Comments on: A Man of a Thousand Trees

By: Geoff Lawton

Geoff Lawton — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 21:57:06 +0000

Hi Greg
I am on the site where Matt lives right now and have been out looking at some of his jobs and I know he is way to busy to answer your questions, so I will answer for him. Matt is a very a successful tree planter and gets over 85% success which is very high in tree planting circles when you plant those numbers of trees over large areas that are often degraded. All the ingredients he uses are natural and commercially available through people like Nutritech Solutions and there for convenient and accountable and a successful formula he has developed and evolved over time.
Biochar, rock dust work are useful additions only if compost tea which contains microbe inoculants is added because you need the microbes to process the rock dust to become plant soluble and the biochar with its enormous surface area is a great habitat for the microbes, so all really great stuff and absolutely works a treat, but over a large and often awkward landscape difficult. The compost tea needs excellent compost with high quality microbes judge by viewing with a microscope and brewing and feeding with specialized microbial foods for 24 hours then it has to be used within 6 to 8 hours and transporting a cubic meter of liquid is very awkward so this is best to brew on site which is also hard to do on remote sites often without power so a generator would be needed for the electric air pump etc. Matt’s clients want to pay for trees that survive and as quickly as possible and become forests so he has developed a successful business model.
The thick mulch and each planted tree is watered in with 10 liters of water and regularly re-watered with 10 liters of water every week until the first good rains or the trees show growth and demonstrate that they are settled in with root growth, after this the growing tree retains its own moisture in the root net insulated from evaporation by the mulch.
In smaller and less awkward sites all kinds tree planting system work as long as you have passion which is typical of permaculture.

By: greg

greg — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 04:54:20 +0000

This is going to paint me as a jerk, and I bow to Matt’s experience, BUT… the additives bug me.

You could go broke using all the additives that are available. Seaweed extract, tree tonic, tree starter, fungal-dominated compost, hydrating gel, fish emulsion… those are the ones Matt uses. Have the experiments been done to show they are each effective and worth it on trees?

And what about biochar, rock dust, compost tea, microbe innoculants, etc.? Each of those also has its fans.

Lastly, I understand the science behind the thick layer of mulch, but if rain only comes 5mm at a time, I find that the mulch absorbs all that moisture, and the earth underneath is actually dry…

By: James Maund

James Maund — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:05:37 +0000

Great work Matt, every tree makes a difference! Also it is good to see that you are open to using exotic trees where appropriate.

James

By: Julie Sosso

Julie Sosso — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:24:56 +0000

Very inspiring for a massive job.

By: cecilia macaulay

cecilia macaulay — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 03:19:19 +0000

Beautiful project, wonderful bloke.
Maybe I will think about this project on the cold mornings I don’t want to be yanked out of bed, and up I will spring, try and do something lovely. Something well-prepared, that will work.

By: Geoff Griffiths

Geoff Griffiths — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:15:30 +0000

Great video. Lots of good information and explanations.