"Shade is supposed to be the enemy of a farm.
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"Shade is supposed to be the enemy of a farm. Crops chase sunlight, so roofing a field with panels ought to starve them. Yet plot after plot came in with more fruit, not less, and the plants looked healthier than the ones baking in the open. Stranger still, the shaded rows did it while drinking far less water. (...) Chiltepin pepper plants produced three times as much fruit as those grown in full sun. Jalapenos matched their usual harvest while using 65 percent less water. Tomatoes grown under the array came in at twice the normal yield."
Good luck achieving that with a nuclear reactor.
https://energiesmedia.com/solar-panels-farmland-crops-agrivoltaics/
As with sugar or salt, one can have too much sun, especially as the Climate Crisis changes weather patterns and average amounts of daily sunlight.
Solar panels generate energy and shade, both of which can be good things, if used correctly.
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@antanicus This reminds me a bit of fruit walls, the technique that northern Europeans used in the 17th century to create teeny microclimates for a specific crop: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/fruit-walls-urban-farming-in-the-1600s/
I first learned about those at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden; they have examples of that espalier pruning technique in their collection.
The Romans, very early on would practice multi crop agriculture where a family could sustain itself on fairly small amount of land. I think it was under a hectare. Like a small percentage of a hectare. As the plow was introduced in farms became larger to produce a cash crop A family eventually began to need multiple hectares to sustain themselves
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@antanicus This reminds me a bit of fruit walls, the technique that northern Europeans used in the 17th century to create teeny microclimates for a specific crop: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/fruit-walls-urban-farming-in-the-1600s/
I first learned about those at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden; they have examples of that espalier pruning technique in their collection.
The fruit walls are also a counter example, since they needed all the light they could gather to sweeten the fruit. Microclimates differ in all sorts of ways.
I’m worried about the long term effect of techno trash being broken in fields and not quite picked up and driven over etc etc etc. It’s f’n hard enough to clean up old farms full of rusty iron and tilled in ag plastic and those are relatively inert.
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F folfdk@helvede.net shared this topic
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This doesn’t seem to be mystery meat. Direct sunlight require plants to cool themselves by evaporating moisture.
It’s almost like plants do better with partial shade. You know like tree cover things like that a mixed environment with other plants whose roots are in the soil that diversify the soil biome creating more fertile environment, that recycles nutrients and water.
@GhostOnTheHalfShell @antanicus It depends on the climate and the plant, of course. It works best where it's sunny and dry, because the solar panels stop half the sunlight but let all the rain through.
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@antanicus the article reprints an article that reprints an article that refers to a small-scale but promising study from 2019 - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335583033_Agrivoltaics_provide_mutual_benefits_across_the_food-energy-water_nexus_in_drylands
The area of the each test site was 9x18 meters, and the study seemingly was running only for a year or two. I am not sure if the results are as readily replicable as the articles claim. However, the point of the research was the plants that are adapted to shade - like cherry tomatoes and jalapenos - so it is not that surprising they'd thrive in such conditions, and humanity definitely should experiment MUCH more with stuff like this.
@nina_kali_nina @antanicus
Fraunhofer Institute, those who invented and spread the mp3 codec, research a lot in Agrisolar -
"Shade is supposed to be the enemy of a farm. Crops chase sunlight, so roofing a field with panels ought to starve them. Yet plot after plot came in with more fruit, not less, and the plants looked healthier than the ones baking in the open. Stranger still, the shaded rows did it while drinking far less water. (...) Chiltepin pepper plants produced three times as much fruit as those grown in full sun. Jalapenos matched their usual harvest while using 65 percent less water. Tomatoes grown under the array came in at twice the normal yield."
Good luck achieving that with a nuclear reactor.
https://energiesmedia.com/solar-panels-farmland-crops-agrivoltaics/
@antanicus No one could have foreseen that! Why doesn’t Trump just issue a decree to change the laws of nature?
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"Shade is supposed to be the enemy of a farm. Crops chase sunlight, so roofing a field with panels ought to starve them. Yet plot after plot came in with more fruit, not less, and the plants looked healthier than the ones baking in the open. Stranger still, the shaded rows did it while drinking far less water. (...) Chiltepin pepper plants produced three times as much fruit as those grown in full sun. Jalapenos matched their usual harvest while using 65 percent less water. Tomatoes grown under the array came in at twice the normal yield."
Good luck achieving that with a nuclear reactor.
https://energiesmedia.com/solar-panels-farmland-crops-agrivoltaics/
Pilot projects in Southern Germany have shown similar effects with apple orchards. It has become too hot and sunny for the types of apples traditionally grown in the region.
Another topic for growing apples is hail, which can destroy the fruits. Solar panels also provide protection against hail. (Well, until the hailstorms get so desastrous that they also kill solar panels, okay.)
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@antanicus This reminds me a bit of fruit walls, the technique that northern Europeans used in the 17th century to create teeny microclimates for a specific crop: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/fruit-walls-urban-farming-in-the-1600s/
I first learned about those at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden; they have examples of that espalier pruning technique in their collection.
@amanda @antanicus Fruit walls are still used extensively today and taught in horticultural colleges, in England at least and elsewhere I would have thought.
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@antanicus
Ach? Warum bauen Landwirte wohl Folientunnel?@Boerps Weil es z.B. in Norddeutschland für viele Pflanzen draußen einfach zu kalt und zu nass ist. Da nimmt man dann auch in Kauf, dass die Lichttransmission von Plastikfolien etwas geringer ist als die von Glas, weil Plastik so viel billiger ist.
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@Boerps Weil es z.B. in Norddeutschland für viele Pflanzen draußen einfach zu kalt und zu nass ist. Da nimmt man dann auch in Kauf, dass die Lichttransmission von Plastikfolien etwas geringer ist als die von Glas, weil Plastik so viel billiger ist.
@feinschmeckergarten @antanicus
Auch. Aber auch zum Beschatten. Und da kann man auch gut Solarzellen nehmen. Drunter ist die Belüftung sogar noch besser. -
@feinschmeckergarten @antanicus
Auch. Aber auch zum Beschatten. Und da kann man auch gut Solarzellen nehmen. Drunter ist die Belüftung sogar noch besser.@Boerps
Das gibt Schattennetze für Folientunnel und in Zukunft werden die bestimmt auch wichtiger. Meine Tunnel sind diesen Sommer teilweise auch überheizt.
Aber Phoenix/Arizona hat ziemlich genau die doppelte Globalstrahlung wie Berlin. Es kommt also von der Sonne doppelt so viel Energie pro Quadratmeter an.
Wie einige Vortrötende geschrieben haben, es kommt völlig auf das örtliche Klima an, ob man mehr oder weniger Licht braucht.
@antanicus -
@Boerps
Das gibt Schattennetze für Folientunnel und in Zukunft werden die bestimmt auch wichtiger. Meine Tunnel sind diesen Sommer teilweise auch überheizt.
Aber Phoenix/Arizona hat ziemlich genau die doppelte Globalstrahlung wie Berlin. Es kommt also von der Sonne doppelt so viel Energie pro Quadratmeter an.
Wie einige Vortrötende geschrieben haben, es kommt völlig auf das örtliche Klima an, ob man mehr oder weniger Licht braucht.
@antanicus@feinschmeckergarten @antanicus
In diesem Newsartikel war man sehr verwundert, dass unter Solarzellen etwas wächst. Warum nicht. IMHO benutzen Hopfenbauern in Bayern Solarzellen auch als Schattierung. Und Hopfen ist keine kleine Pflanze.Offensichtlich ist diese Technik noch nicht sehr verbreitet.
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"Shade is supposed to be the enemy of a farm. Crops chase sunlight, so roofing a field with panels ought to starve them. Yet plot after plot came in with more fruit, not less, and the plants looked healthier than the ones baking in the open. Stranger still, the shaded rows did it while drinking far less water. (...) Chiltepin pepper plants produced three times as much fruit as those grown in full sun. Jalapenos matched their usual harvest while using 65 percent less water. Tomatoes grown under the array came in at twice the normal yield."
Good luck achieving that with a nuclear reactor.
https://energiesmedia.com/solar-panels-farmland-crops-agrivoltaics/
@antanicus I could do that with a nuclear reactor, a random number generator, and a bunch of wooden boards, though.
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Pilot projects in Southern Germany have shown similar effects with apple orchards. It has become too hot and sunny for the types of apples traditionally grown in the region.
Another topic for growing apples is hail, which can destroy the fruits. Solar panels also provide protection against hail. (Well, until the hailstorms get so desastrous that they also kill solar panels, okay.)
@nielso @antanicus Do you happen to have a few links handy? I had this topic with someone around the bodensee
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"Shade is supposed to be the enemy of a farm. Crops chase sunlight, so roofing a field with panels ought to starve them. Yet plot after plot came in with more fruit, not less, and the plants looked healthier than the ones baking in the open. Stranger still, the shaded rows did it while drinking far less water. (...) Chiltepin pepper plants produced three times as much fruit as those grown in full sun. Jalapenos matched their usual harvest while using 65 percent less water. Tomatoes grown under the array came in at twice the normal yield."
Good luck achieving that with a nuclear reactor.
https://energiesmedia.com/solar-panels-farmland-crops-agrivoltaics/
@antanicus @paulschoe farmers did not know?
It is just the science about plants that has shown that for a long time. Well known scientific facts.
(I will stop here..
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@antanicus No one could have foreseen that! Why doesn’t Trump just issue a decree to change the laws of nature?
Next on his list: remove all solarpanels.
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@nielso @antanicus Do you happen to have a few links handy? I had this topic with someone around the bodensee
@schnitzer @nielso @antanicus Links would be much appreciated, this may be relevant for our farm as well in the future. Wait, I noticed one or two links when I scroll all the way down.
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@antanicus This reminds me a bit of fruit walls, the technique that northern Europeans used in the 17th century to create teeny microclimates for a specific crop: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/12/fruit-walls-urban-farming-in-the-1600s/
I first learned about those at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden; they have examples of that espalier pruning technique in their collection.
They still exist in various ways with differences in different countries.
Crinkle crankle wall - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crinkle_crankle_wallPics: slangenmuur at DuckDuckGo (Dutch)
https://noai.duckduckgo.com/?q=slangenmuur&l=nl-nl&rpl=1&ia=images&iax=imagesCrinkle crankle wall at DuckDuckGo (English)
https://noai.duckduckgo.com/?q=Crinkle+crankle+wall&l=nl-nl&rpl=1&ia=images&iax=images -
"Shade is supposed to be the enemy of a farm. Crops chase sunlight, so roofing a field with panels ought to starve them. Yet plot after plot came in with more fruit, not less, and the plants looked healthier than the ones baking in the open. Stranger still, the shaded rows did it while drinking far less water. (...) Chiltepin pepper plants produced three times as much fruit as those grown in full sun. Jalapenos matched their usual harvest while using 65 percent less water. Tomatoes grown under the array came in at twice the normal yield."
Good luck achieving that with a nuclear reactor.
https://energiesmedia.com/solar-panels-farmland-crops-agrivoltaics/
@antanicus Agrivoltaics is a rare win-win: solar panels cut thermal stress and evaporation while generating clean power. Doubling crop yields on 65% less water completely shatters the "food vs. energy" soil conflict. Decentralized, multi-use infrastructure beats single-purpose energy plants every time.
#Agrivoltaics #Renewables -
"Shade is supposed to be the enemy of a farm. Crops chase sunlight, so roofing a field with panels ought to starve them. Yet plot after plot came in with more fruit, not less, and the plants looked healthier than the ones baking in the open. Stranger still, the shaded rows did it while drinking far less water. (...) Chiltepin pepper plants produced three times as much fruit as those grown in full sun. Jalapenos matched their usual harvest while using 65 percent less water. Tomatoes grown under the array came in at twice the normal yield."
Good luck achieving that with a nuclear reactor.
https://energiesmedia.com/solar-panels-farmland-crops-agrivoltaics/
“Shade is supposed to be the enemy of a farm”
I thought that the fact that some plants thrive in the sunlight and some thrive in the shade was pretty much obviously known
And that at least farmers would know that which plants are which depend both on the plant and the location / climate where you're trying to grow them
And that the non obvious bit that requires nontrivial experiments is actually finding out which ones are which in the various places in a changing climate
