Parades in Crestall for your orchard: what they are and how to make them

Good afternoon everyone! How did you start the month of September? I hope you are having a good time and that you are satisfied with what you have harvested this month. In my case, we have had a good tomato harvest and I am putting into practice the recommendations that I gave you at the time in the article 3 THINGS TO DO WITH RIPE TOMATOES FROM THE GARDEN. How good is the garden! After collecting, we are already thinking about what to do with what has been collected and we start planning next year’s orchard based on the results we have had. For this reason, today I want to present you with a method that you may want to take into account next season: PARADES EN CRESTALL.

What are the Parades in Crestall?

We start:

Gaspar Caballero de Segovia Sánchez is the name of the creator of this method. It is curious since this musician born in 1946 in Palma de Mallorca, began to have his first contacts with organic farming in 1978 for health reasons. In 1980, he settled in the Majorcan municipality of Costitx on his farm in «Sa Feixeta» and began to experiment with a new ecological method. The positive results he obtained led in 1991 to make a public exhibition during a course organized by the Unió de Pagesos de Mallorca.

From here, Gaspar Caballero began to spread his knowledge throughout Mallorca and took several courses in different Mallorcan schools. Later, he participated in different horticultural conferences in Spain, England and Cuba.

It is also important to say that he is the co-founder and president of the Organic Agriculture Group (GAE) and the Association for the Promotion of Organic Agriculture (AFAE)

Well guys, after introducing you to Gaspar, let’s see what philosophy he spreads and what the method he developed is like.

As we can think, organic farming is the basis on which he has worked. We have to think that man has always been linked to the field and as he says on his website About him:

Horticulture is a sacred and elementary practice to understand life as such and our existence on earth

This, as you well know, respect for this sacred good in many cases has not been adequate due to a capitalist market in which the demand for conventional crops has been prioritized and seasonal crops have been forgotten. Here, as you know, is where organic farming is making so much difference in recent years.

The method of Parades in Crestall

This reasoning (we imagine that among others) gave Gaspar the push to return to his origins and recover lost values ​​with the land. The method that he promulgates is based on simplicity, logic, the rational use of land and water, the rejection of any kind of phytosanitary product, not even those allowed in the rules of organic farming.

The parades method in Crestall has six fundamental points that are:

1. Stops at Crestall; it has two parts. The » Stop « which is a rectangle of land 1.5 meters wide and its length can vary depending on what you have, although 3 meters is recommended and not exceed 6 meters. In « Crestall « it means that the «Fems de bassa» is placed on top of the Stop. Fems de bassa is a Majorcan word that refers to compost and the place where it is usually made on the island. It must be a controlled compost.
2. Don’t step on; For this, passageways are made around the walls from where we can access.
3. Fems de bassa;As we have explained before, it is the compost that we must control for its use. Remembering that a compost that is not controlled is a putrefaction that will dry up will not help us at all.
4. Planting;space is optimized to the maximum and we will only leave space for what the plant needs for its development. This visually is a quick difference when compared to other methods.
5. Irrigation;irrigation using this method is exuding irrigation. What is an exuding irrigation? It is a type of irrigation in which a hose of a porous textile fiber is used to «sweat» the water. Compared to localized irrigation, we will obtain greater humidity.
6. Crop rotation;as we know it. In this way we will avoid diseases and pests that could appear if we successively plant the same type of plant every year. I leave you here an article that Lucia wrote at the time where you will find more information about it PLANNING THE GARDEN: CROP ROTATION

Walls in Crestall in the orchard

I would like to give you a little more detail about the creation of the Parades in Crestall, since all the measures have their logic. The 1.5 cm width is due to the fact that the space is going to be divided into three corridors: two of 60 cm will be the areas to be cultivated and the other 30 cm will be an interior passageway. The central step (30 cm) is covered with tiles to avoid stepping on the ground and to avoid compacting the cultivation area.

The 60 cm crop is also thought of because it is a measure from which we can easily access the crop. The compost is placed on the stop but without mixing it.To give you an idea, it is like what happens when a tree loses its leaves and falls to the ground. For this also, the irrigation system that it uses, with the exudate we achieve greater humidity and a passage of the organic material from the compost to the ground due to the fall of the water.

You can do this method in a pot too, in this photograph you will find how to do it:

I leave you a video where you will find more information.

Well agrohuerters, I hope you have found it interesting and see you in future articles.

Good luck in the harvest!