When the white potato dearth reach Ireland in the 1800s , it left three million people stagnant .
Three million . Because they were trust on one crop .
Are you doing the same ? Let ’s take a few minute and regard the“what ifs ” of a full collapse … then see if we can beat them with alittle planning .
What If We Get Some Serious Climate Change?
the great unwashed have been disturbed about the climate for years . Whether youfeel we ’re shivering into a new frosting age or sudate our way towardsglobal warming , the clime is a quicksilver thing . It ’s changed before – many sentence – get behind extinctions , shattered empires and starvation inits wake .
How can you flap something so large ?
With works diversity .
Annuals are n’t the biggest trouble in a climate variety scenario . certainly , you might get shorter summers that pass over out your Zea mays … or rainfallthat threaten to overpower your squash with mold … but it ’s the treesthat really suffer in a big shift . you could change annual crops as neededbut an orchard is a long - condition commitment .
dissimilar yield and nut species have specific requirements . Somedon’t like too much cold … others need lots of low temperature or they wo n’t bloomat the ripe time .
The wise nurseryman should plan ahead by planting a wide orbit ofvarieties in his garden . Just changing up your cultivars of one fruitcan make a big deviation .
Let ’s look at lulu . As an extreme representative , “ Belle of Georgia ” needs 850 chill hours(1 ) to bloom ; “ Tropic Beauty ” need only 150.(2 )
If you get a mild winter … your “ Belle of Georgia ” will almostassuredly conk out to bloom in spring … and may not even wake up untilsummer . If you get a long winter , your Tropic Beauty is likely to bloomearly and fall behind all its efflorescence to frost .
disperse your thrill hourrequirements that far apart probably is n’t necessary … but I grow treeshere that have a range of about 150 – 500 so I can get yield regularly .
My Tropic Beauty apricot now has peaches on it … but my Flordaking ( a 400chill - time of day stunner ) has nary a bud .
Look at your USDA growing zone and plant yield and freak tree diagram andvarieties that mature further to the south and further north . Then you ’ve catch acushion .
I ’m growing pears , oranges , papaia , chestnut tree and even sweet cherriesnow . Some of these are n’t even close to being “ proper ” for my growingzone … but every twelvemonth , as the mood swing back and away , differentplants that boom and produce .
What If We Get A Serious Pest Or Disease?
If the Irish had balanced out their trust on potatoes bymaintaining another basic , there would be more redhead in the worldright now ( which would be a very beneficial thing . ) Unfortunately , theirclimate and relative poorness gave them very few choice , the onlyalternative being small grains with relatively low yield compare topotatoes .
What was want was more diverseness among white potato . portion andlots of varieties would have helped keep the blight from take ashard as it did .
I never plant one type of potato . In fact , three isusually my lower limit .
Again , you do n’t know what will happen from yr to year . The sure - fire crop for 2013 could be a bust in 2014 .
Here ’s another object lesson : for class , avocadoes have been an easy tree togrow in South Florida . Now , however , a wood - slow mallet has arrivedcarrying a fungus that can whole destroy an avocado pear tree – almostovernight . I ’ve seen lovely trees that had all their above - ground growthknocked off by this disease of the laurel family .
If you ’re a farmer inHomestead consider on having an orchard of avocados to feed in you in yourold age and wreak in some income … you may now be up guacamole creekwithout a corn whisky chip .
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