Fukuoka’s Food Forest

Many of us in the permaculture and organic movements have read Japanese farmer Masanobu Fukuoka’s One Straw Revolution, which lays out his ingenious (though hard to replicate) no-till organic rice production system. I was surprised and pleased when, in my job as librarian for the New England Small Farm Institute in the late 1990s, I stumbled on his Natural Way of Farming, a translation of his 1976 book Shizen Noho. At that time he had already been running his orchard as an organic polyculture food forest for over three decades – since the 1940s! Natural Way of Farming offers much detail about Fukuoka’s methods of grain, vegetable, and fruit production. It was a major inspiration to me as I worked on writing Edible Forest Gardens.

 

Fukuoka’s food forest (he refers to it his orchard) is a fantastic example of a warm temperate/subtropical food forest featuring multiple layers, abundant nitrogen-fixers, a diversity of fruits, nuts, and perennial vegetables, with sophisticated use of self-sown and broadcast annual crops. There is much for us to learn from his lifetime of experimentation in his humid, warm-temperate to subtropical climate. This is a good-sized operation, covering ten or more acres. In the 1980s Fukuoka was shipping 200,000 pounds (about 90 metric tons) of citrus annually from 800 citrus trees.[i]

The book is full of fantastic color photos of his no-till grain, vegetable, and food forest systems. I don’t have rights to them, so get a copy of the book and check them out! Used copies of several editions are available online.

Food Forest Design

Fukuoka recommends diverse polycultures, starting with mixing deciduous and evergreen fruits. “Never forget to plant green manure trees[ii]”. Fukuoka’s nitrogen fixing trees include acacias, alders, autumn olive, wax myrtle (Myrica) and podocarpus. He advocated maintaining a productive and diverse understory. “Using the open space in an orchard to raise an undergrowth of special-purpose crops and vegetables is the very picture of nature.[iii]” “A natural orchard in which full, three-dimensional use of space is made in this way is entirely different from conventional orchards that employ high-production techniques. For the individual wishing to live in communion with nature, this is truly a paradise on earth.[iv]”

Food Forest Establishment

“When starting an orchard, the main goals initially should be prevention of weed emergence and maturation of the soil[v].”(144) Fukuoka also advocates for terracing and the use of contour berm-and-basin systems (known as contour swales to many of us in permaculture).

Fukuoka set out his orchard in forest land he had recently cleared. Trunks and branches from land clearing were laid out in windrows on contour – like the hugelculture technique popular in permaculture today. “To establish a natural orchard, one should dig large holes here and there among the stumps of felled trees and plant unpruned saplings and fruit seed over the site, leaving these unattended just as one would leave alone a reforested stand of trees[vi].” Resprouting stumps and weeds were cut or coppiced with a sickle.

He offers some sophisticated ecosystem mimicry advice, listing weed crops by family and replacement crops in the same family. For instance, wild morning glories might indicate planting of sweet potato. Fukuoka advocates a minimal pruning strategy (see below). At establishment, he aims to set up the tree for a lifetime of minimal pruning by establishing a form like its wild character. After 5-6 years, Fukuoka came in and built terraces uphill from each tree row. Then he transitioned the understory to ladino (white) clover (Trifolium repens).

Food Forest Understory

“What helps to rehabilitate depleted soil? I planted the seeds of thirty legumes, crucifers, and grasses throughout my orchard and from observations of these came to the general conclusion that I should grow a weed cover using ladino clover as the primary crop and such herbs as alfalfa, lupine, and bur clover as the secondary crops. To condition the deeper strata in the hard, depleted soil, I companion-planted fertilizer trees such as black wattle, myrtle, and podocarpus.[vii](188)” Fukuoka found that ladino clover would fully suppress weeds within 2-3 years, and would not need to be reseeded for 6-8 years. Drawbacks included less shade tolerance than he wanted, and the requirement for regular mowing. In winter he sowed brassica vegetables, and in summer legume vegetables and millets. Perennial vegetables were introduced and annual crops seed broadcast, with some annuals allowed to reseed themselves, producing strong-flavored feral offspring.

Table: Fukuoka’s Companion Crops

Adapted from table on page 144, Natural Way of Farming.

Crop Type	Sample Crops	Understory
Evergreen Fruit Trees	Citrus, loquat	Fuki (Petasites), buckwheat
Deciduous Fruit Trees	Walnut, persimmon, peach, plum, cherry,  apricot, apple, pear	Devil’s tongue (probably an aroid), lilies, ginger, buckwheat
Fruit vines	Grape, kiwi, akebia	Millets
Nitrogen fixing trees	Acacia, wax myrtle, alder	Green manures*, vegetables

 

Table: Fukuoka’s Green Manure Crops

Annual crops (mostly) broadcast seasonally. Adapted from page 144, Natural Way of Farming.

Crop	Spring	Summer	Winter
Ladino clover, alfalfa	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bur clover	Yes
Mustard family vegetables			Yes
Lupines, vetches			Yes
Soybeans, peanuts, adzuki beans, mung beans, cowpeas		Yes

 

Management

Black wattle trees (Acacia mearnsii) were his favorite nitrogen fixer as they were evergreen and grew to the size of a telephone pole in 7-8 years. At this point he cut down the wattles and buried them in trenches (more hugelculture). The wattle trees, fast-growing and evergreen, always served as a home for aphids and scales, and as a home to their predators like ladybugs, which provided pest control through the food forest. He ran poultry and other livestock in the orchard understory once it was established.

Pruning

Fukuoka has a lot to say about pruning in Natural Way of Farming. He sought minimal pruning styles to allow his fruit and nut trees to grow as close as possible to their natural shape. To this end he grew many seedlings of citrus and other species to observe their natural form. Almost half of the trees he inherited from his father died in his quest for a low-maintenance, natural pruning regime, about 400 trees!

Fukuoka’s Food Forest Today

Masanobu Fukuoka died in 2008 at the age of 95. Today his children and grandchildren maintain the farm, including the food forest area. Citrus and ginkgo are thriving, and mango, avocado, and feijoa have been added. Shiitakes are cultivated in the understory on logs. Wild vegetables still grow beneath the orchard in some areas[viii].

 

Species in Fukuoka’s Food Forest

I’ve done my best to extrapolate from the translated common names in Natural Way of Farming. Some were nailed down with assistance from my Yama-Kei Pocket Guide to wild edibles of Japan. Surely there were many, many more which did not make it into the books, but this is a pretty good start.

LARGE TREES
Latin Name	Common Name	Uses	Functions
Acacia mearnsii	Black wattle		Nitrogen fixer
Alnus japonica	Japanese alder		Nitrogen fixer
Castanea spp.	Chestnut	Nuts
Ginkgo biloba	Ginkgo	Nuts, medicinal
Juglans spp.	Walnut	Nuts

MEDIUM TREES
Latin Name	Common Name	Uses	Functions
Amygdalus communis	Apricot	Fruit
Aralia elata	Japanese angelica tree	Shoots and young leaves
Citrus maxima	Shaddock, pummelo	Fruit
Citrus reticulata	Mandarin orange	Fruit
Citrus x. sinensis	Orange	Fruit
Cydonia oblonga	Quince	Fruit
Eriobotrya japonica	loquat	Fruit
Malus domestica	Apple	Fruit
Prunus avium	cherry	Fruit
Prunus persica	Peach	Fruit
Prunus salicina	Plum	Fruit
Pyrus spp.	Pear	Fruit
Zizyphus jujuba	Jujube	Fruit

 

SHRUBS AND SMALL TREES
Latin Name	Common Name	Uses	Functions
Eleagnus umbellata	Oleaster, autumn olive	Fruits	Nitrogen fixation
Ficus carica	Fig	Fruit
Fortunella japonica	Kumquat	Fruit
Myrica rubra	Wax myrtle, yumberry	Fruits	Nitrogen fixation
Podocarpus spp.	Podocarpus		Nitrogen fixation
Punica granatum	Pomegranate	Fruit
Ribes spp.	Currant	Fruit

 

VINES
Latin Name	Common Name	Uses	Functions
Actinidia deliciosa	Kiwifruit	Fruit
Akebia quinata	Akebia	Fruit, shoots
Dioscorea japonica	Japanese yam	Tubers, aerial tubers
Dioscorea polystachya	Chinese yam	Tubers, aerial tubers
Peuraria lobata	Kudzu	Tuber starch	Nitrogen fixation, weed suppression
Sechium edule	Chayote	Squash, shoots, tubers
Vitis vinifera	Grape	Fruit

PERENNIAL HERBS
Latin Name	Common Name	Uses	Functions
Allium fistulosum	Welsh onion	Scallions
Allium sativum	Garlic	Garlic
Allium tuberosum	Chinese leek	Greens
Aralia cordata	Udo	Shoots
Asparagus officinalis	Asparagus	Shoots
Colocasia esculenta	Taro	Tubers
Crambe maritima	Sea kale	Leaves, broccolis
Cryptotaenia japonica	Honewort	Culinary
Dactylis glomerata	Orchardgrass		Weed suppression
Lilium spp.	Lilies	Bulbs
Medicago sativa	Alfalfa		Nitrogen fixation
Mentha spp.	Japanese mint	culinary
Panax ginseng	Ginseng	Medicinal
Petasites japonicus	Fuki	Stalks
Phleum pratense	Timothy grass		Weed suppression
Zingiber mioga	Mioga ginger	Shoots
Zingiber officinale	Ginger	Spice, shoots

 

GROUNDCOVERS
Latin Name	Common Name	Uses	Functions
Ipomoea batatas	Sweet potato	Tubers, leaves	Weed suppression
Medicago spp.	Bur clover		Nitrogen fixation, weed suppression
Trifolium pratense	Red clover		Nitrogen fixation
Trifolium repens	Ladino clover, white clover		Nitrogen fixation, weed suppression
Vicia spp.	Vetches		Nitrogen fixation

 

ANNUALS: SELF-SOWN AND BROADCAST
Latin Name	Common Name	Uses	Functions
Arachis hypogaea	Peanut	Peanuts	Nitrogen fixation, weed suppression
Brassica napus	Rapeseed	Oilseed	Weed suppression
Brassica rapa	Turnip	Roots, greens	Weed suppression
Brassica spp.	Indian mustard	Greens	Weed suppression
Echinochloa spp.	Japanese barnyard millet	Grain	Weed suppression
Fagopyrum esculentum	Buckwheat	Grain	Weed suppression
Glycine max	Soybean	Beans	Nitrogen fixation, weed suppression
Hordeum vulgare	Barley	Grain	Weed suppression
Lupinus spp.	Lupine		Nitrogen fixation, weed suppression
Melilotus spp.	Sweet clover		Nitrogen fixation
Panicum mileaceum	Proso millet	Grain	Weed suppression
Perilla frutescens	Shiso	Culinary
Pisium sativum	Garden pea	Peas	Nitrogen fixation, weed suppression
Raphanus sativus	Daikon	Roots, greens	Weed suppression
Setaria italica	Foxtail millet	Grain	Weed suppression
Trifolium incarnatum	Crimson clover		Nitrogen fixation
Trifolium subterraneum	Sub clover
Triticum aestivum	wheat	Grain	Weed suppression
Vicia faba	Broad bean	Beans	Nitrogen fixation, weed suppression
Vigna angularis	Adzuki bean	Beans	Nitrogen fixation, weed suppression
Aster Family crops	Burdock, lettuce, edible chrysanthemum	Greens, roots
Brassica Family crops	Chinese cabbage, cabbage, leaf mustard, potherb mustard, black mustard	Greens
Carrot Family crops	Carrot, parsley, celery	Culinary, greens, roots
Chenopod Family crops	Spinach, chard	Greens
Cucurbit Family crops	Watermelon, cucumber, melons, winter squash, bottle gourd, wax melon	Fruit vegetables, some greens
Legume Family crops	Kidney bean, asparagus bean, sword bean	Beans	Nitrogen fixation
Potato Family crops	Tomato, eggplant, potato, peppers, tobacco	Fruit vegetables, tobacco