Plant This Shrub - Aronia

Aronia, or black chokeberry, fits well into permaculture landscapes due to its hardiness, ability to tolerate varied soil conditions, high antioxidant properties, and role as a native plant. It provides multi-season interest, self-fertile fruit production, and can be incorporated into edible landscaping, food forests, and systems like swales for its ecological function. While it produces astringent fruit, best suited for use in jams or smoothies, its resilience and contribution to a polyculture system make it a valuable permaculture species. 

Why Aronia is a Good Permaculture Plant

Nativism: 

Aronia is a North American native plant, integrating well into regional ecosystems. 

Toughness: 

It tolerates a wide range of soil types, including wet or clay soils, and can grow in full sun to partial shade. 

Food Production: 

It's a prolific producer of nutritious, high-antioxidant berries, though they are astringent when raw. 

Edible Landscaping: 

Its attractive foliage and fruit make it suitable for edible landscaping and food forest systems. 

Pest & Disease Resistant: 

The shrub is not often plagued by birds or pests and is generally free of disease. 

Integration into Permaculture Design

Polyculture Systems: 

Integrate aronia into a polyculture system with other native, edible, and beneficial plants for a more visually appealing and ecologically functional landscape. 

Food Forests: 

Place it in a food forest, potentially underplanting larger trees, to create edible layers within the system. 

Edible Swales: 

Consider planting aronia near or on swales to help manage water and provide ecological benefits while producing food. 

Care and Harvesting

Planting: 

Plant in spring or fall in a site with at least six hours of full sun for best fruiting. Amend the soil with compost and mulch to retain moisture and suppress weeds. 

Pruning: 

Prune after flowering to remove dead or diseased branches, but avoid heavy pruning after flowering to preserve berry production. 

Harvesting: Berries ripen in late summer and are best harvested when fully ripe, often after the first frost. They can be harvested with rakes or by snipping clusters, and are excellent when processed into jams, smoothies, or dried goods. 

Discover why Aronia (black chokeberry) is a must‑plant for permaculture — a quick 5‑minute checklist to plant today! Learn about its native benefits, soil and sun tolerance, high‑antioxidant berries, pest/disease resistance, and how to use it in food forests, polycultures, and edible swales. Includes planting, pruning, and harvest tips plus practical uses (jams, smoothies). Like and share if this helped your garden plan!

#Aronia #BlackChokeberry #Permaculture #FoodForest #EdibleLandscaping #Polyculture #PlantToday

OUTLINE:

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The Unsung Hero of the Permaculture Garden

00:00:37

Why Aronia Thrives

00:01:27

The Multi-Functional Powerhouse

00:02:32

Your Simple Aronia Blueprint

00:03:16

The Joy of Harvest and a Call to Action

All the best to all of you, 

Zeljko Serdar.

Permaculture / Cultivating Sustainability

Permaculture is a holistic design philosophy that integrates land, resources, people, and the environment in a sustainable and regenerative way. It aims to create self-sufficient agricultural systems modeled on natural ecosystems. 

Here are some key principles of permaculture:

Observe and Interact - By observing natural patterns and interactions, we can design sustainable systems.

Catch and Store Energy - This involves capturing and storing resources when they are abundant for use in times of need.

Obtain a Yield - Ensure that you are getting useful rewards as part of your work.

Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback - We need to discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems can continue to function well.

Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services - Make the best use of nature's abundance to reduce our consumptive behavior and dependence on non-renewable resources.

Produce No Waste - By valuing and making use of all the resources available, we minimize waste.

Design from Patterns to Details - Observing patterns in nature and society provides insights for designing efficient systems.

Integrate Rather Than Segregate - By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they support each other.

Use Small and Slow Solutions - Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes.

Use and Value Diversity - Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment.

Use Edges and Value the Marginal - The most interesting events often occur at the edges, where different environments meet. The interface between things is where the most valuable, diverse, and productive elements often exist.

Creatively Use and Respond to Change - We can have a positive impact on inevitable change by carefully observing and then intervening at the right time.

If this is true, it is FANTASTIC!

 

This is Awesome. I have so much respect for both Joel Salatin and Thomas Massie. The Lunatic Farmer is now working for the government and that's pretty awesome.

 The deplorables and garbage people won again.  Can you believe it? 

                  I've been contacted by the Trump transition team to hold some sort of position within the USDA and have accepted one of the six "Advisor to the Secretary" spots.  My favorite congressman, Thomas Massie from Kentucky, has agreed to go in as Secretary of Agriculture.

                  He's been the sponsor of the PRIME ACT, which, if pushed through, would be the biggest shot across the bow of the entrenched industrial meat processing system we've seen in a century.  Let liberty ring.  Wouldn't that be a change of fortune for Big Ag? 

                  If RFK Jr. goes in as Sec. of Health and Human Services, everything will be inverted.  Talk about the coolest turn about.  He'd be the boss of the Faucis and Francis Collins--the whole covid anti-science crowd.  Wouldn't that be a change of fortune for Big Pharma?

                  And if Elon Musk goes in as a Government Waste Czar, do you think he could possibly find something?   

                  Here's an interesting tidbit.  All the income taxes in the U.S. are $2 trillion a year.  Government spending and borrowing are so out of control that if we eliminated $2 trillion from the budget, it would only set us back to 2020.  Does anyone think returning to government spending in 2020 would destroy things?  Of course not.  So all we have to do is cut federal spending to 2020 levels and we can eliminate income tax.  Period.  Done.  How would that make you feel?

                  Most people don't know enough history to know that the federal government was to be financed entirely from tariffs and excise taxes.  In fact, as a nation we operated just fine for nearly 150 years without an income tax.  The only president who eliminated the national debt was Andrew Jackson, and he did it by eliminating the second bank of the U.S.  Nearly 100 years later we got the third bank, known as the Federal Reserve, plus the income tax. 

                  During that time, tariffs averaged 40-50 percent.  After the income tax, tariffs dropped to an average of about 7 percent, where they remain today.  If we went back to 40 percent, like we had for nearly 150 years, we would bring production home and free our citizens from impoverishing taxes. 

                  Dear folks, this is a watershed moment to take a creative and serious look at the sacred cows in our nation and fry some serious burgers. We don't know history.  We don't know liberty.  We don't know earthworms or aquifers or immune systems.  I'm hoping this election is an opening to discovery.  Perhaps we could even figure out how to put negative occurrences like jails, pollution, and cancer on the nation's balance sheet, as a liability rather than an asset (Gross Domestic Product--more jails?  wonderful, pour more concrete and make more jobs).  

                  Perhaps we'll eliminate federal involvement in education, from kindergarten to college.  Make every teacher accountable to performance.  Eliminate ALL federal intervention in the food system, in farming, in energy.  The Constitution (read it) doesn't allow for any of this and it's time to examine all of it.  Shut down foreign military bases; bring them all home.  Stop ALL foreign aid, from USAID to military aid.  Sell stuff is fine; giving it isn't. 

                  I think whatever taxes we pay should be able to be designated to certain departments.  That way we the people could support or defund departments directly.  The reason we have K street is because all our freedoms are for sale.  Eliminate government manipulation and the lobbyists all go home.  These are simple things.  Let's do it.

                  What is your first request for the Trump/RFK Jr. agenda?

Joel Salatin

About Joel Salatin

Joel Salatin calls himself a Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer. Others who like him call him the most famous farmer in the world, the high priest of the pasture, and the most eclectic thinker from Virginia since Thomas Jefferson.  Those who don’t like him call him a bio-terrorist, Typhoid Mary, charlatan, and starvation advocate.

With 12 published books and a thriving multi-generational family farm, he draws on a lifetime of food, farming, and fantasy to entertain and inspire audiences around the world.  He’s as comfortable moving cows in a pasture as addressing CEOs at a Wall Street business conference.

Often receiving standing ovations, he prefers the word performance rather than presentation to describe his lectures.  His favorite activity?–Q&A.  “I love the interaction,” he says.

He co-owns, with his family, Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia.  Featured in the New York Times bestseller Omnivore’s Dilemma and award-winning documentary Food Inc., the farm services more than 5,000 families, 50 restaurants, 10 retail outlets, and a farmers’ market with salad bar beef, pigaerator pork, pastured poultry, and forestry products.  When he’s not on the road speaking, he’s at home on the farm, keeping the callouses on his hands and dirt under his fingernails, mentoring young people, inspiring visitors, and promoting local, regenerative food and farming systems.

Salatin is the editor of The Stockman Grass Farmer, granddaddy catalyst for the grass farming movement.  He writes the Pitchfork Pulpit column for Mother Earth News, as well as numerous guest articles for ACRES USA and other publications.  A frequent guest on radio programs and podcasts targeting preppers, homesteaders, and foodies, Salatin’s practical, can-do solutions tied to passionate soliloquies for sustainability offer everyone food for thought and plans for action.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

As the domestic branch of the non-profit development organization, CCRES, our mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty while caring for the earth. 

CCRES research facility Sveti Rok works with small-scale farmers to help transform their farms into resilient, community-focused businesses that support their families and spark economic growth. We do this by providing educational content through our Blog and YouTube channel.

Our blog posts are amazingly and rapidly growing, but the YouTube channel is staggers. Our YouTube channel, the content you’ve come to rely on for insights into supporting smallholder farmers, may not be able to continue much longer.

No, the channel isn’t shutting down right this minute, but without hearing directly from you, we risk not having the ability to demonstrate our impact. Our mission as a non-profit organization is to uplift smallholder farmers, and your voice can help show our supporters the value the YouTube channel brings and help shape the direction of our content! 

How do you Like and Subscribe to our YouTube channel? First, you need to sign up for a YouTube account - for free. Then simply give a 👍 Like for the videos you like and appreciate and tap the Subscribe button below the video to help support the channel growth.

I follow back everyone who follows me. I strongly believe that I can learn something from every single person I come across. So I follow back everyone.

I wanted to personally thank you for subscribing to our YouTube channel. Your interest in our service is truly appreciated. 

Zeljko Serdar, CCRES

Start following your dreams NOW

If you catch yourself daydreaming during the workday, you’re not alone. We all think about following our dreams sometimes. But how do you know if you should actually go for it? 

Now, that’s not a question for everyone because not everyone has a dream. You’ll regret it later. When you’re older, you may ruminate on what could have been. By then, changing courses will be more complicated. You’ll be struggling to make up for the lost time. It isn’t impossible, though, and it’s never too late to follow your dreams. That’s not intended to be a slight or a negative statement, but it is a reality that I learned the hard way. 

What does it feel like to see a dream come true?

It’s no secret that one of my dreams is seeing a country transformed by permaculture. Over the last few years, the vision of transformation has motivated everything I do.

When we first started casting the vision of transformation, I didn’t think it was something I’d see in my lifetime. I believed it so much I told people that on the front end so they would understand that I had big dreams, but I wasn’t completely crazy. You can inspire others. Eventually, young people and even your friends will ask how you made it to where you are. You can encourage them to pursue their own dreams, too.

Over time, as more and more people have joined me in my dream, I’ve come to realize that not only is transformation possible, but I believe I’ll see it before I die. I’ve gone from having a dream to have a belief, and that belief grows stronger every day. There’s no shortage of inspiration out there. Here are some of my favorite quotes about following your dreams.

“The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.” - Oprah Winfrey

“Don’t dream your life, but live your dream.” - Mark Twain

“If you can dream it, you can make it so.” - Belva Davis

“A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.” - Nelson Mandela

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

“Each dream you leave behind is a part of your future that will no longer exist.” - Steve Jobs

Every person who sees a dream come true must first own that dream. They must see it clearly, and chase after it passionately with every strategy, skill, and talent they possess. Dreamers must call others to their dream and pay the price to move forward together with tenacity. 

But most of all, a dreamer must see and desire all the ways their dream will benefit others more than it benefits themselves. You need a lot of courage to build a happy life. We often focus on the reasons not to do something, so we must train ourselves to focus on the positive. Everyone in your life will have an opinion about your dreams. Some will offer valuable advice while others will try to stop you. Only one person’s opinion matters - yours. Keep this in mind as you start following your dreams.

If you need help finding the courage to follow your dreams, reach out for support. Having an objective outsider can help you set clear goals and stay accountable to yourself. Once you have a plan, there’s no telling what you can accomplish.

I’ve seen a lot of dreams come true in my life, but what I’m experiencing now is something different, something deeper, and it’s something I want so many others to experience too. I want everyone to know what it feels like to see a God-sized dream come true because it is amazing in a way I can’t even describe.

To quote my friend, Josip Babich, "I want more for you than I want from you. And I want bigger things for you now more than ever."

Let’s make it happen.

Agroforestry, forest farming, and food forest

The terms agroforestry, forest farming, and food forest get used often in conjunction. Although they sound synonymous, in fact, they are related terms that have distinctly different definitions and practices. In today’s post, we explore these terms.

Agroforestry is the intentional integration of trees and shrubs into crop and animal farming systems to create environmental, economic, and social benefits.” So simply put, agroforestry is using trees and shrubs for some kind of benefit on the farm.

We at CCRES divide agroforestry into five major subsections. These are alley cropping, silvopasture, forest farming, riparian forest buffers, and windbreaks. So forest farming is a distinct subsection of agroforestry. To paraphrase that saying about squares and rectangles, all forest farming is agroforestry, but not all agroforestry is forest farming.

Let’s explore these five subsections.

Alley cropping is a system where trees are planted in rows for some purpose (like fruit, timber, nuts). While the farmer is waiting for those trees to mature, he plants some kind of annual between the rows of trees for short-term (annual) income.

Silvopasture is utilizing trees and livestock on a single piece of land. In general, the trees provide wind, shade, and rain shelter to the livestock. The trees themselves may be grown for timber, fruits, or nuts. The fruits and nuts may be for human or livestock consumption.

Forest farming is what everyone thinks of when the term agroforestry is used. Forest farming uses existing forests to grow food, medicinal or herbal crops with some slight manipulation of the existing forest. A classic example is using the shade of the forest to grow ginseng. Another classic example is growing shiitake mushrooms on logs from the forest under the shade of the forest.

Riparian forest buffers utilize plantings of trees, shrubs, and grasses right next to creeks, streams, and rivers. The two main purposes of riparian forest buffers are to stabilize the banks from erosion and to filter farm nutrient runoff from going into waterways.

Windbreaks are just rows of trees used to slow downwind. That being said, windbreaks have many uses. They can be used to shelter animals or buildings from wind, dust, or odors. They can be used to shelter crops from neighbors’ pesticide drift. In the Lika region, they often function as living snow fences in the winter, where snow piles naturally accumulate.

A food forest is an intentionally planned and grown “forest site.” It uses different heights of trees and shrubs to produce food at different canopy levels to maximize production. Planting is in a non-linear fashion. Food forests also utilize both the near above-ground level, ground level, and below ground level to maximize production. An example in descending height order would be chestnuts and pecans, followed by persimmons, followed by pawpaws, followed by dwarf apples, followed by comfrey (for mulching), followed by berries. Permaculturists from CCRES have been responsible for the increased popularity of food forests in Croatia over the last decade.

Regenerative Agriculture

The theory is simple: Combine trees or woody shrubs and pasture grasses to foster greater livestock yields. Sound too good to be true? In a five-year study of intensive silvopasture in which trees were incorporated with grasses and Leucaena leucocephala, the rate of carbon sequestration was roughly three tons per acre, a high rate for any land use.



Farmers in Croatia will have the opportunity to see first hand a project which seeks to demonstrate the feasibility and profitability of combining trees, forage crops and livestock. Through new plantings and thinning of existing woodlands, CCRES will show three stages in the development of a silvopastoral system. Starting at year 2016, trees were planted o­n an existing mature pasture. Tube shelters protect the trees from animal damage and improve growing conditions. In this silvopastoral system, pasture crops will provide short term income while tree crops of different rotation lengths will yield medium and long term returns. Nitrogen-fixing forage species, pasture fertilization and animal manure all help improve the soil and tree nutrition. Grazing controls competing brushy species and reduces fire hazard. Trees create a sheltered microclimate to protect animals from heat and cold. Shelter also improves forage quality and lengthens its growing season.



One visible effect of including trees in pastures is the shady haven which they provide for livestock o­n hot summer days. The benefits of providing protection from the hot rays of the summer sun are obvious. It easily follows that animals, which are unable to shelter from the direct sun during the heat of the day, will have to expend energy to deal with their discomfort and/or reduce their feeding activity. Their productivity should decline in proportion to the time spent under these unfavorable conditions. Increased livestock production during hot weather is promoted by CCRES as o­ne of the benefits of having trees. However, there is very little published research available to either verify or disprove this widely held belief.



The prunings of some trees can also be used as fodder, e.g. poplar. The result is better livestock growth. Birds can use conifer trees as perches. From the tops of tree rows, they can easily survey the pasture alleys for insects, worms, and other food items.



Careful observation of animals behavior is necessary to detect and correct potential problems with browsing or rubbing of trees.



In summary, our experience is that silvopastures planted in rows are far superior for livestock production than are either grid or cluster plantings. Trees planted in rows with wide open spaces for pasture production between them, support high forage production and facilitate agricultural operations and animal herding. The large amount of edge created and maintained long into the timber rotation tends to maintain high biodiversity. Electric fencing or individual tree guards may be necessary to protect trees if animals are introduced when they are still small. Fencing is also used in rotational grazing methods to better control forage consumption. Throughout the duration of the CCRES project at CCRES Research facility, Zeljko Serdar and others will monitor tree growth, crop and animal yields, fuel use and soil fertility. The practical results of the project will be shared with other farmers, both through o­n-site field days and educational displays at other meetings.

Pathways beyond Sustainability

There are 12 design principles in permaculture. I think they can be applied to daily life, work and play which will allow us to live happier and healthier, to work more effectively and to create a more sustainable world.

Here are the 12 principles:

Observe and interact.

Catch and store energy.

Obtain a yield.

Apply self-regulation and accept feedback.

Use and value renewable resources and services.

Produce no waste.

Design from patterns to details.

Integrate rather than segregate.

Use small and slow solutions.

Use and value diversity.

Use edges and value the marginal.

Creatively use and respond to change.

How can we use these principles to guide our life or our work?

Observe and interact- Let’s slow down and observe and appreciate our surroundings and others. Let’s slow down and interact with others, in real life, not on our phones.

Catch and store energy- Take time to relax to restore balance and energy. Also, for me this means associating myself with those who bring positive energy and it means doing things that bring me joy and make me feel energized like running and learning.

Obtain a yield- In permaculture, this of course might mean planting in such a way that the most food is created. The food is the reward. In life, we can work to obtain an intrinsic or extrinsic reward. These rewards need not be strictly financial. Perhaps the reward is making a difference in your client’s life or making your coworker’s day a little bit easier.

Apply self-regulation and accept feedback- Self-regulation or self-control allows us to be accountable and it empowers us. Feedback helps us improve which will help us excel at work.

Use and value renewable resources and services and produce no waste- These two principles are simply common sense tips to living a eco-friendly lifestyle and in creating a more sustainable world.

Design from patterns to details- Permaculture calls for standing back and observing patterns in nature and in society and then filling in the details; this might make for a more efficient and logical way to work as well.

Integrate rather than segregate and use and value diversity- These principles translate perfectly in how we should all live in harmony with each other by integrating everyone into our communities and valuing diversity.

Use small and slow solutions- Permaculture uses small and slow solutions because they are easier to manage than bigger solutions and they allow for the use of local resources leading to more sustainable outcomes. While this may not always be feasible- sometimes we need big and fast solutions to solve some of society’s greatest problems- this principle can potentially be a valuable tool for problem solving.

Use edges and value the marginal- Permaculture suggests that the interface between things is where the most interesting things take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive parts of the system. This might mean extending a community garden out onto an edge near an unused railway. In life and work, we can try to more effectively use our resources including the edges.

Creatively use and respond to change- This requires no explanation, but in a changing world, it remains an important principle in both life and work. To remain a viable and sustainable business and to live well, we must be resilient and creatively work with change.

Using these principles may allow us to create a better life and a better world by caring for the earth and caring for people.

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=32891948

Biochar

Agronomic values of biochar

The needs to develop more sustainable agriculture systems and improve weak rural economies necessitate major changes in agriculture management. Soil degradation, including decreased fertility and increased erosion, is a major concern in agriculture. Long term cultivation of soils could result in degradation, containing soil acidification, soil organic matter depletion, and severe soil erosion. Furthermore, the decrease in soil organic matter decreases the aggregate stability of soil, therefore, it is crucial to remediate the degradation soils by simple and sustainable methods.

The thermal process that produces biochar is called pyrolysis, pyro, meaning fire and lysis, meaning separation. During pyrolysis, the crucial trace elements found in plants (over 50 metals) become part of the carbon structure, thereby preventing them from being leached out while making them available to plants via root exudates and microbial symbiosis.

A range of organic chemicals are produced during pyrolysis. Some of these remain stuck to the pores and surfaces of the biochar and may have a role in stimulating a plant’s internal immune system, thereby increasing its resistance to pathogens. The effect on plant defense mechanisms was mainly observed when using low temperature biochars.This potential use is, however, only just now being developed and still requires a lot of research effort.

Soil mineral depletion is a major issue due mainly to soil erosion and nutrient leaching. The addition of biochar is a solution because biochar has been shown to improve soil fertility, to promote plant growth, to increase crop yield, and to reduce contaminations. We review here biochar potential to improve soil fertility. The main properties of biochar are the following: high surface area with many functional groups, high nutrient content, and slow-release fertilizer.

Biochar is much too valuable for it to be just added to soil without using it at least once for other beneficial purposes. Basic uses include: drinking water filtration, sanitation of human and kitchen wastes, and as a composting agent. All of these uses have been documented in many different pre-industrial cultures. In the modern world, the uses multiply: adsorber in functional clothing, insulation in the building industry, as carbon electrodes in capacitors for energy storage, food packaging, waste water treatment, air cleaning, silage agent or feed supplement. All those uses could be part of more complex cascades when, after extended up- and down cycling, biochar can be used in a farmer’s manure slurry pit or in a sewage treatment plant, before being composted and thus finally becoming a soil amendment. Biochar should only be worked into the soil at the end of such cascades, keeping in mind that some biochar uses, for cleaning up metal or chemical contamination, would render the biochar unsuitable for agricultural soils and need different recycling pathways.

At present some 40% of the biochar used in Croatia goes into animal farming.

Different to its application to Croatian fields, a farmer will notice its effects within a few days. Whether used in feeding, litter or in slurry treatment, a farmer will quickly notice less smell. Used as a feed supplement, the incidence of diarrhea rapidly decreases, feed intake is improved, allergies disappear, and the animals become calmer. In Germany, researchers conducted a controlled experiment in a dairy that was experiencing a number of common health problems: reduced performance, movement disorder, fertility disorders, inflammation of the urinary bladder, viscous salivas, and diarrhea. Animals were fed different combinations of charcoal, sauerkraut juice or humic acids over periods of 4 to 6 weeks. Experimenters found that oral application of charcoal (from 200 to 400 g/day), sauerkraut juice and humic acids influenced the antibody levels to C. botulinum, indicating reduced gastrointestinal neurotoxin burden. They found that when the feed supplements were ended, antibody levels increased, indicating that regular feeding of charcoal and other supplements had a tonic effect on cow health.

20% of the biochar used in Croatia goes into soil.

The application of biochar into soils has great potential for improving soils fertility and promoting plant growth. The choice of biochar managing various soils is flexible, because diverse biomass materials could be used as feedstocks of biochars and the feedstocks could be pyrolyzed at different temperatures. Moreover, biochar has huge surface area, well-developed pore structure, amounts of exchangeable cations and nutrient elements, and plenty of liming. Because of these properties, soil properties could be improved after biochar treatment. For instance, the huge surface area and well-developed pore structure may increase the water holding capacity and microbial abundance. The cation exchange capacity and availability of nutrients could be increased due to the amounts of exchangeable cations and nutrient elements. The increased pH of soils should be attributed to the plenty of liming contained in biochar. Therefore, improvements of soil physical, chemical, and biological properties promote the productivity of plant through increasing the amount of nutrient elements, enhancing availability of nutrient elements, reducing nutrient leaching, and mitigating gaseous nutrients losses.

These results of characterization analyses, column experiments and some field trials indicated that biochar could be designed or may have the potential to manage specific soil purposefully, through controlling the feedstock and pyrolysis conditions. Biochar can be a novel and feasible fertilizer directly or indirectly. This is not only because of the biochars fertility but also their environmental and economic benefits. Despite the interests of using biochars to manage soils is increasing, some studies are also reported the negative effects and a number of research gaps as well as uncertainties still exist as discussed above in this review. In order to clear these knowledge gaps, further relevant investigations are inevitable in the following research, especially long-term experiments.

References

Schmidt HP, Wilson K:
‘The 55 uses of biochar’

Yang Ding, Yunguo Liu:

‘Biochar to improve soil fertility’

Zeljko Serdar:

‘Agronomic values of biochar’

Aciego Pietry:

‘Relationships between soil pH and microbial properties in a UK arable soil’

Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES)

Solitary bees / Solitarne pčele

Solitary bees / Solitarne pčele

Most people are familiar with honey bees and bumblebees, but look closely and there are smaller furry bees moving from flower to flower. Zeljko Serdar from Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES) gives this concise guide to solitary bees…

There are around 20,000 described bee species worldwide. Most of these bees are known as solitary bees with only 250 bumblebee species, 9 honey bee species and a number of social stingless bees worldwide. In Croatia we have around 270 species of bee, just under 250 of which are solitary bees. These bees can be amazingly effective pollinators and as the name suggests tend not to live in colonies like bumblebees and honey bees.

Solitary bees in Croatia are highly diverse, therefore so are their nesting habits. The majority of species nest in the ground, excavating their own nest. The female builds the nest by herself. She chooses a suitable piece of ground in which to nest and uses her body to dig out a nesting chamber in the ground. She adds pollen to the chamber, which is often moistened with nectar, and lays an egg. She then seals off that section of the nest before moving onto the next chamber. Although most solitary bees nest solitarily, in suitable nest sites you often find aggregations of nests. There are also a number of species in Croatia that nest in the ground but create turrets over their nests, these are often very distinctive.

Da bi voćke imale plod, moraju biti oprašene, a to se kod različitih vrsta voćaka postiže na različite načine. Jezgričave vrste (jabuka i kruška) i neke koštičave vrste same su po sebi neplodne, pa moraju biti oprašene peludom neke druge sorte. Uz pčele, tome mogu pridonijeti i drugi kukci: bumbari, ose, leptiri ili kornjaši.
Najpoznatija je pčela medarica koja živi u košnici. U proljeće izlijeće kada su temperature zraka više od 12*C, aktivna je na 15*C, a najaktivnija na 20*C. Letačice donose nektar, hranu za maticu i podmladak. Opskrbljene rezervom hrane pri nižim temperaturama  od 12*C ne moraju van iz košnice. Njihova brojnost u voćnjaku može se regulirati brojem postavljenih košnica.
Bumbari su također dobri oprašivaći. Postoji veliki broj vrsta: livadski, šumski, planinsko-šumski, vrtni, voćni i drugi. Pojedine vrste bumbara žive u tlu, druge vrste žive iznad površine tla. Imaju krupno tijelo prekriveno dlakama. U proljeće se javljaju pri temperaturi od + 5*C, što je od osobite važnosti za oprašivanje ranih vrsta voćaka. Međutim, u proljeće u vrijeme cvatnje, bumbara je premalo i dok ojačaju svoja legla cvatnja je često već završena. Zato se preporuča postavljanje košnica za bumbare u blizini voćnjaka. Ali mi danas pišemo o jednoj vrsti pčele koja puno radi a malo se o njoj govori, solitarna pčela.

Solitarne pčele vrhunski su oprašivači voćaka. Nalaze se tu oko nas, ali ne primjećujemo ih. Miroljubljive su i ne ubadaju. Važnu ulogu u voćnjaku  imaju i pčele rezačice, koje gnijezda grade od dijelova lista. Svojom leglicom odrežu dio lista točno i precizno, pa ih zovu i pčelama krojačima. Solitarne pčele ne žive u košnicama, ne roje se, nemaju maticu, niti radilice, već sve rade same. Stoga ih zovemo samotarke, zidarice jer svoja gnijezda pregrađuju i zatvaraju blatom.
Zovemo ih i "najboljim pčelama voćnjaka" jer se pojavljuju rano u proljeće kada se mogu vidjeti na tek rascvjetanim pupovima voćaka. Brojnost tih pčela u prirodi ovisi i o broju pogodnih staništa za zasnivanje gnijezda. Solitarne pčele iz roda Osmia zasnivaju svoja gnijezda u šupljinama bambusa ili barske trstike Phragmites australis, kojom su se nekada pokrivali krovovi kuća, u šupljinama starog drveća, u pukotinama i otvorima drvenih, te zidovima neožbukanih kuća. Odrasle jedinke solitarne pčele pojavljuju se u proljeće, najčešće s pojavom prvih cvjetova vrbe i voćaka. U prirodi je izlijetanje odraslih jedinki postupno. Aktivne su tijekom cvatnje voćaka pri temperaturi od 8*C dok ostale vrste još spavaju. Mužjak u proljeće izlazi prvi, sitniji je od ženke, duljine od 7-10 mm, a ženka od 8-16 mm duljine. Mužjak ima dulja ticala od ženke. Glava i grudni dio crni su, a trbušni dio smeđe žut. Tijelo ovih pčela prekriveno je gustim dlakama, pogotovu s trbušne strane. S pomoću tih dlaka solitarna pčela sakuplja pelud po cijelom tijelu i prenosi ga s cvijeta na cvijet, a potom i u gnijezdo, gdje sprema hranu za svoje potomstvo. To se događa od ožujka do konca svibnja, pa i u lipnju. Tijekom 10-12 tjedana života ženke ostave svoje potomstvo i uginu. Kad ženka solitarne pčele iz roda Osmia nađe tunel pogodan za zasnivanje gnijezda, najprije ga očisti, a zatim na dnu tunela napravi pregradu od blata. U odabrani i pripremljeni tunel donosi pelud i nektar te na to položi jaje. Na određenom razmaku ponovno pregradi tunel blatom, te nastavi kompletirati sljedeće ćelije istim redosljedom: pelud, nektar, jaje, pregrada od blata. U pogodnom tunelu solitarna pčela izgradi najčešće 6-8 ćelija, a može izgraditi i do 15, ovisno o dužini tunela. Najpogodniji je tunel dužine 10 do 12 cm, a optimalan je promjer otvora od 8 mm do 10 mm. Na ulazu u tunel ova pčela ostavi 2 cm slobodnog prostora za ulijetanje i izlijetanje i na koncu otvor zatvori debelim čepom od blata. Iz jaja se, u ovisnosti o temperaturi, za nekoliko dana izlegne ličinka. Kad ličinka potroši hranu, prelazi u stadij predkukuljice, a potom izgrađuje svoj svileni kokon. Koncem kolovoza ili tijekom rujna u kokonu se iz stadija kukuljice preobrazi u odraslu pčelu, koja, ovisno o temperaturi, izlijeće van u proljeće idu godine.

Čovjek je narušio biološku ravnotežu, uništava biološku raznolikost, onečistio je okoliš, te utjecao na smanjenje broja ovih korisnih pčela u prirodi. Sve manji broj drvenih kuća, gdje su solitarne pčele nalazile svoje stanište, primjena novih građevinskih materijala uz već spomenuto ugrožavaju opstanak ovih vrsta. Posljednjih godina primjećeni su neki zdravstveni problemi. Jedan dio kokona iz bambusa ili trske se ne izleže i ostane u njoj. Ta cjevčica slijedeće godine ne bude prihvaćena kao stanište u koje će solitarne pčele odlagati jajašca, nego se moraju ukloniti iz prostora kolonije, uzgajališta. Zbog čega se dio kokona ne razvije u zdravog kukca još nam nije poznato. Ovi problemi smanjenja solitarnih pčela mogli bi izazvati veće ekološke i ekonomske poteškoće ukoliko im ne pomognemo. Ta mala i plemenita bića zaslužuju da čovjek i društvo prema njima bude daleko osjetljiviji nego što je danas. Postoji više razloga zašto trebamo čuvati solitarne pčele. Prije svega solitarna pčela leti pri nižim dnevnim temperaturama nego pčela medarica. Učinkovitost pri oprašivanju voćaka jedne ženke solitarne pčele može se usporediti sa učinkovitošću 120 letačica pčele medarice. Za oprašivanje 1 ha komercijalnog nasada jabuke potrebno je 500 ženki solitarne pčele ili 3 košnice pčela medarica s ukupno 60.000 radilica.
Osobita je njezina korist u oprašivanju kruške. Naime, cvijet kruške luči miris amin koji pčela medarica baš i ne voli. Solitarne pčele ne preferiraju određenu vrstu cvijeta, bitno je da je voćka blizu, tako da su pogodnije za oprašivanje nasada kruške. Ne smijemo smetnuti s uma da solitarna pčela, leti uokrug 200 do 250 m od svog gnijezda, kućice. Stoga je za efikasno oprašivanje voćnjaka raspored kućica od velike važnosti. Kućice mogu biti od bambusa  barske trstike Phragmites australis, izbušenih drvenih blokova, siporeks blokova i šupljikave cigle.
U blizini voćnjaka dobro je postaviti natkrivena staništa od drveta, gdje treba postaviti bambus, barsku trstiku, zemlju, pijesak i vodu ili pak gotove kupljene kućice.
Solitarne pčele nisu u nikakvoj konkurenciji sa pčelom medaricom ili pak bumbarima. Dapače, njihovim zajedničkim radom povećat će se broj plodova u voćnjacima. No, ne smijemo zaboraviti da je oprašivanje samo jedan od čimbenika koji utječu na urod naših voćaka.

Solitary bees conclusion:

Vary considerably in size, appearance and where they choose to nest. Roughly 70% are called mining bees and nest in underground burrows. Bees that nest in houses are called cavity nesting bees.
Do not live in colonies, produce honey or have a queen.
Do not produce wax to construct the cells inside the nest instead different species use different materials to construct their cells and nests.
Drink nectar directly from the flower and spend most of their time collecting pollen which is mixed with a small amount of nectar as food for their young.
Are fantastic pollinators: a single red mason bee is equivalent to 120 worker honeybees in the pollination it provides.
Do not have pollen baskets for carrying pollen, meaning that each time they visit a flower they lose far more pollen than social bees, which makes them much better pollinators
Provide each larvae with everything it needs but they do not tend to the young as they grow and never get to see their offspring emerge.
Are non-aggressive and do not swarm.
Safe around children and pets.

Korištena literatura:
Hintermeier, H., Hintermeier, Margit (2002): Kinderzimmer für Mauerbiene und Lehmwespe, Kraut&rüben, 5/02: 34-35.
O'Toole, C. (2000): The Red Mason Bee, Osmia Publications, Oxford.
Ševar, Marija (1999): Pčele samotarke i Osmia cornuta
br. 24: 7-8. , potencijalni oprašivači voćaka, Bilten HZPSS, Osmia rufa
http://www. digilander.libero.it/ vierka/imaggini

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