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Multi-story Cropping Vertical farming

Multi-story cropping

The manipulation of plant species, composition, structure, and canopy cover to achieve or maintain a desired plant community to facilitate the sustainable management of multiple crops on multiple levels.

Design

Key Design Considerations: ◦ Select plants that provide multiple benefits.

◦ Use plants that provide short and long-term products.

◦ Avoid plants that compete for same resources.

◦ Utilize the different canopy layers to increase options.

Products

Multi-Story Cropping can include a wide variety and types of plants and products ◦ Medicinals

◦ Food

◦ Ornamentals

◦ Wildlife habitat

◦ Fuelwood

◦ Fence posts

◦ Fodder

◦ Green fertilizer

Example

Chagga people - Mt Kilimanjaro. Home gardens are highly integrated, multistory collections of overstory forest trees valued for timber, an intermediate layer of small trees including coffee and banana, and a diverse array of understory herbs and vines used for food and medicine.

Questions?

Test time

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