Allow me to create a topic to share my vision, as well as questions at the end of my writing and notes taken from a short permaculture internship with Eric Escoffier. I highlighted in yellow the parts that I would like to understand. Sorry for the length and thanks for your time.
PART A: INTRODUCTION: MY VISION, PLANT CULTURE WITH EACH ITS OBJECTIVES
Finally, permaculture (just by keeping the cultivation dimension of plants), lazy gardening, phenoculture, aquaponics, market gardening living, organic farming, all that is what I call the culture of plants. plants. Certain facets are specific to a certain culture approach and are defined by distinct objectives (self-sufficiency or production for sale) but what we often find in common is the will to cultivate in an intelligent way, which implies thinking and applying methods that are based on principles such as "invest as few calories as possible to produce as many as possible"; "produce a lot with the least possible effort", and this in a framework where one uses to its advantage the natural operations (exception for many facets of organic farming that can go against these natural operations) but roughly speaking, this "given production / energy invested in the right way" ratio is a common foundation, a will common to all these different approaches to culture. This is something that can be found in phenoculture, permaculture, market gardening, living soil and even in organic farming on certain facets. (ex: with the Mesclun harvester, very useful, eg: Mollison principles: Each element must have several functions - Each function is fulfilled by several elements - Working with nature rather than against it - Making the smallest effort to the biggest change.) In the end all that is intelligent plant culture.
If I'm not talking nonsense, it seems to me that Bill Mollison himself says he hasn't invented anything, and that for millennia there have always been forms of "permaculture". Mollison has done above all a work of observation of nature and grouping of several fundamental keys to create productive, resilient, sustainable, perennial systems following the constant drama of conventional agriculture which is a loss-making system since we invest between 10 and 20 calories to produce 1 food calorie (by counting gray energy for example, and in a loss-making system there are necessarily losers in history, it is a form of slavery system whose losers are: nature (destruction) + poor countries).
I understand that the word permaculture can put off many, and as I often say: permaculture is a big deal, and indeed we can find one thing said and its opposite among teachers who claim to be permaculture. The key is to learn from the right references. To understand something, we must also go to the source, the origin. For example just read Bill Mollison. Subsequently this will bring more discernment on everything that can be said in the community. People may well claim to be permaculture, but while not respecting key principles, they are therefore not for real permaculturalists. And as Coluche said, it is not because many of them are wrong that they are necessarily right. I say that because you see when we type "permaculture" on youtube we come across the farm of Bec Hellouin yet a permacultor that I believe worthy of the name told me that at the farm of Bec Hellouin it was not really permaculture but no longer bio-intensive market gardening because several essential keys were not respected and that, on the contrary, the workers' fraternities which do not claim that permaculture so much respect many more fundamental keys of natural functioning.
PART B: THE PERMACULTURAL APPROACH
Regarding the approach to plants in permaculture, Eric Escoffier sums up quite well in the video that will follow the fundamental keys of "true permaculture". His "CV" where he trained is reassuring in this sense. To give a few names, he was therefore a "pupil" with internationally recognized permaculturer such as Bill Mollison himself, Rosemary Morrow, Geoff Lawton, Robyn Francis as well as persons recognized as Les Bourguignon and Francis Hallé and others, see here : http://permaculture-sans-frontieres.org ... -escoffier
In short, people who have proven themselves.
Moreover, you will see that he mentions the balance C / N in his scheme among other fundamental principles, as well as the fact of never burying organic matter, something that does not necessarily specify in the world of permaculture. There may be the story of Emilia Hazelip's improved compost and perennial mounds, where there may be little disagreement, I do not know. http://permaculture-sans-frontieres.org ... s-perennes
During a conversation with Eric I noticed that for permaculture / plant cultivation, in fact, it takes a bit of botany, some biology, soil micro-biology, some chemistry, some geology, some agronomy, water management, peasantry, a few fields. After that he said yes but just what is needed and just what is needed, so do not become experts in every area but know some basics with just what's helpful to understand and create productive, resilient systems etc. I find that very interesting.
Escoffier mentions 9-10 principles in the video that follows, David Holmgren mentions 12, Bill Mollison 9, and me if I rewrite this schema I personally really remember 4 paramount, 2 important:
1) - mulch
2) - C / N ratio
3) - heat / moisture conjunction (or growing season)
4) - diversity / density (plant alliance)
5) - light / shadow (steering)
6) - a good design
These are 6 keys that seem to me to be the most essential and that I want to deepen the most (I remove "reforestation" + the "PH" and "air / water ratio" which are more consequences that appear naturally and are rebalanced when we respect the other principles (mulch + C / N) as explained in the video.
PS: Regarding the design I have the impression that some permaculturists spend years thinking but if we want to start quickly without taking the head for weeks, just with the right bases of design, I think we can quickly enough once on the ground, conceptualize it. The basic knowledge of design will avoid the biggest blunders and if the design is not perfect it is not very serious. I do not know you, but sometimes I have the impression in the design they take the head for not much. It becomes more perfectionism. Basically the design I see it useful for the biggest stuff, like considering strategic locations and relevant actions on a terrain according to a bit of topography, climate, wind, contour lines, nature of the soils, but it There are some 1000 elements at once I feel, but we are not computers oh.
Eric Escoffier develops these points more in depth during these long trainings but I would like to understand several of these keys on this forum that I highlighted in yellow.
PART C: NOTES:
I share some of my notes, following a short training of 2 days with Escoffier:
a) - The dead roots fertilize the soil; when cutting branches, in parallel it kills part of the roots (like a mirror effect) (it seems to me that it is me who is written on the mirror effect, I interpreted it like that from what I thought I understood)
b) - concerning erosion, false thought: to believe that there is a difference between dry and wet soil, actually dry = wet, the only difference lies in the amount of water. dry = dust; wet = mud. A wet soil is the death of plants.
It's the Air / Water ratio; example: lung of fish = water +++ / air; human lung = water / air +++; the same for trees, this report must be considered. question: what is the humidity percentage? humidity in air / water ratio? because humidity ≠ water
I would like to understand the humidity also please, and also have more info on the humidity / heat ratio because yet he still talks about the fact that when it rains and it's hot it's good for plants and that a growing season is needed. So rain and / or water brings humidity no matter what? I would like to understand this point, thank you, the link between water and humidity too. (see f) also highlighted in yellow)
c) - the thickness of the mulch depends on the climate. Can you enlighten me on this if possible
d) - control the shadow level nuances (Eric.Esc finds that the large permaculturists do not insist enough on this point)
e) - humus at an optimal C / N and a neutral Ph
f) -no matter cold or hot climate, the most important is a heat / humidity conjunction; vegetative season / growing season.
I have a lot of trouble finding information on this subject on the internet do you know any books, articles, videos on this subject?(I hope to find about this in Mollison's books if not).
g) - if you have all the diseases, all the pests etc it is a balanced system and none predominates predominantly, example: too many slugs = signal of a lack of elements of diversity or a bad interaction. (In a natural environment the disease does not exist)
h) - permaculture design is the science of hyperproductive system design; in a design the decoration and aesthetics hardly matter.
Thank you for enlightening me with kindness by sharing your comments!