Talk:Polyculture/Archive 1

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 5 September 2018 and 10 December 2018. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Pandabha.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 02:31, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): S.pat16.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 06:54, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Is the Bible against Polyculture?
I remember from that West Wing episode that the Bible is against "planting different crops side by side". Does that mean the Bible is against polyculture? I think the relevant chapter and verse is Lev 19:19. --212.139.197.137 12:40, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Polyculture doesn't necessarily mean planting different things in the same row. It just means some mixture of different crops, however you want to plant them. Steven Walling  05:40, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

Monoculture more ecological than polyculture
Perhaps it can be mentioned that polyculture is more bad to the environment in the way that it requires the soil to be conditionized for all crops. Making the soil more suitable for a single crop (thus not fertilizing with all the types of nutrients and making the pH neutral) keeps weed out as more weeds are capable on growing on too rich and/or basic soils.

Having the soil suitable to 1 crop (eg making the soil very acid still allows and even benefits growing of blueberrry but reduces weed growth) Eventually, the soil can be used intermittently to allow the soil to recover after a few years

Include section and info in article —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.182.175.118 (talk) 15:51, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Naturalization and breeding
I have no sources to back this up as yet, but I think generations of polyculture naturalizes each species to each other. Some results may be a greater variety of soil organisms and a tendency toward specialization of species physiology. Just a thought 74.195.26.164 (talk) 18:56, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Au contraire! Monoculture especially over thousands of acres makes the crops susceptible to insect infestation which requires farmers to use huge volumes of insecticides generated from foreign oil, which is running out [our world oil peak was in 2005 and the world is on the downward side of the curve.] A huge dead zone is growing in the gulf of Mexico from these pesticides and fertilizers. Polyculture us a natural way of controlling insects with much less insecticide needs. Monoculture requires huge numbers of fertilizers also dependent on foreign oil. Polyculture with intelligent crop rotation reduces the fertilizer needs and produces higher yields. Our fiends in South Asia know a lot about this because necessity is the mother of invention. Polyculture is the answer for protecting the environment, reducing pest infestation and reducing foreign oil dependence. Rrrrprrrr (talk) 09:34, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

Synonymous with Intercropping?
The introduction to the article says that polyculture is also known as intercropping, and links to the article on intercropping. If the two terms are fully interchangeable, it seems like the articles should be merged, and if they are not, then the current wording is incorrect. I don't know enough on the subject to say whether there's any utility in keeping two separate articles, but either way there seems to be a problem. Can anyone with more relevant knowledge say whether a general distinction exists between polyculture and intercropping? Ambisinistral (talk) 12:43, 19 June 2022 (UTC)


 * Thanks for pointing out the error in the lead. In the body of the article, intercropping is identified as one form of annual polyculture (section 2.1), and is covered in section 2.1.1. Chiswick Chap (talk) 12:57, 19 June 2022 (UTC)