Agroforestry för svenska förhållanden 2024 - Flipbook - Page 38
LUNDENS FARM, GÄRDHEM
Lunden’s farm of about 270 hectares is run by the
Lunneryd family. They produce wheat, spelt and
several landraces such as emmer, einkorn, Ölandsvete
and Dala lantvete, as well as their own variety called
Lundenvete. They also grow oats, field beans, timothy
seed crops, clover seed crops, yellow peas and sometimes some barley and rapeseed. Apples are grown
as an alley crop.
More strings on the lyre with a diversified system
Anders spent a long time thinking about how trees
could be used in the field to diversify production and
thus increase agricultural resilience - something he
believes will become increasingly important for farm
began with 20 metres between the rows of trees,
grown on 4 metre wide refuges (2 metres on each
side of the trees rows), which gave 2 x 8 metre wide
strips for their rotational crops. A distance that is
adapted to the farm’s 8 metre wide seed drill.
The trees
In 2020, the alley cropping system was established
with about 40 varieties of apple on a cereal field of
about 14 hectares. With a soil drill, holes of 60-70
cm were made where the trees would be planted. The
holes were filled with topsoil, compost and pelleted
manure. The apple varieties were chosen to cover
different flowering and ripening times. This was done
partly to find out which varieties are best suited to the
farm and also to increase the chances of harvest in
years with more uncertain weather conditions.
The roots of the trees seek
and find water at levels the
annual crops cannot reach.
Photo / Photo: Anders Lunneryd.
income in a changing climate. Introducing a different
biology, with trees that photosynthesise even after the
cereals have ripened and that can serve as habitats for
birds and insects, was also a desired step away from
what Anders calls “green deserts”, large areas with
low crop diversity, which is common in today’s agricultural landscape. In contact with the British agroforestry pioneer Stephen Briggs (link), Anders realised
how perennial plants can be grown together with
annuals. “Apples seemed like the most obvious crop
to start with,” says Anders. Apples are well suited to
the farm’s climate, and that was also what Briggs had
in his system. With Briggs’ system as inspiration and
guidance, the planning of an alley cropping system
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Photo / Photo: Lunde
Most varieties have done well. Pests such as colding
moths and aphids are treated with products approved
for organic farming. 2023 was the fourth autumn for
the apple crop and so far the ground under the trees
is kept clear of vegetation to prevent voles from thriving. When the trees have become more settled, other
vegetation will be planted underneath, although it has
not yet been decided what. So far, the trees have
been watered every year to get a good start. “The
spring of 2023 was very hot and dry and the trees
were stressed. They got aphids and codling moths, so
it felt right to give each one 75 litres of water”, says
Anders. Once the trees are properly established, they
can cope on their own to a greater extent. One lesson
