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1 contribution to Syntropic Sunlands w/ Milan
Land preparation
Hey everyone 👋 I’m noticing there’s a lot of great content on syntropic agroforestry design and succession, but much less on land preparation before planting, especially in Mediterranean contexts. I’d love some practical input on what you actually do before the first trees go in: • Is subsoiling always needed? For which soil types, and how do small growers even access one? • Do you add compost or manure at the start in planting lines? • Any experience with ash or rock dust early on, or better to let biology do the work? • Does a single initial plowing ever make sense in compacted Mediterranean soils? If you had to rank the most important interventions at the beginning, what would they be? Curious to hear real-world experiences (successes and failures), especially across different Mediterranean soil types. Thanks! 🌱
3 likes • 18d
For our project (Puglia, Italy) we did the following: standard plowing (no subsoiler available), very slightly mounded beds (mostly to delineate them better), amended with a wood chip based compost 5 to 10 cm thick on tree rows, all planting holes received worm compost, zeolite and a forestry mycorrhizal powder, mulched with straw and some olive prunings. This was our first project on the land, so some things I would have done differently. Perhaps auger each fruit/nut tree hole deeper than the tillage. I would have been thrilled to subsoil. This was all done this past fall, so little time for feedback yet.
2 likes • 13d
@Nikolaos Gryspolakis yes, we only ever recommend rock dusts, biochar, and microbial amendments in the tree holes as well. In this case I added about 50 grams wormcompost in each hole as a microbial inoculation principally. I usually consider wormcompost as a microbial inoculant not as a fertility source. Would you still avoid this in the tree holes?
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Scott Gallant
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@scott-gallant-3941
co-founder of Porvenir Design Costa Rica based @scottplantstrees

Active 1d ago
Joined Jan 9, 2026