October 17, 2025 — Finca Alazan Updates group
”You remind me of the importance of translating. Not only for the Spanish speakers among us but for those trying to learn Spanish.
I mentioned the North South trajectory and spacing of our tree rows for maximum solar penetration into the system. I also talked about how species of plants have a preferred stratum, or exposure level, in a system.
Equally important is the notion of ecosystem succession.
In Syntropic systems, the farmer trades on the fertility cascade that happens as ecosystems succeed from disturbance, to grassland, to Savannah, to climax forest. This is the natural progression that happens in ecosystems after a disturbance.
Some species are early colonizers and grow and produce quickly. Examples would be annual grains like Corn or Barley or annual vegetables and fruits like squash, melons, beans.
At the other end of the time spectrum are climax forest trees, shrubs such as coconut, mango, Cacao, coffee. Slow to mature and long lived.
Species of plants have evolved to fill every space in that time continuum from fastest colonizer to most long lived climax tree.
In Syntropic systems, a farmer may start all of these elements at the same time. Not only does this provide a yield early on for the farmer to harvest (corn and beans) but, more importantly, the early plants are preparing the way and providing a nurturing environment for the species that will follow.
Fast growing banana trees will act as a ‘placenta’ for the embryonic cacao seedlings that are growing next to them by providing desirable shade and by bringing fertility and biodiversity to the soil.
In Syntropic literature and discourse, plants are often referred to relative to their place in time in the succession of the system. The shortlived, fast growing and producing plants (1-3 years) fall into the Placenta 1 and 2 categories. Plants in the middle (papaya, banana, guava - 3-15 years) fall into the Secondary category. The longest living trees and shrubs fall into the Climax category (12-200+ years).
The vision for our Phase 2 garden beds is that in 15-20 years the rows will be anchored with established productive climax species like coco, citrus, mango, avocado, cacao, coffee, vanilla, black pepper, etc., all arranged in space to receive maximum and optimal sun exposure. In the mean time we will have the opportunity to harvest barley, amaranth, beans, bananas, plantains, papayas, piñas, and everything that matures as the climax system is becoming productive.”