- Major fruits like apples, plums, pears, figs, cherries, persimmons, peaches and quince
- Nut trees including hazels, chestnuts, walnuts, and pecans.
- Small fruit and berries such as mulberries, grapes, currants, kiwis, olives, gojis, elderberry, loquat.
- And much, much more.
Developing an edible landscape - be it an orchard, agroforestry system, food forest, hedgerow/shelter belts - starts with making and/or sourcing quality perennial plants.
Techniques covered in the course include:
- seeding,
- hardwood cuttings,
- stooling, and
- grafting (including t-budding, chip budding and various forms of stick grafting)
The course will start with a contextual discussion around general nursery management to help students control the factors that lead to successful propagation.
Students will be encouraged to think about the selection of cultivars, species and rootstocks that are best adapted to their specific situation and location.
The overarching goal is to build successful relationships between plants, people and places while propagating woody edible plants.
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WORKSHOP OUTLINE
Session 1 - General Nursery Management
- Understanding the factors that lead to propagation success.
- Discussion of annual cycle and yearly schedule, labelling and record keeping, growing culture and medium, irrigation and fertility, greenhouse considerations, production equipment, soil considerations and pest control.
Session 2 - Seeding
- Understanding the characteristics of a seed grown plant
- Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of propagating by seed. Covering genetic diversity, life cycle and time to sexual maturity, rooting urge, seed starting timing in the annual nursery cycle.
- Techniques and use of materials and technology to successfully start tree seeds
Session 3 - Hardwood cutting and Stooling
- Understanding the characteristics of a cutting grown plant.
- Understanding the concept of cloning and how this affects the development of the individual plant.
- The timing of cuttings in the annual cycle.
- Understanding what plants are suitable for propagation by hardwood cuttings. Which aren’t?
- Discussion of stooling: as a time delayed hardwood cutting system for plants that are shy to root. What plants do we stool? The annual cycle of management of the stooling mother and harvesting rooted shoots from them.
- Techniques and use of materials and infrastructure to successfully create new plants from hardwood cuttings
Session 4 - Bud Grafting: T-budding and Chip budding
- Understanding what is grafting. Why do we graft? What are the characteristics of a grafted plant? Overview of the different forms of grafting and the strengths and weaknesses of each, the timing and life cycle of each.
- Discussion of rootstock vs desired cultivar. Clonal vs. seedling rootstock: pros and cons of each.
- Understanding the equipment required for grafting: rootstock, scions, fridge, bags, wet towels, knives, tape (grafting or improvised), banding, labelling, watering.
- Transmitting bud grafting techniques to teach students to successfully create new fruiting plants.
Session 5 - Stick Grafting: Cleft, whip, side, mechanical tool
- Review of grafting concepts with overview and student questions.
- Learning specific stick grafting techniques to create new fruiting plants.
Session 6 - Stock Management and Next Steps
- Clarifying student's personal goals
- Integrating techniques with management
- Long term strategies for success
- Keeping aware of pitfalls and monitoring your progress
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WHO THIS WORKSHOP IS FOR
People who are interested learning how to propagated temperate woody edible plants, and:
• Landscape designers;
• Gardeners;
• Farmers;
• Homesteaders;
• Land managers;
• Individuals with an interest in regenerative agriculture, permaculture, agroecology and related practices; and
• Anyone who's keen to learn more about propagation.
NOTE - No previous knowledge of growing is necessary.
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WORKSHOP EDUCATORS
Peter Janes
Peter’s experience with propagating woody edibles has developed through the creation and management of TreeEater Farm and Nursery. The nursery is a small entity within the larger homestead and land project/community at TreeEater Farm, on Denman Island, BC. The larger project, started in 2004, encompasses onsite forestry, natural building, appropriate tech, orchards, gardens, livestock systems and general ecosystem modification for production and resilience. The nursery started in the early days when Peter couldn’t find some of the plants that he was reading about in the Permabooks. It has since gradually and organically grown into a full time job that provides over 2500 unusually edible plants/year to Western Canada via mail order.
TreeEater Farm and Nursery
https://treeeaternursery.comJavan Kerby Bernakevitch
Javan Bernakevitch is a life and land designer, speaking, writing, teaching and consulting with clients, businesses and farms all over the world through All Points Design and RegenerativeLiving.online.
He believes if we don't design our lives, they'll be designed for us, and not for our benefit. In his words “If humans want to have a long life here on our planet we best act like we are part of the ecology.” He works to ensure that his client's lives and landscapes get better every year.
All Points Land Design
https://allpointsdesign.ca___________________________________________________________________________________
LOCATION
This LIVE series will be conducted ONLINE in the comforts of your own home via Zoom video conference software. You will receive an email link to the workshop one week before the start date.
All sessions are recorded.
You'll have lifetime access to all course content after the series completes.
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WHEN
We are currently evaluated which of the two following times during the week work best for potential students.
Tuesdays at 5pm PT / 6pm MT / 7pm CT / 8pm ET
1 Hour Presentation
30 Q and A
May 2nd to June 6th 2023
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COST
REGULAR PRICE $349 USD
EARLY BIRD $249 USD
PRE-LAUNCH PRICE $199 USD (This is a one time price that will be offered to anyone on this list before the public course launch for a limited time)
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THANK YOU
Thank you for taking the time to note your interest.
We'll be in touch when registration is open.
We are looking forward to having you in the course.
Peter and Javan
Regenerative Living: Woody Edible Propagation
