UNHIDE Agroforestry booklet 2025.09.22 - Flipbook - Page 22
A WELL ROOTED SOIL
The system has 20 metres wide alleys, a distance
that is adapted to the farm’s 8 metre wide seed
drill, and 4 metre wide refuges. As shown in the
photos, there is a lot of space between the apple
trees.
In this system, a greater variety of root structures
in the tree line would contribute more effectively
to loosening the soil, improving the top soil, and
strengthening the soil micro-life. A well rooted
soil, covered with organic matter from decomposing litter and leaves, and a perennial ground layer
also contributes to improved retention and infiltration of water, and decreased evaporation.
The optimal scenario is if the root system, with
time, reached all the way underneath the alleys,
connecting the whole field.
Such complexity of root structures is crucial for
the efficiency of mycorrhiza, the fungal network
that receives part of the plants’ excess energy and in return connects roots of different plants
in large networks, enabling communication and
exchange of nutrients from larger soil surfaces
and depths. Chemical pesticides and fertilizers
used in the system would cause damage to these
underground fungal threads.
SPREAD OUT DIVERSITY
Furthermore, by spreading out the apple varieties,
rates of apple scab have proven to be reduced, according to comparisons between apples in organic
orchards and apples in the Wakelyns Agroforestry
system in England.
”In each hedge we have 8 species of apple, 2 of each, randomly spread out in the tree lines.
This makes it more difficult for
the pathogen to spread”
- Professor Martin Wolfe, pioneer of organic agriculture,
cited in the film “Life within planetary boundaries Agroforestry“.
However, this may complicate a “rational” harvest.
In discussions among the participants, allowing
some apples to become food for animals and halt
pruning of the apple trees was suggested.
Lundens’ grow spelt, rye, ein-korn wheat, emmer
and “Lunden wheat” with large genetic diversity in
