is about designing ecological human habitats and food production systems. It is a land use and community building movement which strives for the harmonious integration of human dwellings, microclimate, annual and perennial plants, animals, soils, and water into stable, productive communities. The focus is not on these elements themselves, but rather on the relationships created among them by the way we place them in the landscape. This synergy is further enhanced by mimicking patterns found in nature.
"A central theme in permaculture is the design of ecological landscapes that produce food. Emphasis is placed on multi-use plants, cultural practices such as sheet mulching and trellising, and the integration of animals to recycle nutrients and graze weeds. However, permaculture entails much more than just food production. Energy-efficient buildings, waste water treatment, recycling, and land stewardship in general are other important components of permaculture. More recently, permaculture has expanded its purview to include economic and social structures that support the evolution and development of more permanent communities, such as co-housing projects and eco-villages. As such, permaculture design concepts are applicable to urban as well as rural settings, and are appropriate for single households as well as whole farms and villages."
Permaculture is more a generalized toolkit of community or site design principles than a method of agriculture. While the original permaculture concept incorporated some of Fukuoka's method, the concept was quickly expanded to the point where agriculture is only one component, and may be minimal or not present at all. Specific methods of agriculture used will vary from site to site depending upon the needs, goals, preferences, and perspective of the designer and site owner.
TOP OF PAGESynergistic Agriculture
Over the course of almost 40 years, Emilia Hazelip has developed a method of herb and vegetable gardening she calls
"Synergistic Agriculture". While her early work drew on the methods of Ruth Stout, Marc Bonfils, and Masanobu Fukuoka,
it has evolved through experiment and experience into a very productive tool for use in market gardens with a very
unique perspective. Hazelip's method focuses on, and emphasizes the need to restore and encourage what she calls
"wild soil". Her gardens are conciously designed to allow all the dynamic lifeforms present in the soil to remain and
thrive while growing abundant food crops with minimal inputs.
Where Fukuoka is primarily concerned with orchards and rice/barley production, Hazelip focuses on growing annual and
perennial food and medicianal herbs and vegetables. Hazelip not only wants to create profitable market gardens using
minimal inputs, but to do it without destroying all of the creatures, microscopic and larger, that live in the soil.
"I truly believe that as long as we have not found peace with the soil, we won't find peace above the ground. That as long as we justify the exploitation of any organism, other exploitations will follow and we will remain parasites, consuming more than participating, and spiralling into entropy until we commit mass suicide. The living world is not understood by the technician, and since it is not understood, it is not studied for its diversity. People always want to apply mechanical laws to it... "
The four basic principles of Hazelip's method are:
1. Keep the soil undisturbed and uncompacted.
2. Use the soil's self-fertility as fertilizer.
3. Integrate the litter zone with the agricultural soil profile.
4. Establish a partnership with beneficials to protect crops.
Hazelip was able to demonstrate the practicality of her work in at least three different countries by supporting her
family solely from the income of her market gardens. Because of the importance and usefulness of her method, we have
established an entire section of this website to provide online access to her published work. It is the
Synergistic Agriculture of Emilia Hazelip Section.
Forest or Woodland Farming
Humans have been harvesting food, clothing, medicines, and shelter from forests for as long
as there have been humans living in or near forests. In the 1960s Robert Hart (? - 2000) began
to experiment with creating a fully integrated forest garden is Shropshire, England near the
Welsh border. Thirty years later his forest garden, only one-eighth of an acre in size, has
become world famous and the model upon which the forest farming method is based.
Forest farming involves the creation of a seven layer mini woodland where all of the plants are chosen to have at
least one practical use. Uses include food, medicines, dyes, fibers, oils, attract beneficial creatures, repel
unwanted creatures, accumulate or fix nutrients, mulch, fodder, and firewood. The layers are:
1. Canopy (tall trees)
2. Understory (low trees such as dwarf fruit and nut trees)
3. Shrubs (woody plants such as cane berries)
4. Herbaceous (herbs and perennial vegetables)
5. Vertical (climbing plants and vines)
6. Groundcover( creepers less than six inches high)
7. Rhizosphere (root plants)
In 1987 Hart published (with Nicholas Albery’s Institute for Social Inventions) details of his
experiments in a slim manual titled "The Forest Garden". It was later expanded into a full-length
book and the title changed to "Forest Gardening: Cultivating an Edible Landscape". Forest
gardening has become part of the permaculture movement and used in several permaculture projects,
though of course it can be practiced independently.
Fukuoka Farming
All of the documents in this section include excerpts from, and are based on, Fukuoka's book "The Natural Way of Farming: The Theory and Practice of Green Philosophy".
"Natural farming is a Buddhist way of farming that originates in the philosophy of 'Mu,' or nothingness, and returns to a 'do-nothing' nature. …it is a Buddhist way of farming that is boundless and yielding, and leaves the soil, the grasses, and the insects to themselves."
Fukuoka divides farming into three types: Mahayana, Hinayana, and Scientific.
"Mahayana Natural Farming: When the human spirit and human life blend with the natural order and man's sole calling is to serve nature, he lives freely as an integral part of the natural world, subsisting on its bounty without having to resort to purposeful human effort. This type of farming, which I shall call Mahayana natural farming, is realized when man becomes one with nature, for it is a way of farming that transcends time and space and reaches the zenith of understanding and enlightenment. Those who live such a life are hermits and wise men."
"Hinayana Natural Farming: This type of farming arises when man earnestly seeks entry to the realm of Mahayana farming. Desirous of the true blessings and bounty of nature, he prepares himself to receive it. This is the road leading directly to complete enlightenment, but is short of that perfect state."
"Scientific Farming: Man exists in a state of contradiction in which he is basically estranged from nature, living in a totally artificial world, yet longs for a return to nature. A product of this condition, scientific farming forever wanders blindly back and forth, now calling on the blessings of nature, now rejecting it in favor of human knowledge and action."
Being less than fully enlightened at the moment, this document will be limited to examining the Hinayana and
scientific types of farming. Scientific farming includes all other types of farming - sustainable, organic or
otherwise.
Fukuoka acknowledges the power of scientific farming.
"Cases where scientific farming excels: Scientific methods will always have the upper hand when growing produce in an unnatural environment and under unnatural conditions that deny nature its full powers, such as accelerated crop growth and cultivation in cramped plots, clay pots, hothouses, and hotbeds. And through adroit management, yields can be increased and fruit and vegetables grown out of season to satisfy consumer cravings by pumping in lots of high technology in the form of chemical fertilizers and powerful disease and pest control agents, bringing in unheard-of profits."
"Yet even under such ideal conditions, scientific farming does not produce more at lower cost or generate higher profits per unit area of land or per fruit tree than natural farming."
"For several decades now, I have devoted myself to examining whether natural farming can really compete with scientific farming. I have tried to gauge the strength of nature in rice and barley cultivation, and in the growing of fruit trees. Casting off human knowledge and action, relying only on the raw power of nature, I have investigated whether "do-nothing" natural farming can achieve results equal to or better than scientific farming. I have also compared both approaches using man's direct yardsticks of growth and yield. The more one studies and compares the two, whether from the limited perspective of growth and yields, or from a broader and higher perspective, the clearer and more undeniable becomes the supremacy of nature."
In his analysis and comparison of the three types of farming, Fukuoka provides the following diagram to illustrate
that while scientific farming can exceed the production of Hinayana natural farming in some ways, the product of
scientific farming is a collection of distorted trade-offs.
Central to Fukuoka's teachings, and ignored by all of the other farming methods currently being used, is that human knowledge is, and will always be, imperfect. When this imperfect knowledge is used to mimic or attempt to "recreate" nature the result is inevitably "…the disasters that the frightening defects of modern practices are visiting on mankind."
"Imperfect Human Knowledge Falls Short of Natural Perfection: Understanding the degree to which human knowledge is imperfect and inadequate helps one to appreciate just how perfect nature is. Scientists of all ages have sensed with increasing clarity the frailty and insignificance of human knowledge as man's learning grew from his investigations of the natural world around him. No matter how unlimited his knowledge may appear, there are hurdles over which man cannot pass: the endless topics that await research, the infinitude of microscopic and submicroscopic universes that even the rapid specialization of science cannot keep pace with, the boundless and eternal reaches of outer space. We have no choice then but to frankly acknowledge the frailty and imperfection of human knowledge."
"If human knowledge is unenlightened and imperfect, then the nature perceived and built up by this knowledge must in turn always be imperfect."
"An imitation can never outclass the original. Imperfection shall always lie in the shadow of perfection. Even though man is well aware that the human activity we call science can never be superior to nature, his attention is riveted on the imitation rather than the original because he has been led astray by his peculiar myopia that makes science appear to excel over nature in certain areas."
If you think back to the brief descriptions of the other methods of "organic" farming, you will notice that all of
them are human-dominated and depend upon human knowledge for everything: plant selection, placement, and manipulation;
soil manipulation; fertilizing; watering; planting and pruning; and controlling "weeds" and "pests". In this sense
they are all active whereas Fukuoka's method is passive in comparison, letting nature make most of the decisions.
Let us now look at the principles underlying Fukuoka's Natural Farming method.
The Four Principles of Fukuoka Farming
According to Fukuoka:
TOP OF PAGE"I will admit that I have had my share of failures during the forty years that I have been at it. But because I was headed basically in the right direction, I now have yields that are at least equal to or better than those of crops grown scientifically in every respect. And most importantly:
1) My method succeeds at only a tiny fraction of the labor and costs of scientific farming, and my goal is to bring this down to zero.
2) At no point in the process of cultivation or in my crops is there any element that generates pollution, in addition to which my soil remains eternally fertile.
"And I guarantee that anyone can farm this way. This method of 'do-nothing' farming is based on four major principles:
No cultivation.
No fertilizer
No weeding
No pesticides"
No Cultivation
"… as the farmer turns the soil with his hoe, this breaks the soil up into smaller and smaller particles which acquire an increasingly regular physical arrangement with smaller interstitial spaces. The result is harder, denser soil. The only way to soften up this soil is to apply compost and work it into the ground by plowing. But this is only a short-lived measure. In fields that have been weeded clean and carefully plowed and re-plowed, the natural aggregation of the soil into larger particles is disturbed, and the soil particles become finer and finer, hardening the ground."
"It is in the nature of soil to swell and grow more porous with each passing year. This is absolutely essential for microorganisms to multiply in the earth, for the soil to grow more fertile, and for the roots of large trees to penetrate deep into the ground. Only, I believe that, far from being the answer, working the soil with plow and hoe actually interferes with these processes. If man lets the soil take care of itself, it will enrich and loosen itself with the powers of nature."
"When roots reach down into the earth, air and water penetrate into the soil together with the roots. As these wither and die, many types of microorganisms proliferate. These die off and are replaced by others, increasing the amount of humus and softening the soil. Earthworms eventually appear where there is humus, and as the number of earthworms increases, moles begin burrowing through the soil."
"The Soil Works Itself: The soil lives of its own accord and plows itself. It needs no help from man. Farmers often talk of 'taming the soil' and of a field becoming 'mature,' but why is it that trees in the mountain forests grow to such magnificent heights without the benefit of hoe or fertilizer, while the farmer's fields can grow only puny crops?"
"We can either choose to see the soil as imperfect and take the hoe in hand, or trust the soil and leave the business of working it to nature."
While there is general agreement on this principle, there has been extensive discussion on the Fukuoka Farming Mailing List about how to get started farming a piece of land that has been damaged by human intervention (heavy equipment compacting it, depleted by overplowing or heavy grazing, etc.), or covered by non-native invasive grasses and "weeds". At this time two suggestions have been offered.
The first is to simply cover the soil with a deep layer of organic matter and just let it go from there. An example would be Ruth Stout's no-till, deep mulch method. A recent practice known as "Lasagna Gardening" uses a variation of Stout's method - newspaper and cardboard are first laid on the soil and then covered with a deep layer of organic matter.
The second suggestion is to dig a deep layer of organic matter into the soil and then never cultivate it again. One example of this technique is Emilia Hazelip's Synergistic Gardening method.
Fukuoka himself seems to support this method:
TOP OF PAGE"The basic strategy for achieving long-term, totally fertilizer-free cultivation on a natural farm is to create deep, fertile soil. There are several ways of doing this. Here are some examples.
1. Direct burial of coarse organic matter deep in the ground.
2. Gradual soil improvement by planting grasses and trees that send roots deep into the soil.
3. Enrichment of the farm by carrying nutrients built up in the humus of the upland woods or forest downhill with rainwater or by other means.
"Whatever the means employed, the natural farmer must secure a nearby supply of humus that can serve as a source of soil fertility."
Also:
"One may establish an orchard and plant nursery stock using essentially the same methods as when planting forest trees. Vegetation on the hillside is cut in lateral strips, and the large trunks, branches, and leaves of the felled trees are arranged or buried in trenches running along hill contours, covered with earth, and allowed to decompose naturally. None of the vegetation cut down in the orchard should be carried away."
And:
"As I mentioned earlier, the most basic method for improving soil is to bury coarse organic matter in deep trenches. Another good method is to pile soil up to create high ridges. This can be done using the soil brought up while digging contour trenches with a shovel. The dirt should be piled around coarse organic material. Better aeration allows soil in a pile of this sort to mature more quickly than soil in a trench. Such methods soon activate the latent fertility of even depleted, granular soil, rapidly preparing it for fertilizer-free cultivation."
Hazelip also recommends the use of raised beds (Fukuoka's "pile") with the dirt coming from the pathways around the raised beds (Fukuoka's "contour trenches").
Fukuoka also used rice and barley straw as a mulch on his fields.
No Fertilizer
"Crops Depend on the Soil: When we look directly at how and why crops grow on the earth, we realize that they do so independently of human knowledge and action. This means that they have no need basically for such things as [manufactured] fertilizers and nutrients. Crops depend on the soil for growth.
"I have experimented with fruit trees and with rice and winter grain to determine whether these can be cultivated without fertilizers.
"Of course crops can be grown without fertilizer. Nor does this yield the poor harvests people generally believe. In fact, I have been able to show that by taking full advantage of the inherent powers of nature, one can obtain yields equal to those that can be had with heavy fertilization."
On the evils of fertilizers:
"1. Fertilizers speed up the growth of crops, but this is only a temporary and local effect that does not offset the inevitable weakening of the crops. This is similar to the rapid acceleration of plant growth by [added] hormones.
"2. Plants weakened by fertilizers have a lowered resistance to diseases and insect predators, and are less able to overcome other obstacles to growth and development.
"3. Fertilizer applied to soil usually is not as effective as in laboratory experiments. [Fukuoka cited two examples, but many more have come to light since his book was published].
"4. Damage caused directly by fertilizers is also enormous. More than seventy percent of the 'big three' - ammonium sulfate, superphosphate, and potassium sulfate - is concentrated sulfuric acid which acidifies and causes great harm to the soil, both directly and indirectly.
"5. One major problem with fertilizer use is the deficiency of trace components.
"The effects and interactions of various components of fertilizers in orchard soil are unspeakably complex. Nitrogen and phosphate uptake is poor in iodine-deficient soils. When the soil is acidic or turns alkaline through heavy applications of line, deficiencies of zinc, manganese, boron, iodine and other elements develop because these become less soluble in water. Too much potassium blocks iodine uptake and reduces the absorption of boron as well. The greater the amount of nitrogen, phosphates, and potassium administered to the soil, the higher the resulting deficiency of zinc and boron. On the other hand, higher levels of nitrogen and phosphates result in a lower manganese deficiency."
"The trees of the mountain forests grow under conditions close to pure nature., receiving no fertilizer by the hand of man. Yet they grow very well year after year. Reforested cedars in a favorable area generally grow about forty tons per quarter acre over a period of twenty years. These trees thus produce about two tons of growth each year without fertilizer. This includes only that part of the tree that can be used as lumber, so if we also take into account small branches, leaves, and roots, then annual production is probably close to double, or about four tons.
"If we were talking of a fruit orchard here, then this would translate into two to four tons of fruit produced each year without fertilizers - about equal to standard production levels by fruit growers today."
"I am convinced that cultivation without fertilizers under natural circumstances is not only philosophically feasible, but is more beneficial than scientific, fertilizer-based agriculture, and is preferable for the farmer. Yet, although cultivation without the use of chemical fertilizers is possible, crops cannot immediately be grown successfully without fertilizers on fields that are normally plowed and weeded." [Editor's emphasis]
When trying to convert an existing or older field to the natural way of farming it is usually necessary to sow a series of cover crops and green manure to enrich the field before a commercial crop can be expected to grow successfully.
It must be noted that when Fukuoka talks of fertilizers he is referring primarily to chemical and other non-natural fertilizers. He did, in fact, use human, chicken, and other animal manure in his rice-barley field:
Fukuoka on compost"Following the rice harvest, spread 650-900 pounds of chicken manure per quarter-acre either before or after returning the rice straw to the fields. An additional 200 pounds may be added in late February as a topdressing during the barley heading stage.
"After the barley harvest, manure again for the rice. When high yields have been collected, spread 450-900 pounds of dried chicken manure before or after returning the barley straw to the field. Fresh manure should not be used here as this can harm the rice seedlings. A later application is generally not needed, but a small amount (250-450 pounds) of chicken manure may be added early during the heading stage, preferably before the 24th day of heading. This may of course be decomposed human or animal wastes, or even wood ashes."
"However, from the standpoint of natural farming, it would be preferable and much easier to release ten ducklings per quarter-acre on to the field when the rice seedlings have become established. Not only do the ducks weed and pick off insects, they turn the soil."
"All the trouble taken during preparation of the compost to speed up the rate of fertilizer response, such as frequent turning of the pile, methods for stimulating the growth of aerobic bacteria, the addition of water and nitrogenous fertilizers, lime, superphosphate, rice bran, manure, and so forth -- all this trouble is taken just for a slight acceleration in response. Since the net effect of these efforts is to speed up decomposition by at most ten to twenty percent, this can hardly be called necessary. Especially since there already was a method of applying straw to the fields that achieved outstanding results."
Fukuoka returned the rice straw to his fields after harvesting the rice. Nothing was done to
the straw (chopping, composting, etc.) before he spread it as a type of mulch layer on the
field.
TOP OF PAGE"I firmly believe that, while compost itself is not without value, the composting of organic materials is fundamentally useless."
No Weeding
"Is There Such a Thing as a Weed?: Man distinguishes between crops and weeds, and the first step he takes in that respect is to decide whether to weed or not to weed. Like many different microorganisms that struggle and cooperate in the soil, myriad grasses and trees live together on the soil surface. Is it right then to destroy this natural state, to pick out certain plants living in harmony among many plants, to call these 'crops' and uproot all the others as 'weeds'?"
"Grasses Enrich the Soil: Rather than pulling weeds, people should give some thought to the significance of these plants. Having done so, they will agree that the farmer should let the weeds live and make use of their strength. Although I call this the 'no-weeding' principle, it could also be known as the principle of 'weed utility'."
"A Cover of Grass is Beneficial: This method includes sod and green manure cultivation. In my citrus orchard, I attempted first cultivation under a cover of grass, then switched to green manure cultivation, and now I use a ground cover of clover and vegetables with no weeding, tillage or fertilizer. When weeds are a problem, then it is wiser to remove weeds with weeds than to pull weeds by hand."
"The many different grasses and herbs in a natural meadow appear to grow and die in total confusion, but upon closer examination, there are laws and there is order here. Grasses meant to sprout do so, those that flourish do so for a reason, and if plants weaken and die, there is a cause. Plants of the same species do not all grow in the same place and way, but some types flourish, then fade in an ongoing succession. The cycles of coexistence, competition, and mutual benefit repeat themselves. Certain weeds grow as individuals, others grow in bunches, and yet others form colonies. Some grow sparsely, some densely, and some in clumps. Each has a different ecology: some grow over their neighbors and overpower them, some wrap around others in symbiosis, some weaken other plants, and some die -- while others thrive -- as undergrowth.
"By studying and making use of the properties of weeds, one weed can be used to drive out a large number of other weeds. If the farmer were to grow grasses or green manure crops that take the place of undesirable weeds and are beneficial to him and his crops, then he would no longer have to weed, in addition to which the green manure would enrich the soil and prevent its erosion."
"I practice a form of rice-barley succession cropping in which I seed barley together with clover over the standing heads of rice, and scatter rice seed and green manure while the barley is up. This more nearly approaches nature and eliminates weeding."
Fukuoka found that fruit trees and vegetables could also be grown without weeding using this technique.
TOP OF PAGENo Pesticides
"Insect Pests Do Not Exist: The moment the problem of crop disease or insect damage arises, talk turns immediately to methods of control. But we should begin by examining whether crop disease or insect damage exist in the first place. A thousand plant diseases exist in nature, but in truth there are none. It is the agricultural specialist who gets carried away with discussions on disease and pest damage. Although research is done on the ways to reduce the number of country villages without doctors, no studies are ever run to determine how these villages have gotten along without doctors. In the same way, when people spot signs of a plant disease or an insect pest, they immediately go about trying to get rid of it. The smart thing to do would be to stop treating insects as pests and find a way that eliminates the need for control measures altogether."
"Most people seem to believe that the use of natural enemies and pesticides of low toxicity will clear up the problem, but they are mistaken. Many feel reassured by the thought that the use of beneficial insect predators to control pests is a biological method of control without harmful repercussions, but to someone who understands the chain of being that links together the world of living organisms, there is no way of telling which organisms are natural enemies and which are pests. By meddling with controls, all man accomplishes is destruction of the natural order. Although he may appear to be protecting the natural enemies and killing the pests, there is no knowing whether the pests will become beneficial and the predators pests. Many insects that are harmless in a direct sense are harmful indirectly. And when things get even more complex, as when one beneficial insect feeds on a pest that kills another beneficial insect which feeds on another pest, it is futile to try and draw sharp distinctions between these and apply pesticides selectively."
What all of that boils down to is to literally "do-nothing" about crop diseases or insect
pests because doing anything is likely to have consequences even worse than the disease or pest
damage. According to Fukuoka, plants grown with the natural method are much more disease and
insect damage resistant than crops grown by other methods. This alone reduces the amount, or
even likelihood, of potential damage. Fukuoka also acknowledges that you must accept the
possibility of some damage from disease and pests as a healthy part of the natural cycle.
This concludes the general analysis of Masanobu Fukuoka's farming method. The following documents are a look at his teachings on the growing of fruit trees and vegetables, and on the use of seedballs.
---- Larry Haftl
On Growing Fruit Trees
In his book, "The Natural Way of Farming: The Theory and Practice of Green Philosophy"(NWF), Masanobu Fukuoka provides a detailed examination of how to grow fruit trees that can be as confusing as it is informative and exciting. One example is his approach to pruning. Fukuoka is often thought to advocate no pruning, but in NWF he describes in detail not only why pruning is necessary, but also how it should be done. The key to his approach rests in the following statement:
"How much wiser and easier it is to limit oneself to minimal corrective pruning aimed only at bringing the tree closer to its natural form rather than practicing a method of fruit growing that requires extensive pruning each and every year." (pg. 212)
There are two important parts to that statement. The first is that pruning should be limited
to helping a tree achieve its natural form, and the second is the idea that trees actually have
a natural form. Both of those ideas do not seem new or revolutionary. Pick up almost any
gardening book on growing fruit trees and you will probably see drawings of ideal shapes certain
trees should have. Along with the drawings comes the instruction to prune so that the tree
achieves that shape.
But if you read Fukuoka's analysis you begin to see how false and misleading those drawings and
instructions usually are.
"Orchardists have never tried growing fruit trees in their natural form. To begin with, most have never even given any thought as to what the natural form is. Of course pomologists will deny this, saying that they are working with the natural form of fruit trees and looking for ways to improve on this. But it is clear that they have not really looked in earnest at the natural form. Not a single book or report has been published which discusses pruning based on such basic factors as the phyllotaxy of a citrus tree, or which explains that a divergence of so much gives such-and -such a natural form with primary and secondary scaffold branches of X degrees.
"Many have a vague idea of the natural form as something akin to the shape of a neglected tree. But there is a world of difference between the two.." (pg. 209)
"The natural forms shown from time to time in journals on fruit growing are not all what they are made out to be. These are just abandoned trees of confused shape that have been left to grow untended after having been initially pruned and otherwise cared for." (pg. 212)
"Scientists say that the natural form of a citrus tree is hemispherical with several primary scaffold branches extending out like the ribs of a fan at an angle of from 40 to 70 degrees, but in truth no one knows whether the true form of a citrus tree is that of a large upright tree or a low bush.
"Fruit growers have more or less decided that, if one considers such operations as harvesting the fruit, pesticide spraying, and fumigation, the ideal form of citrus trees grown in a hillside orchard is a round, flat-topped shape measuring at most about 9 feet high and 14 feet in diameter." (pg. 210)
In this, as in all of his teachings, Fukuoka speaks from first-hand experience:
"I planted citrus seed and observed the trees growing from these. At the same time, I allowed a large number of various types of citrus trees to go unpruned. From these results, I was able to divine with considerable certainty the natural form of a citrus tree.
"When I reported my findings at a meeting of the Ehime Prefecture Fruit Growers Association, stating that the natural form of the citrus tree is not what it had been thought to be, but a central leader type form, this created a stir among several scientists present, but was laughed off as just so much nonsense by farmers." (pg. 214)
Fukuoka provides the following diagrams to illustrate his findings:
"I adopt the natural form of a tree as the model for the basic tree shape in citrus cultivation. Even when something causes a tree to take on a shape that deviates from the natural form or adapts to the local environment, any pruning and training done should attempt to return the tree to its natural form. There are several reasons for this:
"1. The natural form permits tree growth and development best suited to the cultivation conditions and environment. No branch or leaf is wasted. This form enables maximum growth and maximum exposure to sunlight, resulting in maximum yields. On the other hand, an unnatural form created artificially upsets the innate efficiency of the tree. This reduces the tree's natural powers and commits the grower to unending labors.
"2. The natural form consists of an erect central trunk, causing little entanglement with neighboring trees or crowding of branches and foliage. The amount of pruning required gradually decreases and little disease or pest damage arises, necessitating only a minimum of care. However, in natural open-center systems formed by thinning the scaffold branches growing at the center of the tree, the remaining scaffold branches open up at the top of the tree and soon entangle with adjacent trees. In addition, secondary scaffold branches and laterals growing from several primary scaffold branches oriented at unnatural angles (such as in three-stem systems) also crisscross and entangle. This increases the amount of pruning that has to be done after the tree has matured.
"3. In conical central leader type systems, oblique sunlight penetrates into the interior of the tree, but in open-center systems, the crown of the tree extends outward in the shape of an inverse triangle that reduces the penetration of sunlight to the base and interior of the tree, inviting the withering of branches and attack by disease and pests. Thus, expanding the shape of the tree results in lower rather than higher yields.
"4. The natural form provides the best distribution and supply of nutrients to the scaffold branches and laterals. In addition, the external shape is balanced and a good harmony exists between the tree growth and fruit production, giving a full fruit harvest each year.
"5. The root system of a tree having a natural form closely resembles the shape of the aboveground portion of the tree. A deep root system makes for a healthy tree resistant to external conditions." (pgs. 216 & 218)
"Problems with the Natural Form: Although having many advantages, the natural form is not without its share of problems in fruit growing.
"1. The natural forms of young grapevines and persimmon, pear, and apple trees have low branch, leaf and fruit densities, and thus produce small yields. This can be resolved by discreet pruning to increase the density of fruit and branch formation.
"2. Fruit trees with a central leader system grow to a good height and may be expected to pose climbing problems when it comes time to pick the fruit. While this is true when the tree is still young, as it matures, scaffold branches grow out from the leader at an angle of about 20 degrees to the horizontal in a regular, spiraling arrangement that make it easier to climb. In tall trees such as persimmon, pear, apple and loquat, this forms a framework that can be climbed much like a spiral stairway.
"3. Creating a pure natural form is not easy, and the tree may deviate from this if adequate attention is not given to protective management at the seedling stage. This can be corrected in part by giving the tree a modified central leader form. To achieve an ideal natural form, the tree must be grown directly from seed or a rootstock tree grown in a planting bed and field-grafted.
"4. Enabling the seedling to put out a vigorous, upright leader is the key to successfully achieving a natural form. The grower must observe where and at what angle primary and secondary scaffold branches emerge, and remove any unnatural branches. Normally, after five or six years, when the saplings have reached six to ten feet in height, there should be perhaps five or six secondary scaffold branches extending out in a spiral pattern at intervals of about six to twelve inches such that the sixth secondary scaffold branch overlaps vertically with the first. Primary scaffold branches should emerge from the central trunk at an angle of 40 degrees with the horizontal and extend outwards at an angle of about 20 degrees. Once the basic shape of the tree is set, the need for training and pruning diminishes.
"5. The tree may depart from a natural form and take on an open-center form if the central leader becomes inclined, the tip of the leader is weak, or the tree sustains an injury. There should be no problem though, as long as the grower keeps a mental image of a pure natural form and prunes and trains the tree to approach as closely as possible to that form. A tree that has become fully shaped while young will not need heavy pruning when mature. However, if left to grow untended when young, the tree may require considerable thinning and pruning each year and may even need major surgical reconstruction when fully grown. Considering the many years of toil and losses that may otherwise ensue, it is certainly preferable to choose to do some formative pruning early on." (pgs. 218 & 219)
As you can see, Fukuoka uses and suggests judicious pruning, primarily when the tree is young, in order to help the tree achieve a natural form. By pruning in this manner the fruit grower dramatically reduces the amount of annual pruning needed as the tree begins to bear fruit and matures. He also states that a tree left untended will grow into a "confusing" form. At first this seems counter-intuitive. It seems that if you plant a seed and leave it alone it will automatically grow into a "natural" form. But there are three subtle conditions at work here. They are:
1. As Fukuoka points out, the trees often shown in journals were originally cultivated, and perhaps pruned, and then abandoned. They were rarely grown from seeds and left in their original location. Nurserymen may start with seeds, but then they transplant the seedlings once or twice before they are sold to the grower, who transplants the tree once again. At each stage it is likely that some pruning is done.
2. Keep in mind that Fukuoka is talking here about growing fruit trees for commercial production, not the creation of a natural woodland. In his experiments he found that trees grown from seeds usually had yields too low to make them commercially useful. Here are a few quotes about that.
"When I tried the direct planting of mandarin orange seed, although I found that trees grown from seed are inferior and generally useless because they revert or degenerate, this gave me a clue as to the true form of the tree and its natural rate of growth." (pg. 194)
"… but it might be interesting in some cases to plant seed directly and grow the young saplings into majestic trees having a natural form. Such a tree bears fruit of vastly differing sizes and shape that are unfit for the market. Yet, on the other hand, there always exists the possibility that an unusual fruit will arise from the seed. Indeed, why not multiply the joys of life by creating a natural orchard full of variety and surprises?" (pg. 194)
3. It is important to keep in mind that Fukuoka is a farmer, not someone who is simply trying to
set up a self-sufficient homestead, and certainly not a hermit trying to return to some sort of
primitive hunter-gatherer existence. In NWF, he is talking about how to create and operate a
commercially viable farm while letting nature do most, if not all, of the work traditionally
done by the farmer. At times, however, he talks about how to develop something less commercial
and much closer to a pure natural state. One example is the suggestion quoted above about
planting from seed and letting it just grow as it will. Another is his description of how to set
up an orchard.
"Orchard Management: To establish a natural orchard, one should dig large holes here and there among the stumps of felled trees and plant unpruned saplings and fruit seed over the site, leaving these unattended just as one would leave alone a reforested stand of trees. Of course, suckers grow from the cut tree stumps and weeds and low brush flourishes. Orchard management at this stage consists primarily of coming in twice a year to cut the weeds and underbrush with a large sickle." (pg. 194)
That sounds like a very clear description of how to establish a close to pure natural orchard.
It would be if he hadn't written the following on the previous page:
"Fruit saplings should be planted at equal intervals along hill contours. Dig a fairly deep hole, fill it with coarse organic matter, and plant the sapling over this." (pg. 193)
I think the key to reconciling the two statements is to remember that he is talking about
establishing a large commercial orchard. He talks about expanding his orchard up a hillside by
cutting the existing trees and burying them in contours along the hillside. He mentions that he
was trying to put in one thousand trees and that he was trying to achieve something as close as
possible to a pure natural form, but the sheer volume of trees and the work required prevented
that to a degree.
If you are trying to establish a small personal woodland along the lines of Robert Hart's garden
then you could, and perhaps should, start by planting seeds rather than saplings, and let them
go where they will. If you are trying to start a commercially viable orchard then you will have
to start primarily with saplings. Fukuoka has a brief discussion on this:
"Obviously, from the standpoint of natural farming we would expect trees grown from seed to be preferable to grafted nursery stock. … However, when a tree is grafted, the flow of sap is blocked at the graft juncture, resulting either in a dwarf tree that must be heavily fertilized, or in a tree with a short lifetime and poor resistance to temperature extremes.
"While in principle a young tree grown from seed grows faster than grafted stock, I learned that when the initial grafted stock is one to two years old, natural seedlings do not grow as rapidly during the first two or three years and care is also difficult. However, when raised with great care, trees grown from seed develop the most quickly. Citrus rootstock takes more time and sends down shallower roots.
"Citrus trees may generally be grown from nursery plants grafted with rootstock, which, although shallow rooted, are cold-hardy. Apple trees can be trained into dwarf trees by using dwarfing stock,…" (pg. 194)
While Fukuoka is talking about how to establish a commercially viable fruit orchard, he offers suggestions that, if followed, would create a decidedly non-typical operation. Below are some of his suggestions.
"Weeds: Although the growth of fruit trees among this other vegetation […eulalia and other weeds growing thickly among the brush and assorted trees] was irregular and yielded poor harvests in some cases, there was very little damage from disease and insects.
"Later, with continued cutting back of the underbrush, the non-fruit trees receded and weeds such as bracken, mugwort, and kudzu grew up in their place. I was able to control or suppress weed growth at that point by broadcasting clover seed over the entire orchard." (pg. 195)
"Avoid monoculture of fruit trees. Plant deciduous fruit trees together with evergreen fruit trees and never forget to interplant green manure trees. These may include acacia, myrtle, alder, and podocarpus.
"You may also … interplant some large trees and shrubs, including climbing fruit vines such as grapevine, akebia, and Chinese gooseberry.
"Leguminous green manure plants and other herbs that enrich the orchard soil may be planted as orchard undergrowth. Forage crops and semiwild vegetables can also be grown in abundance, and both poultry and livestock allowed to graze freely in the orchard."(pg. 196)
And perhaps the best quote of all….
"A natural orchard in which full, three-dimensional use of space is made in this way is entirely different from conventional orchards that employ high-production techniques. For the individual wishing to live in communion with nature, this is truly a paradise on earth." (pg. 196)
--- Larry Haftl
TOP OF PAGEOn Growing Vegetables
In reviewing the archives of the Fukuoka_Farming mailing list, it became obvious that trying to grow vegetables using Fukuoka's method is the most frequently discussed topic. It also became obvious that most of us, including myself, were woefully ignorant of all that Fukuoka had to say on the subject. This is due primarily to the unavailability of his "how-to" book, "The Natural Way of Farming: The Theory and Practice of Green Philosophy". The book has been out of print for years, can only be found occasionally in public libraries, and on those rare moments when someone offers to sell a used copy it usually commands an exorbitantly high price.
That seems to be slowly changing now as English translation reprints become available at reasonable prices from a publisher in India (see the links section on this website for sources that offer them for sale). But in the meantime many long-time list participants are actively trying to apply his method to their vegetable gardens using only the bits and pieces of information available while new list participants frequently ask "how do I get started". To help fill that that information void, the following excepts from "The Natural Way of Farming" are offered. They are, in no way, an exhaustive treatment of the subject. For that you really need to "read the book".
Fukuoka on Vegetable Gardening
"By sowing a mixture of many field crops, allowing them to grow naturally, and observing which thrive and which do not, one finds that, when grown in the hands of nature, crops superior to what would normally be imagined can be obtained.
"For instance, when the seeds of different grains and vegetables are mixed together and scattered over growing weeds and clover, some vanish and some survive. A few even flourish. These crops flower and set seed; the seed drops to the ground and is buried in the soil where the seed casing decomposes and the seed germinates. The seedling grows, competing with or being assisted by other plants. This process of growth is an amazing natural drama that appears at first disordered, but is eminently rational and orderly."
"Although this method of mixed, semi-wild cultivation may appear reckless at first, it more than suffices for the small family garden or for vegetable gardening on barren land by those who seek to live self-sufficiently.
"What I mean by the 'semi-wild' cultivation of vegetables is a method of simply scattering vegetable seed in a field, orchard, on earthen levees, or on any open, unused land. For most vegetables, mixed sowing with ladino clover gradually gives a vegetable garden with a cover of clover. The idea is to pick a good time during the sowing season and either scatter or drill a seed mixture of clover and many vegetables among the weeds. This will yield surprisingly large vegetables."
"Semi-wild vegetables have a pungent aroma and good body. Because they have been produced in a healthy soil containing all the necessary micronutrients, they are without question the most healthy and nutritious food man can eat."
"Vegetables grown for home consumption are most likely to be raised for a five- or six-member family on a small plot of perhaps 100 square yards next to the house, or in a larger field. When grown in a small garden plot, all that is involved is growing the right crop at the right time in rich soil built up by the addition of manure and other organic matter."
"However, for permanent cultivation on large acreages, this type of natural cultivation must be carried a step further. Systematic rotation schemes must be set up and cultivation planned and carried out in accordance with these."
Fukuoka discusses rotation schemes, with diagrams, in great detail. Too great to reproduce here, and providing excepts from it would probably be more confusing and misleading than helpful.
The Four Principles Applied to Vegetable GardeningOn Sowing"No tilling: This consists typically of ridging the field at intervals of 3 to 6 feet or digging drainage channels every 13 to 16 feet the first year, then either not plowing the next year or, at most, shallow plowing followed by seeding and rotary tillage."
"No fertilizer: Leguminous green manure is grown as a basic crop each year and a mixture of coated crop seeds sown. If direct sowing is not possible, seedlings are transplanted. In addition, the land is enriched without plowing or tilling by planting root crops throughout."
"No weeding: The second crop is either seeded over the maturing first crop or transplanted prior to harvest so as to minimize the period during which the field is left fallow. The straw and leaves from the crops just harvested are used as a mulch to retard weed emergence while the second crop in the rotation is still very young."
"No pesticides: Of course, one can also make use of plants that prevent or inhibit the emergence of diseases and insect pests, but true non-control can be achieved when all types of insects and microorganisms are present."
About Specific Vegetables"The best time to sow vegetables in the autumn is when weeds such as crabgrass, green foxtail, wheatgrass, and cogon have matured and started to fade, but before the winter weeds have begun to germinate. Spring-sown vegetables should be seeded in late March and April after the winter weeds have passed their prime but before the germination of summer weeds."
"Sowing a good quantity of fall vegetables such as daikon, turnip, and other crucifers will hold back the emergence of winter and spring weeds. When left in the orchard until the following spring, however, these flower and age, becoming something of a nuisance in gardening work. If a few of these vegetables are left to grow here and there, they will flower and drop seed. Come June or July, the seeds will germinate, giving many first-generation hybrids close by the original plants. These hybrids are semi-wild vegetables that, in addition to having a taste and appearance quite different from that of the original vegetable, generally grow to absurdly large proportions: great big daikon, turnips too large for children to pull up, giant Chinese cabbages, crosses between black mustard and Indian mustard, … a garden of surprises. As food, they are likely to overwhelm and many people may be hesitant about sampling, but depending on how they are prepared, these vegetables can make for very flavorful and interesting eating."
"Leguminous vegetables should be included in the seeds sown among the weeds in spring to early summer. Of these, vegetables such as asparagus bean, cowpea, and mung bean are especially good choices because they are inexpensive and high-yielding. Birds will feed on the seeds for garden peas, soybeans, adzuki beans, and kidney beans, so these must be encouraged to germinate very quickly. The best way to get around this is to sow the seed in clay pellets." [Editor's emphasis. The creation and use of the clay pellets, usually called "seedballs", will be discussed in another document.]
On Diseases, Pests, and Pesticides:"Once planted, hardy vegetables such as garlic, scallion, leek, honewort, dropwort, and shepherd's-purse take hold and continue producing year after year."
"Weak vegetables such as tomatoes and eggplants tend to become overwhelmed at first by weeds. The safest way to grow these is to raise young plants from seed and transplant them into a cover of clover and weeds. Rather than training tomatoes and eggplants into single-stem plants, after transplantation they should be left alone and allowed to grow as bushes. If, instead of supporting the plant upright with a pole, the stem is allowed to creep along the ground, this will drop roots along its entire length from which many new stems will emerge and bear fruit."
"As for potatoes, once these are planted in the orchard, they will grow each year from the same spot, crawling vigorously along the ground to lengths of five feet or more and never giving in to weeds. If just small potatoes are dug up for food and some tubers always left behind, there will never be any want of seed potatoes."
"Cucumber should be of varieties that trail well along the ground. The same is true for melons, squash, and watermelons. These latter have to be protected from weeds at the seedling stage, but once they get a little larger, they are strong crops. If there is nothing around for them to climb, scattering bamboo stalks with the tops remaining or even firewood will give the vines something to grasp onto and climb; this benefits both plant growth and fruit production."
"Yam and sweet potato grow well at the foot of the orchard shelterbelt. These are especially enjoyable because the vines climb the trees and produce fairly large tubers."
"With vegetables such as spinach, carrot, and burdock, seed germination is often a problem. A simple and effective solution is to coat the seeds with a mixture of clay and wood ashes or to sow them enclosed in clay pellets." [Editor's emphasis]
"Things to Watch Out for: One must be prepared for the possibility of failure if the goal is large yields per unit area. Growing one type of vegetable in a field is unnatural and invites disease and pest attack. When vegetables are companion-planted and made to grow together with weeds, damage becomes minimal and there is no need to spray pesticides."
"Even where growth is poor, this can generally be improved by seeding clover together with the vegetables, and applying chicken droppings, manure, and well-rotted human waste."
"… I am convinced that by reviving the pest control measures of the not-so-distant past and practicing semi-wild cultivation, people can easily grow more than enough vegetables for their own consumption."
"Because hardy varieties are used, the right crop is grown at the right time in healthy soil, and plants of the same type are not grown together. Companion-planting vegetables of many different types in place of weeds in an orchard or on idle land is an eminently reasonable method of cultivation.
"As an additional precaution, I would also recommend that pyrethrum and derris root be planted at the edge of the garden. Pyrethrum flowers and derris root must be dried and stored as powders. Pyrethrum is effective against aphids and caterpillars, while derris root works well against cabbage sawflies and leaf beetles. However, these may be used against all insect pests, including melon flies, by dissolving the agent in water and sprinkling the solution onto the vegetable plants with a watering can. Both agents are harmless to man and garden vegetables."
"…although from ten to twenty types of pests and diseases generally attack any one kind of vegetable, the only ones that are really major pests are cutworms, borers, leaf beetles, certain types of ladybugs, seed-corm maggots, and aphids."
"Farmers a while back never used pesticides on vegetables in their kitchen gardens. All they did was to catch insects in the morning and evening on some gummy earth at the end of a piece of split bamboo. This worked well for caterpillars feeding on cabbage and other leaf vegetables, melon flies on watermelon and cucumbers, and ladybugs on the eggplant and potatoes. Disease and pest damage to vegetables can usually be prevented by being familiar with the nature and features of such damage rather than attempts at control, and most problems can be taken care of by practicing a method of natural farming that gives some thought as to what a healthy vegetable is."
"Try raising vegetables as the undergrowth in an orchard and let native fowl loose in the orchard. The birds will feed on the insects and their droppings will nourish the fruit trees. This is one perfect example of natural farming at work."
Fukuoka writes that the following vegetables have a strong resistance to disease and pest
damage:
Chinese and Japanese yam, taro, spinach, chard, Chinese cabbage, carrot, honewort, celery, parsley, burdock, butterbur, lettuce, garland chrysanthemum, perilla, Japanese mint, udo, ginseng, Japanese angelica tree, ginger, Japanese ginger, sweet potato, Chinese leek, garlic, scallion, Nanking shallot, Welsh onion, onion, dogtooth violet, asparagus, lily, and tulip.
The following have only moderate resistance:
Garden pea, broad bean, adzuki bean, soybean, peanut, kidney bean, asparagus bean, Egyptian kidney bean, sword bean, Chinese cabbage, cabbage, daikon, turnip, Indian mustard, rapeseed, leaf mustard, potherb mustard, sea-kale, and black mustard.
The following have low resistance:
Watermelon, cucumber, Oriental melon, pickling melon, squash, white gourd, chayote, bottle gourd, tomato, eggplant, potato, red pepper, and tobacco.
---- Larry Haftl
On Seedballs
Seedballs are seeds wrapped in a mixture of red clay and fine compost and rolled into balls about one-half inch in
diameter or smaller.
They can be an effective way to provide broadcast sown seeds with protection from birds, insects and other
creatures.
They can be useful in broadcast sowing food crops, and also for ecosystem modifications such as restoring native
plants or regenerating plants in damaged or other plant-deficient areas.
The words "can be" are used because they don't always work the way one hopes. Their effectiveness depends upon
environmental conditions and timing. It takes rain or irrigation to dissolve the clay and release the seeds to
germination, and even if the seeds are released the resulting seedlings could be overwhelmed and suppressed by
existing vegetation.
The most commonly used basic formula for making seedballs is to take one part of seeds (by volume), three parts of
relatively dry and sifted compost, and five parts of dry powdered red clay. Mix the seeds into the compost to
partially coat the seeds with the compost, and then mix the powdered clay in to coat the seeds/compost. Then start
adding water sparingly until you have a somewhat thick mud pile. Break off a small chunk (about the size of a marble)
of this mud pile with your fingers or a small spoon and then roll the chunk in the palms of your hands until it
feels firm. Set aside to dry, break off another chunk, and keep repeating until the mud pile is gone.
Some people add microorganism inoculants to the mixture. Some add powdered hot red pepper to increase repulsion of
creatures that might otherwise feed on the seeds.
Some people mass produce seedballs by putting the seeds/compost/clay mixture into a large rotating drum, such as a
cement or mortar mixer with smooth interior walls, adding water, and extracting the seedballs as they are formed to
the right size by the revolving action of the mixer.
Before you start making and using seedballs it is important to do some research and do a little thinking about what
you might unleash if your seedballs work. There is an inherent danger in their use - the introduction of plants into
an ecosystem that become invasive and destructive to existing desirable vegetation.
An excellent place to start your research is at the seedballs.com website. There are several articles about how to
make and use seedballs, how they have been used to modify ecosystems in a beneficial way, and about what you really
need to think about before you start making and using them.
-- Larry Haftl
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This page was last updated on February 20, 2003
Copyright © 2002 Larry Haftl