Counter-intuitive Natural Farming

In 2019, Yan Ping set aside an area of over 50 mu to experiment with ecological planting. This included over 40 mu of Wogan and over 10 mu of Emperor mandarins, with several dozen lychee trees—which had been there since before the lease—standing at the highest point of the orchard. Over the years, Yan Ping has filled the gaps between poorly growing fruit trees with lychee, longan, mango, and yellow skin. She also plants cassava, as well as short-term food crops and vegetables, such as maize, soybeans, sorghum, millet, mung beans, French beans, winter melon, pumpkin, cucumber, tomato, and loofah.

Having lived in the north all my life, I previously had no idea what citrus trees looked like or when they blossomed and bore fruit; it was only after spending a long time in the orchard that I began to get a sense of it. But what exactly is the difference between “ecological planting” and “conventional planting”? It took me some more time of observation to realise how many of Yan Ping’s practices seemed to defy common wisdom.

The first is leaving the fruit on the tree.

In conventional orchards, fruit is usually harvested within a few days to half a month to avoid frost damage, then sold in bulk to traders and kept in cold storage for continuous sale. Yan Ping, however, leaves the ripe fruit on the tree to extend both the harvesting and selling periods. Emperor mandarins can remain on the tree from November until January of the following year, while Wogan lasts from December through to the end of April or even May.

Unlike conventional orchards that harvest everything in one go, Yan Ping first picks the fruit from the treetops and those that are most ripe, harvesting in successive rounds; a single tree undergoes multiple pickings.

Leaving the fruit on the tree is partly due to the inherent nature of Emperor and Wogan mandarins—which are durable and slow to rot—but it is also a deliberate choice made by Yan Ping. She believes this allows people to enjoy fresh fruit over a longer period rather than fruit that has been treated and kept in cold storage, and enables them to taste the evolving flavours of the fruit at different times.

When we arrived at the orchard in late March, the Emperor mandarins had long been harvested and sold. Fortunately, Wogan were still in their peak season; until the end of April, we were able to eat Wogan picked fresh from the tree every day.

Every sales season, Yan Ping employs locals to help. Initially, these workers were unfamiliar with ecological planting and sales methods. It took a long period of working together to develop a mutual understanding and a shared rhythm, ensuring that damage to the fruit and the trees was kept to an absolute minimum.

Although leaving the fruit on the tree increases the amount of labour required, it ensures a higher quality of fruit. Generally, the last to be picked are the fruits at the very bottom, with their branches hidden in the undergrowth. The weeds in the orchard provide a relatively constant temperature and humidity for these lower fruits, meaning the final harvest tastes absolutely perfect.

Leaving fruit on the trees is also tied to Yan Ping’s approach to sales. She has developed a relatively stable set of distribution channels: some through eco-produce platforms, others via personal recommendations from fellow eco-farmers, and the remainder through loyal customers who have come to trust her ecological produce through online and offline channels over the years. As the volume of sales through these channels is steady but modest, orders are shipped directly from the orchard to the consumer.

This steady demand prevents labour from becoming overwhelmed, allowing the orchard to manage the workflow—harvesting, sorting, boxing, packing, labelling, and transport to the courier—at its own pace. Generally, produce is harvested and dispatched on the same day, or picked in the afternoon for next-day delivery, eliminating concerns about spoilage from prolonged storage. Should there be consecutive days of rain, buyers are notified that harvesting and shipping will be delayed.

II. Counter-intuitive Farming Practice: Leaving the Grass

The second intriguing concept is ‘leaving the grass’ — maintaining as much ground cover as possible, provided it does not hinder the growth of the fruit trees.

When I first arrived, I was bewildered to find the orchard overgrown with all sorts of weeds, some reaching my waist or even higher. Since childhood, I had been taught by my parents’ generation that weeding was essential, as weeds would compete with the crops for nutrients. The chore I spent most of my childhood doing was weeding; I would pull them out by the root and carry them away from the field to stop them from springing back to life after the rain.

While harvesting the fruit, I discovered the benefit of leaving the grass: it creates a micro-environment with stable temperature and humidity. Furthermore, during prolonged dry spells, the soil in the grass-covered orchard remains far moister than bare soil. But do the weeds actually compete with the crops for nutrients? If looking purely at nutrient absorption, I suspect they do; however, from a soil health perspective, the benefits of leaving the grass likely outweigh the impact of nutrient competition.

I later found theoretical backing for this while reading *Agricultural Soil Science* by soil scientist Hou Guangjiong. Hou argues that soil is a quasi-biological entity with a metabolism similar to that of living organisms. Essentially, soil is an organic-inorganic-microbial-enzymatic complex colloid capable of producing wonderful physiological functions, rather than a simple mixture of mineral sand and silt, or merely a carrier for nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Soil possesses two vital physiological functions: permeability and re-wetting capacity, and physiological coordination with plants, both of which are heavily influenced by the climate.

Put simply, maintaining ground cover creates a relatively stable microclimate of moisture, heat, and air around the fruit trees to a depth of about one metre. This microclimate significantly impacts the soil’s permeability and re-wetting capacity. During droughts, it ensures the soil retains a good re-wetting function, allowing root systems to draw moisture and nutrients from deeper layers. During rainy weather, it helps water penetrate the soil more effectively, preventing surface runoff from washing away the soil and causing nutrient loss.

However, leaving the grass does not mean allowing it to grow unchecked; rather, it involves controlling its growth and height at the appropriate times. This requires careful consideration of the timing, taking into account the growth cycle of the fruit trees or crops. For instance, mowing is not advisable when fruit trees are sprouting new shoots and leaves; at this stage, the grass can sustain pests and diseases, reducing their impact on the crops or trees. If the grass is cut, these pests may migrate to the trees to feed on the tender leaves and buds.

There are many ways to control the grass, primarily through trampling and cutting with sickles. When planting crops, a mower is used to clear a strip of ground for sowing, ensuring the crops can germinate successfully.

Another role of the grass is to create a micro-environment conducive to the microbial decomposition of organic matter—a phenomenon Yan Ping urged us to observe during the fruit-picking season. Fruit that cannot be sold is usually thrown directly under the tree, a method of ‘returning nutrients’ to the soil. When fruit is left beneath the tree, a layer of white fuzz appears after a few days; this fuzz is actually beneficial microorganisms. Over time, the fruit ferments and decays until it is absorbed back into the earth.

A clear observation was that when we weeded after the picking season ended in early May, it had already become very difficult to find any fruit left under the trees to eat.

III. Counter-intuitive Farming Method Three: Composting

Creating compost and ferments to improve soil quality, control pests and diseases, and enhance the flavour of crops is a common practice championed by the ecological farming community.

In her first few years, Yan Ping did a great deal of this work. Even now, large barrels of ferments and composting sites remain on the higher ground of the orchard; while the composting sites are still in use, her enthusiasm for these methods has waned in recent years. She believes that when labour and material costs are factored in, centralised composting is not cheap. In contrast, decentralised composting is often a superior choice—such as returning unsellable fruit directly to the soil as fertiliser or using grass clippings for on-site mulching.

Yan Ping’s vision is to turn the entire orchard into a “living compost site”. My understanding of this is twofold: first, leave the grass to grow; second, cultivate a healthy ecosystem that allows soil microbes and various small creatures to participate in the continuous decomposition and fermentation of organic matter.

These three counter-intuitive farming methods have completely challenged my perceptions. Working in the orchard every day, I have realised that while the natural, ecological, and organic pastoral scenery is undeniably beautiful, it requires an immense amount of effort. Maintaining these natural farming methods involves a great deal of unseen, “invisible labour”.

In the second part of my “Hundred-Fruit Orchard Internship Diary”, to be published next week, I will explain exactly what these invisible costs are.

Foodthink Author

Da Wang

An intern in the second phase of Foodthink’s Lianhe Project, Da Wang dreams of working and living on the land, and is still searching for the soil where their seeds can truly take root.