Natural Farming - Applying Fukuoka's techniques in the UK

[Saoirse]

Hi Ishers

I was wondering if someone could offer me some advice? I'm planning on growing about three quarters of an acre of grain in the UK using roughly the same principles as Masanobu Fukuoka (author of One Straw Revolution and others), though applied in UK it is obviously a different technique.

Has anyone here ever tried it here in the UK: growing grains without cultivating and just by mulching and using ground covers, or even any books on the topic you'd recommend?

Thanks to you all!

[grahamhobbs]

I remember reading a book, about twenty years ago, by a frenchman I think, who tried eactly this experiment trying to grow wheat and barley with an undercover of white clover. I can't remember the name of the book but I think I might still have it boxed up somewhere.

[Saoirse]

Hey Graham

Thanks for that, much appreciated! If you do happen to come across the book or remember the title, I'd love to know, I've searched online and found almost nothing, which makes me want to experiment with it even more so others can use the results as a resource.

Thanks Graham, have a great day,

Mark

[frozenthunderbolt]

HAving just read it, I too would be interested to see what results you get in a differnt climate or any further info.

[grahamhobbs]

Haven't found my copy yet, unfortunately all my books are in boxes, but the title maybe 'The Harmonious Wheatsmith', which is avaibable through Amazon (but no description, so can't confirm it is the right book) but I had a vague recollection that the guy's name was something like Bonafils .

I'll turn out a few more boxes over the next couple of days.

[grahamhobbs]

Can't find the book in my boxes. It is probably the 'Harmonious Wheatsmith', although I might be confusing it with a rather silly book about making soughdough bread - the guy goes off on one about needing to hang your organic flour in a bag in a pure woodland to catch the wild yeasts in the air to make your starter (the wild yeasts are in the flour to start with, so this is a bit of romantic nonsense).

As I say I seem to remember the author of the book was a frenchman (the book was in English). He had limited success with the technique and I remember that his best results were undersowing with a specifc variety of white clover. Unfortunately that is all I can remember now, other than he basically was using Fukoka's technique of sowing the seed in clay balls and spreading the straw back on to the field after threshing.

[southeast-isher]

Sorry i can't help much but it might be worth looking on YouTube too as there's lots of Fukuoka seed bomb related videos i've looked at in the past. Can't remember seeing much done in the UK from memory but you'd have to search... there is some guerilla gardeners who use the seed bomb approach in the UK too. Good luck.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... opensearch