Permaculture Roots & Tuber Guild - An Achira, Runner Bean, and Florida Betony Polyculture
Channel: Stoned Ape Farmer
Date: 2021-05-21

Some say that a tuber guild can't work. In permaculture, roots are so often denigrated because digging is off the menu. What if there's a polyculture that can produce massive quantities of food underground, where most permaculturists fear to tread, for fear of competition or damage to their precious perennials? Roots and tubers are some of my favorite crops to work with because you get more calories out with fewer calories in, and that's what we're aiming for in a survival garden. Never mind the digging. These sloppy harvest perennials create an abundance of organic matter with which to protect the soil at their feet.

If it's good enough for Charles Dowding and Paul Gautschi, it's good enough for me.

In this lineup we have achira (Queensland arrowroot, indian shot, Canna edulis, Canna indica, or more recently, Canna discolor), runner beans (scarlet runners, Phaseolus coccineus), and Florida betony (rattle snake plant, Stachys floridiana), the more producitve cousin of crosnes (AKA Chinese artichokes or Stachys affinis).

Will yields be reduced due to overcrowding? Will tuber and rhizome size shrink as a result? In this video I try to answer these questions and more and contemplate the potential yield of this powerhouse permaculture roots and tuber guild. A better short term calorie polyculture may never have been permaculture designed.

Whether this is your polyculture garden introduction or just your latest polyculture planting, get out there and plant these crops today. It may be no three sisters, or five cousins, but this permaculture plant guild is certainly companion planting on steroids.

Which polycultures have you or will you try? Which are your favorites?

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📚RECOMMENDED READING📚

🔊GET A FREE AUDIOBOOK: https://amzn.to/3GtoCvP

Gardening When It Counts - Steve Solomon: https://amzn.to/2Nz3mJv
Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades - Steve Solomon: https://amzn.to/3sQIWUE
The Resilient Gardener - Carol Deppe: https://amzn.to/2VkpLhS
Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties - Carol Deppe: https://amzn.to/3eDcFnv
Paradise Lot - Eric Toensmeier: https://amzn.to/3id5o0f
Perennial Vegetables - Eric Toensmeier: https://amzn.to/2Voy7oR
Creating A Forest Garden - Martin Crawford: https://amzn.to/3dBU61O
Gaia's Garden - Toby Hemenway: https://amzn.to/2AbCMDk
Eating On The Wild Side - Jo Robinson: https://amzn.to/2PTkbmI
The Art of Fermentation - Sandor Katz: https://amzn.to/3ReQwlf
Root Cellaring - Nancy & Mike Bubel: https://amzn.to/3uzN7on
Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden - Gilbert Wilson: https://amzn.to/47zj1zV
Radical Acceptance - Tara Brach: https://amzn.to/40XMQI8
The Good Life - Helen & Scott Nearing: https://amzn.to/3usOZ21
Stolen Focus - Johann Hari: https://amzn.to/3sVcznG
Lost Connections - Johann Hari: https://amzn.to/47OlAxJ
How Not To Die - Michael Greger: https://amzn.to/3sIkQLV
Fiber Fueled - Will Bullsiewics: https://amzn.to/47r0cig
The Pleasure Trap - Doug Lisle & Alan Goldhamer: https://amzn.to/3ReQ7iJ



🔗🔗🔗
Lost Crops of the Incas: http://bit.ly/LostCropsOfTheIncas
Cultivariable Growing Guide (Achira): http://bit.ly/AchiraGrowingGuide
🔗🔗🔗

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