Intercroping and Experiments

The month of January has been goor times in the demo plot! Starting early off in the month with some initial plantings that I already chronicled, there have been an usual amount of saturating and heavy rains bringing prime planting and germinating conditions. I am gonna run through these pictures touching on the various approaches I used in the planting of the rezt of my seeds. I am now officially planted for this late summer season.



Seen in the picture above are two germinating crops that I planted closely in an intercropping experiment. The large bean pod breaking through the soil on the right in canavalia. Canavalia should provide a lot of ground coverage and not over compete or attack the neighbooring corn that can be seen on the left. It has been just over two weeks since I planted these lines and unfortunately not all of the canavalia germinated. I planted the two crops closer than would normally do so, about 20cm. I did this because canavalia has half the maturation life that corn does and after it is hoed into the ground at three months the corn will be entering its fruiting maturation and hopefully reap the benefits of the nutrients released into the soil by the decomposing canavalia as well as have a bit more room to grow.



This photo displays a couple of the rows that I have planted next to the first planting of beans and corn with the mulch. On either side of the initial planting I planted a two thick rows of Kumanda Yvy'rai (pigeon pea) to show and example of a living fence or seperation within a field.
After that, working your way left from the right of the photo, is the two lines of intercropped corn and canavalia that I just explained. After that is more corn and beans, planted every other line like the first planting but not nearly as thick which was a mistake made in the first planting.

Master of my domain, this was after a long day hoeing and preparing the soil for planting, making rows and beds. I suffered the consequence from this day of shirtless work and am still peeling from the burn... but it turned to a tan so all is good! In the freshly made rows and beds to the left of the photo I planted a mixture of corn, beans, canavalia, and kumanda yvy'rai. There are two rows to each bed and in one row I planted only corn while in the other row I planted a mixture of the beans, canavalia, and kumanda yvy'rai. My soil lack organic matter and nutrients above all else and this mixture row is a desperate attempt to add that to the field. I hope for it to provide coverage, nitrogen fixing, and organice matter.

Retro-Action

This post is taking a step back to training but definitely worthy of being in the blog. I recently have been having conversations with farmers in Potrero Garay about "Curvas de Nivel" also known as contour planting. This is perhaps the best method for soil conversation in sites that have a bit of terrain. Curvas also are great opportunities to start farmers out with concepts of future economic planning, agroforestry, wind breaks, shade, avonos verdes, and animal forrage. Crops with either a thick or a deep root base are the best for this planting and usually planted closer together than they would normally be.

The way in which a contour row works so well to combat erosion and conserve soil is that it creates a natural terrace system after a few years of growth. Erosion still occurs in the first years but only in between the planted contour lines effectively leveling the land.

This leveling process functions because the contour line is perpendicular to the slope of the hill. In order to create this line a special tool called an A-Frame is used. The A-Frame functions as a homemade level that will always give the perpendicular line to the slope. As can be seen in the photos my fellow Crop-E David and I are using the A-Frame. We staked every two lengths of the A-Frame and then generalized the zig-zag of the line when planting to facilitate the planting of crops in between the contour lines.

The Planting

Rains came with the New Year and they were severely needed! Now is the time to plant two of the Paraguayan cash crops, Corn and Beans. I baught the seeds from my host dad, straight out of the field and his current crops.

The corn I planted in a less traditional manner, almost as one would plant lettuce. My thinking behind this was that with the given problems of chickens eating seeds and the lack of soil nutrients it would be easier to thin out rather than re plant. After the planting I applied thick layers of mulch to either side of the rows but ran out and have to wait for my next batch of mulch to mature.

I also planted three rows of Macuna, an AV with my current two lines of Mandioca left over from the previous Volunteer. Hopefully this will give the lines an added boost in the end of there lifetime as they will be ready to harvest in three months.

More to come!