the ONLY Food Forest video you need to watch (syntropic agroforestry) / NZ 

I like how every permaculture video is like "Permaculture is easy! Step 1: inherit property in the tropics from your family." XD

This video was the video I needed 5 years ago when I first started learning about permaculture. It combines a lot if not all of the best principles and practices from all my favorite permaculture pioneers without all the guru jargon. I love it. Once I have a property and can start my own system I will definitely be pulling this video up again!

I’m in a local food forest permaculture group here in Texas - this video just explained concisely and clearly the concepts it takes folks months to learn on their own. I appreciate your breadth of knowledge and that you’re willing to take the time to share it with others.

i'm brazilian, i'm proud that you are teaching to everyone the Ernest Gotsch's system.

Your clarification of terms, and you listing the plants that you have used is incredibly valuable to me. Thank you very much.

I'm in Southern California and have great interest in developing a few acres of family owned property into a Noah's Arch of fruit trees. I'm so glad your video popped up on my timeline, I gained lots of good information from you presentation and the least I can do is drop a like and leave you the appreciative comment you deserve!

Tree Fountain (aka Tree of Life) 1- Bore a hole into and up a tree being careful not to bisect the core of the tree. Alternative: Use bamboo or grow sugar cane as a natural and permeable plumbing and cultivate it so that the tree grows around it. 2- Coat the inside of the hole with beeswax. I would highly recommend making a place to put a beehive in the tree near some water. The natural hum of the bees can promote health throughout the structure and through the water. 3- Put a water basin at the top and a fire pit or fireplace at the bottom. The water basin can actually be used for a secondary water source that would promote growth and potentially allow for the tree to grow taller. 4- Put copper pipe around the inside of the fire pit or up the chimney for a fireplace. This will act as a pump. (You can also use a hotplate if you prefer) The copper pipe should only be used close to the intense heat of the fire. Any amount of heat promotes upward movement in this case. 5- Add water wheels (fidget spinners can be used for some decent mini water wheels) for electricity. This electricity can also be used to promote growth in the structure and in gardens. Check out how electricity is used to directly and drastically improve plant growth. 6- Add hanging gardens for fresh produce. A vertical style garden will do several things to improve overall health and productivity. 7- Splice other saplings and/or fresh tree cuttings using the tongue and groove method for shelter. This can be done with roots as well as branches. Encouraging roots to intermingle and cultivating a healthy mycelium bed are both ways that allow all the plants to share nutrients and different forms of protection. This would create a natural network that can be used similar to a computer for both the plants and people if a computer interface is plugged into the chemical language of the plants. This design provides food, filtered and conditioned water and air, electricity, shelter and SO much more! Everything a person needs for life and survival. Hence the "Tree of Life" nickname! In addition to the benefits listed and the techniques described, this structure will grow and get stronger over time. Crystals can be used as a natural source of low level energy creation and as forms of transistors. Cymatics can be used as a form of communication directly with the plants. There is SOOOOO much more that can be done using this method for creating structures and homes BECAUSE it is living. -This idea will eliminate 90% of the demand for large corporations and industries. - This idea will reverse air pollution and filter the world's air naturally and beneficially. - This idea will reveal the counterproductivity of governments and starve the governments of their power. Your fear and desperation. There will be no need to clear cut entire forests to build ever again and this will encourage the natural ecology in our world instead of fighting with it. Be a part of the change. Not a part of the problem through government. We have made excuses for ignoring the fact that we are supporting all the problems we state we are against. Let's be the change!!!

Good job Byron! I had a permaculture farm in the middle of the Shawnee National forest in S. IL. My garden and food forest was only around 2.5 ac. The rest of my property consisted of ponds and horse pasture. Even on such a small farm we had more production than we could ever use. We have since moved back to a small- to mid-sized town the S. Appalachians. I plan to build up my permaculture farm at my residence in the town and at a small property that we will buy outside of town. We feel that urban and suburban permaculture farms in small- to medium-sized towns are the way to go. You are close to markets, labor, potential students and potential clients and there is more opportunity to influence people as more people will actually see what you are doing and get to experience for themselves the successful alternative ecologically-based lifestyle that you can provide for them. That’s our focus now. Food forests on small farms, community gardens and small suburban and urban properties. Having a smaller property means less maintenance and more time to design, teach, write and consult. You don’t need a huge tract of land to do this. You just need good design, fertile soil, available water and sunlight - all of which is easier to achieve on a small holding.

Fairly basic yet high impact concepts that most, myself in particular, would have otherwise overlooked, start small and build on it. Great advice! Thank you.

I'm an aspiring court reporter/stenographer/closed captionist. I cannot tell you how thankful I am for all of the challenging vocabulary. This is a weird thank you, but thank you! Interesting video!

I should have found the video like this six years ago. I will start doing what I have learned from you from this rainy season. The most beautiful part is that your food forest is full of the kind of food trees we grow in our land. Thank you for sharing. Big heart from Thailand

I am in Nebraska started off with some fruit trees, chestnut and thornless honey locust last year. This year adding hazelnut, more chestnut and after watching this video I am going to try to get some divisions of the goose berries that grow rampantly in my area, maybe some elderberry and mulberry as well since those are all local ecotype that I can multiply off my land. Thanks for the video! Gotta figure out what I am going to do for herbaceous material to support the tree lines now.

thank you byron for simplifying syntropic farming. you are an inspiration

Epic Video !! Very Sharp and Solid , Pura Vida to that Food Forest inspiring other food forest around the world

"you WANT to make small mistakes as quickly as possible".. what a great life lesson.. ;8)

So thankful I found your channel! I’ve been casually researching permaculture the last 2-3 years but this past year I’ve realized I need to take it more seriously and truly learn all I can to successfully steward a food forest system for not just me but my community.

Good explanation Byron of a complex topic. Especially your sequence graph. Nice to be in the subtropics.

Extremely useful info while you have no degree. You sir have done your homework and schooled yourself. So much free info out there. Well done

Great stuff! This approach is perfect to pair with electro and magneto culture. I bought my home almost a year ago and finally have opportunity to transform a bit of the world into a functional edible yardening hobby. Truly appreciate the knowledge and perspective to get started.

Dude, your awesome. I'll keep watching. Syntropic Agroforestry, Edible Forest Gardens, and natural catchment of water are the foundations of sustainable civilization. The movement is finally rising to noticeable popularity and more and more people want to get involved. Thanks for sharing your research and expertise.

Absolute beginner here, little to no formal bio background, looking to pivot from engineering eventually. The ways you’ve presented these concepts are clear and exciting. Feeling hopeful, thanks!

Thank you Byron for your support and all the positive input. Your teachings changed my perspective on Permaculture to another level. SAF

Loved this, had to watch it again to make sure I understand what to do in the garden. Awesome mate, cheers from Brisbane Australia zone 11a

Man. This was really useful. I never realized this. Rows going north south. Thank you for that.

One of the more elegantly presented descriptions of syntropic that I've seen. Lots of great practical tips. Much appreciated.

Great video! It's unbelievable what you've achieved in such a short space of time. Well done!

Byron, what I like is your combination of acute observation of which plants work well together and an organized system that can be iterated and optimized over time, so you are both horticulturalist and systems engineer. This is the future of agriculture

Awww. These Videos are food for the Soul. Lifts the Spirits and reminds us , It’s all connected.

I've never even seen this, i've never even heard about it, but as soon as I saw the picture, I realized what a good idea this is. The fact that I can see the value of something simply from a picture speaks loudly about how we should be planning our land from now on. I'm definitely going to consider doing this on my new land when I plant. It's already made me rethink my planting locations for certain things. I wonder how it'll work in Canada. There's lots of different plants I can put it, but they are so different from what you've chosen.

Loving your videos! You express these ideas with so much clarity. Thanks!

very good video, thank you very much for all the information, how nice to see how food forests grow year after year

Excellent. Lots of valuable information in a relatively short time.

I am in tamilnadu India brother universal blessings always

I like how you worked with me th what is already there. The result is a linear layout, that is a reminder of the old orchard.

This is EXACTLY the solution I need. We bought land with a 7 acre mature citrus grove last year and have been throwing around ideas of how to manage it well…turning down all the traditional management techniques “experts” in the area have thrown at us. They told me to pour Round Up on all the weeds around the trees and I accidentally laughed out loud. We’ve been chopping and dropping the weeds in the meantime, but I can definitely start strategically planting more desirable species in there. I have lots of the ones you mentioned in my garden closer to our home so it will be easy for me to get it all going.

This is awesome! Thank you so much and looking forward to the video on "support species"

Amazing intro! Reflects the lessons I’ve learned developing food forests and takes it to the next level which is being organized to scale. Thanks!

The most practical explanation, thank you

i am SO excited for this (and all the coming) seasons! man thank you so much for the research & information, this was a great watch!

I plan of turning my land into a food forest. I learned much from you. I'll definitely consider your style. Thank you so much for sharing. It's going to be a big help for starters like me. New subscriber here from the Philippines

Thanks so much for this video Byron. This information is perfect for one of the permaculture properties I manage her in Perth, Australia. I'll be following along from now on. I've created a great microclimate by adding 10 ponds, and now we're able to grow tropical, subtropical, and temperate fruit trees. Cheers

Wonderful video ! Subscribed to your channel. Keep up the good work.

Awesome video bro. Thanks for providing open source info and all the mistakes you have made. Some many great learning points. All the best.

Love your enthusiasm, wishing the best for you brother.

Brilliant video Byron. Really informative and helpful. Can't wait to buy your book.

Excellent breakdown. I've watched much of the permaculture info freely available you broke it down very succinctly and I learned a few things. Many thanks!

Would love a playlist of more in-depth video on each chapter from this one for those of us who are absolute beginners. Thanks!

Amazing Byron love your work 👏 Definitely learnt a few things. Very useful for where I'm at with larger scale property conversion. Eradication of grass here we grow...

The knowledge.... Grateful to land on the channel 😊

So awesome man! Great vid! Thanks for putting this together.

Thanks for sharing, lots of helpful knowledge

SUPER valuable information, thank you so much. Your clarity about how and why to plant this way has given me good insights into how to fill in my own food forest. I'm in a temperate desert climate, though, which makes it more difficult... and hopefully all that more rewarding as time passes.

Yoooooo thank you so much. I've been making a word document with as much information about permaculture and food forest i can compile, making this extremely helpful.

Great information, easy to digest and explained in such a natural way. Your forest is talking through you, thank you!

Fantastic information! Thank you for sharing your personal experience - inspires me to look deeper into agroforestry!

Love the energy and the diversity! So stoked to see more of these systems manifest in Aotearoa.

Thanx for this legend, clearly a smart fella, lots of people want to do this sort of thing . Im doing my own experimentation with preanuals her in northern NSW AUS Good stuff giving inspiration to people is a good offering to life. I wish everyone would do this

Awesome video Bro. Very well put together and informational.

Thanks for the video. I liked all of it. Particularly I liked when you stressed the importance of networking. A few months back we went to a little agro fair here in Jalisco, and my friend said we should bag up some cherry tomato seeds that I'd dried. Cherry tomatoes are common in Mexico, really quite a basic plant, one of the first things we managed to grow. Even so, almost everyone that had seeds at the fair was willing to trade with us, even giving us much more than we'd given them. Partly it's Mexican hospitality, partly it's something about brotherhood and goodwill. They see that you're serious about growing plants and they want to see their plants propagate, and acknowledge the camaraderie of really being a gardener. A little note about the audio. Your voice is coming through quite clear, but the wind noise can be distracting. If you buy a basic lav mic for about $30-40 and put it under your shirt, it will improve your sound quality a lot.

Great video. Lots of useful information.

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! KEEP TEACHING AND SHARING WITH THE WORLD PLEASE... WE NEED DEDICATED AND ENTHUSIASTIC FOOD GROWERS LIKE YOURSELF TO SECURE OUR EDIBLES FOR THE FUTURE!! Amen Retired/Veteran

This is a really good video. Good advices ! Thank you, it helps for my food forest development. Wish you success for the next !

I have wanted to move to NZ since 2015. I went to school for a master's in ecology and evolutionary biology. Thank you for this video and hope my dream stays alive after putting my children through college.

thanks a lot!!! awesome video and information. I am giving courses on syntropic ag and abundance farming in mediterranean Portugal. And loved to hear your angle on all of it. I was surprised to hear your take on not adding the comfrey in the treelines (but rather on the side) I was just so happy they were outshading those funky creeping grass species that are taking up any open spot. Any way i wish you a lot of succes with the second plot! Its inspirational!

Love getting videos like this recommended

Very good , well thought video. Thankyou for sharing

Brilliant video. As many have said, I wish I had learnt this at the start!

The best video providing indepth knowledge to grow a food forest

I will be applying this to 30 hectares soon, the hardest part is researching and planning based on all the hundreds, if not thousands, of varieties of various tropical fruits and spices I want to grow and what order/spacing to plant based on their future sizes.

Great info thank you for sharing. 😊

This is the most valuable video on food forest/permaculture/syntropic agroforestry. So many videos on the theory, but this one has the steps to do. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!

I had your thinking b4 I even saw your video, but to hear you saying the actual ideas is amazing!!!

I have been watching your video over and over. 7:17 I love the concept of planting various kinds of Papaya, bananas etc. I will apply your idea for my LMK Tiny Forest too. Thank you for sharing. Big heart from Thailand

You explain everything beautifully.

a lot of interesting information and insights . new sub . thanks , look forward to following the journey and one day starting my own .

The idea of planting in lines figures out forme, the idea of planting iggly piggly made me nervous, love your videos

Thanks for the effort. Audio is hard to listen to for a longer period. Hope that helps.

theodore, it works beautifully ln small scale, so you can start practicing or using your knowledge even in the burbs

bloody brilliant man.. thank you..

Brilliant thanks so much for this information!

Finally. Already watch your Reels and this is great.

As I finish your video and I also sent you an email I also see that I’m already doing a lot of what you’re doing but not in the rows like you’re talking about… but I see myself incorporating my farm into this kind of thing I’m going to expand this into the northern regions of my other place here in Florida is perfect for those temperatures. We both get a little bit of cold in a little bit of hot, which is good and plenty of rain.

Cant wait for a climate/species recommended video!

Good Morning yeay nice ideas. Short time , Medium Time and Long Time .. Plant and plan .. Thanks You for sharing

Thank you for sharing 👍🏽

I was watching a video on Pbs Terra about deforestation and replanting tree program large failure rates that are not equalling any success. I think this is what they need to understand whether is for food or for climate change efforts to reduce carbon. Thanks for sharing what you've learned.

I have a 4 hector orange grove in northern Mexico. Looking forward to learning. This is your first video that came up on my feed. I just subscribed. Unfortunately Im not in goldilocks zone. My area is border line desert with cold fronts that come down out of Colorado, we get as close to killing orange trees with cold as possible and then the temp goes up to 48 through the summer. We also skip the wet season every couple of years. Pretty hostile. During the wet season I let the grass grow about 2.5 meters and then cut it, i have lots of organic matter on the ground.

It looks like a great system for humid climates. It could also work in drylands but in the fire season if you do not have a big anti-fire zone around this system, If the fire arrives,it's doomed because, of the chop and drop but also the layers will start transmitting the fire from herbaceous layers to the trees.

I’m a visual learner. Thank you for explaining with drawings.

Please share more I’m grateful and curious about your journey please keep a video log with progression and development and growth

This is great for the tropics. Im in zone 5b. Definitely NOT the only video people need to watch.

This guy is living my dream life ❤

Good talk. Gave me some ideas for my food forest system. Like that you promote growing from seeds and self production. I help install food forests for a nursery near where I live. People put out huge money on the grafted trees and irrigation systems etc. If only they would do things themselves but hey I get paid for their lack of effort on their own land.

I really appreciate this immensely valuable, free content and your heart behind it. The ripple effects are far reaching. 🌊 Do you know of any resources for modeling this in cold climates? I’m in Montana, zone 5ish. About to convert a massive lawn to something useful at my parents place. Love the advice about making lots of small mistakes and learning from them instead of investing too heavily right out the gate.

Thank-you ❤

Amazing. Thanks!

Great job man

First and foremost your presentation was EPIC! High energy fast paced and truly factual. I had to stop and take deep breaths just listening! :o) But most of all a whole lot of knowledge in a short time. Don't worry the brain gets it even if most people don't think they did. On that note Syntropic Agroforestry was a trem I wasn't really familiar with, but 2 years ago the term Food Forest was foreign to me. But following the Permaculture, Earth Science side of self sustaining agriculture. It all makes sense. Having said that I believe we are on the cusp of High productive small scale farming operations which the world has gone away from in the past 50 years which has led us to the poor state of health and land management we're in now... Sorry that's a whole nother subject. Keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing more of what you may accomplish and give back to the growing community!

I’m doing a lot of different things with hibiscus because all the varieties as you can eat that.. and I have a Maringa Broad trees on the perimeter of my property

Cool concepts, and you're a great teacher. I'm also in NZ, nice to watch some local content.