The aim of this website is to create an instrument to select desirable plants for agriculture, garden, or landscaping. Commercial and ecological benefits are desirable, especially in developing Countries those will be achieved by trees.
There are encyclopaedias and similar websites, but not as detailed as www.rozendale.org. Also significant feature of this website is that the information about plants is annexed and stored in a database. Not only the titles of the plants can be ordered alphabetically but also the detailed content; such as the minimum rainfall of a plant, the root-system, the fire-tolerance, etc. There are more than 80 columns of database content whereof each plant is described. Some registered users are alleged to edit of plants via different forms.
A plant is desirable when it’s beneficial commercially and ecologically. The method of this website to select desirable trees is generated by setting a list of rules. It is important to have sufficient knowledge about plant science, agro-business, ecology, and the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of the common farmer in developing countries; to make those rules. After the rules are defined there are search filters provided by this website to select the plants that comply with the rules.
Perennial vs. Annual
Concerning the SWOT of most of the farmers in developing countries compared to farmers in Western Countries: There is an important opinion about sustainable agriculture: “Annual-crop production is a strength in Western Countries but a weakness in developing countries”. Annual crop production requires large arable lands, machinery, and ensured markets. In developing countries lack of machinery is the biggest weakness and cheap labour will by far not compensate that. Moreover, annual crops are also not ecologically because there often no vegetation after the land is ploughed and water, nutrients, and beneficial nutrients are eroded. Secondly, it’s an opportunity for tropical countries to grow certain perennial crops that are tropical: Almost all tropical crops are perennial because annual crops can also be cultivated in temperate climates during summer. Unfortunately there are still tropical lands removed in tropical countries for silly reasons such as impatience: Farmers have no patience to plant trees that bear no crop during the first 7 years sometimes. Another reason is that farmers consider commercial as the revenue they get from agriculture, but they forget to calculate the costs, time, and effort of annual production. It’s not about revenue but about profit. It’s better to make less revenue and less costs and more profit than high revenue and high costs. It is better that the land will be tilled in righteous and be planted with trees and be full of blessings.
Intercropping Models
Because of the impatience desires of most farmers this website added a rule that plantations should also bring fast yielding crops: Those will be intercropped with the plants that bring very late yields: A very necessary thing because those late yielding plants grow often slowly and need a very wide planting distance when they are mature, so before they mature there is space and time for short-living crops. And some plants which are not cultivated for commercial purposes can still be selected by our search filters as an intercrop species because they improve the entire plantation ecologically and indirectly also commercially by costs reduction and fuel or timber harvest after their removal. Some plants contribute ecologically by nitrogen fixation, mycorrhizal multiplications, deep soil mining, bio-mass production, mulch production, shading, or erosion control.
Sun, water and soil
One of the rule is to have maximal photosynthesis at the plantation. So the vegetation must be so dense that all sunlight is adsorbed. If it’s too dense the tertiary crops need to be removed, later the tertiaries, then the secondary crops, until there are only primary crops left. If there is too much spacing there will be sunlight for sprouted weeds that often grow faster, taking up more nutrients and more water. It’s good that all intercropped plants are more resistant to drought than the primary crop. Overshadowing can even safe primary crops from withering. After the rainy season the primary crops can also be pruned, but after the dry season the drought resistant trees can be pruned to provide more sunlight to the primary crops for the coming rains. Concerning the soil; it is first of all sustainable to mix the plantation with different species because each different species has different root depths and different nutrient requirements. A rule about soil ecology and space efficiency is to plant trees in a hexagonal pattern; whereby every tree is surrounded by 6 other trees of equal distances by an angle of 60 degrees. This can be accomplished by 1(X)/0.866(Y). Every plant of this website has deep or shallow roots. A shallow rooted plants must be intercropped with 6 deep rooted plants and each deep rooted plant must be intercropped with 3 shallow and 3 deep rooted trees. There are exceptions for short living plants and for trees planted in a single or double row.
