This is Juan León, the man who changed my life.
I met Juan by chance during my winter trip to Colombia. He had just returned home from a three-month formation with Ernst Götsch. He told me about syntropic farming at a Christmas party in my friends’ forest community, and I asked him to show us how to make a syntropic garden the next day.
The next day we met together with the family on whose land we were planting the beds, and Juan led us, explaining each step and telling us about the philosophy of syntropic agriculture. I was on the edge of my seat and felt I had found something I had been looking for so long. As the garden grew, other neighbors came along who also became enthusiastic about syntropic farming, thanks to Juan’s stories and our bright eyes, and also wanted us to help them start a garden. We were thus able to put our hand to work on about 6 small projects in 2 months (photos of these events will be added here over time).
Juan then recommended that I study in Bolivia and Brazil to get a deeper insight into the subject. Through a great stroke of luck, I was able to make contact with the Ecotop organisation in Bolivia, where I gained a deeper understanding, and subsequently I was lucky enough to study for three months in Bahía, Brazil, with the founder of syntropic agriculture himself, Ernst Götsch.
In this post, with Juan’s permission, I would like to share a video of his work in southern Colombia. So that you can get an idea of what the system looks like fresh out of the ground and how it is evolving over time.
In syntropic agriculture, most plants are sown or planted right from the start. While the tree seeds gradually germinate or while the seedlings gradually take hold, a comfortable microclimate is created for them by other plants whose life cycle is much shorter. So if your target crop is cocoa, for example, you will be sowing its seeds alongside trees and plants of different heights and life cycles. And in a few weeks you are harvesting coriander, radishes, lettuces… these can be followed by beans, tomatoes, corn, yucca, colocasia, and after a year you can harvest pineapples, bananas, etc. And at the same time, you are improving the conditions for your cocoa. In addition to the edible plants, the system also includes so-called Mother Trees, which help your main production crop to create a comfortable microclimate, provide it with important information and are also used to cut, or harvest, the accumulated organic matter and cover the growing area to provide food for the soil micro-organisms that keep the soil moist, alive and healthy.
Thanks to Juan for providing the video of his excellent work and I hope it helps you get an idea of what the set up process looks like in the initial 6 months.
