From what I have seen Farm stay is an orchard with no wind break setup, just one row (10 palms maybe) of dwarf coconuts and 20 on the driveway as ornament and not as wind break as spacing if wrong and they are to tall, need new comming.
The report I read, I think it was colin who said he didn't like the mess off the coconuts and the fronds afterwards, but they still stand ( i kown I have seen them) and would have supported the surrounding tree's mechanically and also reduced the wind.
If they are keept well regularly (de fronded de nutted for jelly nuts) prior there won't be such mess with fronds and coconuts. And a wind break is a totally different concept then a row of dwarfs for drinking coconuts.
I know Farm stay is doing very well now with implementing alley cropping, that will help to reduce wind damage some.
The RFA Inc (Rare Fruit Australia) have a good book with good principles for wind breaks and how to manage wind for driveways etc. entering to the "paddock".
I have probobly visited 15 exotic fruit orchards in AU (small to big) and none have dedicated windbreaks implemented, some just have jungle around, that's it.
So in this area in my opinion and experience, proper wind breaks haven't even been tested against cyclonic winds. There's still huge amounts of natural tree's/forests around so nature does seams to be able to stand cat 5 cyclones quite well. I know of a man who survived yasi on a sailing boat tied to the mangrove, the mangrove is still there and he told me the story.
I don't say forests don't get damaged but it's not as bad as orchards and recovery is quite fast too in a natural forest due to self seeding and errosion reduction.
I like what I heard Peter say in one youtube video.
- I do consultations sometime and the workers will say - well we have to use fertilizers beacuase nothing grows good here.
- I turn around and say what about the forest there, how's all that stuff growing?
- ohh that's natural, that's why that's growing there.
- that's right, that's what we are gonna do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8RJcrgmHtMIn my opinioin it would help this area a lot if people looked to nature a bit more
Peter S, have named the place Fruit Forest Farm if i am not wrong, but I can't really see the forest, to me it's more like an orchard system. Not hating on what they do or anything like that i respect what they do for what purpouse and they have been helpfull
. But the name could be misleading to new growers and visitors that associate "that system" with a "forest".
Clay shouldn't be any issue. But I am unsure if you have 100% clay, there is probobly silt and some rocks in there too. Do a soil structure test at home.
A family who have been farming in this area for over 70 years, put down plastic underneath the durian to collect and pool the water bellow the planted tree, according to them it works well, no issue with wet feet and dead tree's. I have had simialr expeience with using flood irrigation, they thrive, but if the soil get's to dry they suffer immedietly.
I guess in 1-2 years the plastic if penetrated by roots and does not hold as well.
And with the tierra preta they used clay pots. That creates small bowls in the soil where water can catch in the soil. I think this is probobly more important then the char they put on. When I was researching this before I came a cross one elder who said the pots in tierra preta are very important.
If I could do the same an come out positive finacially I would do it, at this time i don't know how to manufacture huge amounts of clay pots from my subsoil clay. Maybe a TLUD kiln for char to make the pots, double the goodness.
Peace