"After Fukuoka took over the management of some of his father’s carefully pruned citrus orchards, he let them grow rampant. The ensuing tangle promoted disease and insect eruptions and the entire orchard had to be destroyed. The systems that he replanted were “wild” from the start. A diversity of tree species were planted and they remained unpruned. In doing this he learned that trees that began their “orchard” lives unpruned never needed to be pruned — they thrived and produced good fruit. What was unique about his systems was that in addition to growing fruit trees, he also grew a mixture of plants as an understory planting. His plants included clover to accumulate nitrogen, but it also included an assortment of what were typical garden vegetables in Japan — daikon radish and other root crops, squash, onions and soybeans. He scattered the seeds randomly in the orchard in the theory that the plants would survive when they found the proper growing conditions. Once the plants were growing, he would let them re-seed naturally. Over time patches of naturalized vegetables could be found growing throughout his orchards."
~Mark Shepard
Restoration Agriculture - 2012
Chapter 3: Standing on the Backs of Giants
