Just before the Christmas holidays, Renke de Vries, a consultant and designer of temperate syntropic agriculture from northern Germany, accepted our invitation to visit the Czech Republic. Renke studied International Forest Ecosystem Management in Eberswalde, Germany, holds a permaculture design certificate and is also a graduate of arborist training. He currently works as a professional arborist and consultant for agroforestry systems throughout Europe. In 2018, he met the owner of Gut und Bösel Farm, Benedikt Bösel, at a conference in Berlin, on whose recommendation he went to Brazil for a three-month internship in early 2019 to meet the founder of syntropic agriculture, the Swiss Ernst Götsch. In the same year, he had already established the first 3 hectares of syntropic plantings on the Gut und Bösel farm, with the aim of applying the principles of syntropic farming, tested in the tropics, to the temperate climate of Brandenburg, near Berlin.
The conditions there are characterised by heavily sandy soils and very low rainfall (around 450 mm per year). Despite this, Renke has managed to establish productive linear plantings totalling 18km over an area of 18 ha without irrigation or fertilisation. Renke continuously consulted Ernst Götsch on these plantings. Each line is characterised by a variety of fruit and forest trees and herbaceous palate, which are designed in different variations according to the main production crop in the block.
Renke will leave the farm at the end of 2023 and, together with other colleagues who have left the farm, is now looking for a new position where he can build on his several years of experience.
It was an honour to welcome Renke on 18.12.2023 in the auditorium of the Research Institute of Plant Production in Prague-Ruzyně, where he shared with us his experience in establishing and maintaining a syntropic system in a temperate climate zone in an engaging presentation. This was a follow-up to the October presentation by his colleague Bastian Dreher from Ecotop, which focused on an introduction to syntropic farming and an introduction to its principles and philosophy. A recording of this presentation can be found here: https://www.syntropickezemedelstvi.cz/zaznam-prednasky-bastiana-drehera-ke-stazeni/.
The great contribution of Renke’s lecture was especially the knowledge about the establishment and maintenance of syntropic design in European conditions and the experiences and mistakes he made in this process.
For example, Renke outlined the process of preparing arable land or grassland on larger areas. In fact, he recommends starting the preparation about a year before the actual sowing/planting.
In his experience, the selected area should be sown with cereals in combination with clover grass. The cereals are then harvested in the summer so that the area is left with a high stubble with a clover-grass mixture. Alternatively, the straw can be baled together with the clover-grass undersowing (for example, if the undersowing grows very quickly due to rainy weather) and used for sowing/planting later.
The planting (sowing) line is then treated with a special scarifier combined with a rotary soil cutter, which breaks up the compacted layer resulting from the use of heavy machinery (typically at a depth of around 30cm). In the same step, the topsoil is simultaneously limed to prepare the seedbed. Care must be taken during this initial one-off tillage operation to ensure that it is not carried out while the soil is wet, which would cause further damage to the soil.
The actual planting/seeding is preceded by the creation of parallel mounds of mulch material along the prepared planting/seeding line using a stacker. The mulch is obtained by chopping straw from the stubble of the harvested crop and the clover mixture from the undersowing or from the pre-prepared bales. This will achieve partial or complete self-sufficiency in mulch material and reduce the cost of purchasing, for example, wood chips.
A gap of several centimetres is left between the parallel mulch mounds, into which the seed mixture is then sown and the tree seedlings are planted. The advantage of sowing from seed is that the plants are well adapted to the site from the outset, which also has a positive effect on their health and the possibility of selecting the best adapted individuals by thinning in subsequent years.
In the next part of the lecture, Renke discussed the species composition of the syntropic design according to the representation in the different levels and life cycles (from short-lived to long-lived), maintenance issues and economic aspects of establishment and maintenance. He also outlined the issue of transforming a monocultural pine forest into a syntropic system, which was of great interest especially to the large audience from the Šluknov Forestry High School, who travelled a long way to attend Renke’s lecture.
The main reason for Renke’s visit to the Czech Republic, however, was the requests of two private owners for consultation on syntropic designs on their land. As part of the consultation, Renke and his partner and collaborator Mara surveyed the exposure to the cardinal points at each site. They recommend a southeast orientation as the most suitable, where the site is exposed to morning and mid-morning sun, while the effect of the hot afternoon sun in summer is thus partially eliminated. Soil type and skeleton content were other important factors they monitored using the spade test.
One option that Renke recommended is to establish a syntropic design by, for example, transforming already established cultures of fast-growing poplars. However, he advises to thin out the tightly interlocking rows and introduce other species into the already established monoculture. The felled poplars can then be very well used for chipping into mulch for the newly established system.
In inspecting another property, Renke recommended pruning old fruit trees belonging to the lower tree tier (e.g., apple trees) that would interfere with new plantings of “third” (umbrella) tier trees (e.g., chestnut trees). He pointed out on several occasions that it should be ensured that tree species naturally belonging to the lower tier do not overgrow those of the higher tier. This phenomenon can lead to disharmony in the system and can be manifested by the presence of diseases or pests (this phenomenon is addressed by, for example, the director of Ecotop, Joachim Milz, and is demonstrated in this video: https://youtu.be/xAt3h4-cXHE?si=wuOOfRgtnFxE-LDl).
He recommended planting wild carrots, parsnips (in smaller quantities due to photosensitivity), radishes, sunflowers, mallow, poplars, evening primrose, borage, marigolds, amaranth, quinoa (for biomass), corn, industrial hemp, garden beans and lupine in combination with cuttings of fescue and horseradish. As an additional intercrop, potatoes can be grown in mulch (straw manure).
For pre-spring, Renke advises pruning new plantings and establishing mother beds for cuttings of foxglove, horseradish, mint, lemon balm, cactus and strawberries. The same can be applied to other plants that can be grown to seed for subsequent sowings.
In terms of planting line maintenance, Renke recommends accessibility for machinery from both sides. He stresses that overlaps for individual machines should be taken into account – not pure multiples of the attachment dimensions, but add a small margin (e.g. for a 6m strip, a 3m mower bar is not ideal, but a 3.2m mower bar). The ideal is to use a tractor with a mower at the front and a rake at the rear, which allows 2 steps to be done at once and reduces fuel consumption and soil compaction.
Renke’s visit was a huge shift for us in terms of the practicalities of syntropic design in our climate. Both he and Mara are incredibly friendly and outgoing people, and it is evident at every turn that they care about taking care of the land, the landscape and the people.
If you are a professional farmer and are interested in getting expert advice on syntropic design options for your land, check out our recommended syntropic farming consultants in Europe at https://www.syntropickezemedelstvi.cz/konzultanti/.
We are very pleased that Renke has accepted our invitation to give another lecture on syntropic agriculture in Europe at the European Agroforestry Conference EURAF(https://www.euraf.net/2023/05/26/save-the-date-euraf-2024-congress/)– which will take place this year in the Czech Republic from 27-31 May 2024.
At our initiative, the director of Ecotop, Joachim Milz, has been invited to EURAF to be one of the keynote speakers and to present the topic of syntropic agriculture through the lens of a man who has been implementing it in various parts of the world for over 20 years and is one of Ernst Götsch’s most talented students.
On 26.5.2024, our Syntropy CZ group is organizing a full-day interactive seminar with Bastian Dreher for the general public as part of the EURAF pre-conference event. During the seminar, we will visit one of our participating farms and be guided through the basic principles and philosophy of syntropic farming in a fun way. The program will culminate in a collaborative design for a selected area on the farm. The experience gained can then help you in your own design.
More information about EURAF can be found here: https://www.euraf2024.mendelu.cz/34925-welcome.
For more information about our events, we recommend subscribing to our newsletter on our website: http://www.syntropickezemedelstvi.cz .
