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Chinampas 2.0 – an Elegant Technology From the Past to Save the Future


Chinampas in Tenochtitlan

My name is Rodrigo Lañado and I’m known as “El Hombre de Maiz” (the maize man) and I represent Hombres de Maiz, which is a project I developed after dropping out from college in 2010 to dedicate myself entirely to my biggest passion — permaculture — thanks to the inspiration I received from Masanobu Fukuoka’s and Bill Mollison’s teachings.

I’m very happy and proud to show you a little more of what you already perhaps know about chinampas. A chinampa (from the Nahuatl word chinamitl, meaning hedge or box of sticks) is an ancient Mesoamerican method for agriculture and land expansion, through a kind of artificial islands. They were used to grow flowers and vegetables and to expand usable land space onto the surface of lakes and ponds in the valleys of Mexico. Remember that Mexico-Tenochtitlan was a city of many kilometers made of artificial islands. It was far more complex, sustainable and advanced than what has been made in Dubai recently (not to mention that some of the artificial islands in Dubai are now sinking and disappearing, while the ones made in Xochimilco have lasted for centuries).

They were used for agriculture and for creating land, as we mentioned above. A chinampa is an artificial island made with logs, sticks and living trees called “Ahuejotes” or willows. The trees hold the soil of the island together and after the tree grows, the root system of this tree creates an area upon which is deposited topsoil properly selected in layers of biodegradable materials such as; grass, leaves, shells of different fruits and vegetables, composting aquatic plants and other materials.

As far as I have researched, it is a technique developed in ancients times of Teotihuacan, originally created for semi dry climates as a water harvesting and food production system. It appears that they were not originally from Xochimilco, where this system emigrated and reached their splendor in the fourteenth century, somewhere around 1519. With the use of this technique the Aztecs took up most of the Lake of Xochimilco, and its combination with other techniques such as irrigation channels and terracing, allowed them to support a dense population of more than 230,000 people — that’s a lot more than any other city in the world at that time.

In Hombres de Maíz (“Men of Maize”) we think it’s a real and affordable solution, especially for arid climates but also very effective in most climates. They capture and store water, produce fish, shrimp, vegetables, flowers, medicinal plants and all sorts of plants and grains. They are not affected by drought as other systems are, and they save more than 80% on water compared to conventional irrigation systems. The system protects crops from frost and ‘pests’ like moles, ants, blind worms and many others, not to mention they are up to 7 times more productive per m2 than any other agriculture system. The system is totally sustainable, maintaining constant moisture in the area, which is perfect for the microbiology of the soil. It’s perfect for creating a self reliance habitat and is a great way to respond to floods, and is incredibly fertile (probably the most fertile agricultural system ever devised).


Chinampas at Xochimilco

It is also a food production system that functions as a water purification system as well as a very effective climate modifier (imagine transforming several acres of desert into a chinampa system). It’s an elegant, diverse and healthy system of natural aquaponics, so to speak.

Today more than ever it is necessary to revive and bring to light this ancient and advanced technique, because in these modern times it could literally save humanity from hunger whilst helping to reverse global warming. Just imagine the enormous potential of this, if applied on a large-scale.


Another view of the chinampas in Tenochtitlan

That’s why Hombres de Maíz, the organization I feel honored to represent, took on the task to investigate and learn from the best “Chinamperos” (local families that have built chinampas since the times of the Aztecs in the lake of Xochimilco) to adapt and reproduce this system for dry climates, especially for the semi arid part of the state of Guanajuato, México, where I live. I want the people of my region to stop struggling with loss of crops due to water scarcity, and do it without government aid and their very ineffective water management systems — not to mention the urgent problem of malnutrition my neighbors have (I live in a low income rural zone).


Mr. Pedro Mendez, my friend and teacher

Finally after two years of research we built the first experimental prototype chinampa near Guanajuato City. Currently this chinampa is home to more than 20 aquatic plants species, many of them native to Lake Xochimilco and other from lakes of Guanajuato (Xacaltule, tule, water cress, duckweed, lilies, papyrus, etc.) and also houses animals such as axolotls (native from Xochimilco), an almost extinct type of salamander that’s capable of regenerating even its own brain, several carp and shrimp, not to mention the flora and fauna that have made all these at home, like snails, frogs, birds, aquatic beetles, etc.

We managed to adapt the same concepts we experimented with one year before in a “perma aquaponic” system that requires no cleaning of the fish containers, and we let the ecosystem develop as a natural pond would, but in a 100 gal electric pump version. And we saw that if you just develop a well balanced pond ecosystem with plants, bugs, animals and other organisms, even if you do it in a small aquaponic container, you can achieve no pH changes and low ammonia levels. So we took on the task of repeating the same effect in a small artificial pond of 5000 lts that would not use any electric equipment at all, and we planted it with black and white corn native from Xochimilco, sweet corn from Guanajuato (yellow-orange), blood of Christ Corn (very beautiful, white with red stripes), Milpa black beans, pumpkins and Chilacayotas (a type of squash that loves to grow on soil and expands over the water too), white clover (as nitrogen fixer), flowers, lettuce and other crops such as strawberries (all non hybrid or transgenic seeds). The list of species that can be grown in this system is endless — almost anything is possible on a chinampa and you get animal and vegetable protein of awesome quality and quantity with little labor involved and almost no maintenance required.

Among the wonderful benefits of this beautiful system, we can mention:

Forget about the task of watering plants, ever. Yes, that’s correct. In this kind of modernized chinampa, it is never necessary to water the plants, because they simply absorb the water they need by themselves, because the water rises from the bottom by capillarity to the plant root system.


Experimental chinampa of “Hombres de Maíz” at 3 weeks

Forget the task of composting work and fertilizers. Chinampas remain fertile through the water being full of fish, bird and other animal manure that is converted by the nitrogen cycle bacteria that transform (as you well know) ammonia into nitrites and nitrates that the plants use to grow. You also have the aid of worm castings from the worms that naturally love to live in chinampas, not to mention that the lilies used for making composting layers exist in large quantities over the water. They make a wonderful compost (worms love it) keeping the soil moist. The moisture in this system allows various microorganisms and fungi that live on land to survive without the stress of water scarcity.


Experimental chinampa of “Hombres de Maiz” at 4 weeks. Lettuces and
a small Milpa (corn, beans, squash and other plants associated)
in full sun without stress.


Our friend Celeste visiting the chinampa

Forget about of germinating and transplanting — you save time and you get no back pain. Almost any seed that you throw to the soil grows beautifully.

This is the best system I have ever seen or experienced. My ancestors knew well what they did, that’s maybe the reason why Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton often say these systems are among the most productive and efficient in the world.


Happy fish eating mosquito larvae and duck weed

We “Hombres de Maíz” would love the task of teaching and propagating this technique all around the world if we could, and adapting this system in as many climates and areas as possible to help people to feed themselves, control erosion and store rain water effectively, but in the meantime we will continue researching, making more and larger chinampa systems. This is research, development and implementation from “Hombres de Maíz” at service for humanity. .

We will keep taking photographs as we progress, and in a subsequent article we will show everybody how to make a chinampa or “water bed”, as we like to call them, step by step in your own backyard.

Wish us luck. We encourage people all around the globe to try this system and see for yourselves how great and beautiful these chinampas systems are.

46 Comments

  1. Congratulations with your success. I look forward to learning more. I can feel your pride in your ancestors resonating through your writings. How magnificent.

  2. Wow, that is cool! I’m looking forward to learning more about this technique. Can’t wait to see your step by step…I wonder if this would work in the high desert of Eastern Oregon? Does Homres de Maiz host WWOOFers? I’d be happy to come work with you for a while and learn this technique in the process. I’m sure others would love to do so as well. Keep up the good work Senior Laado and muchas gracias!

  3. I’m speechless . . . and so impressed by the beautiful cycle of life you are creating. I can’t wait to see more. Thank you and blessings to you. Peace, Terry

  4. Thanks for sharing. i’ve heard about this technique of agriculture and im excited its being implemented by permaculturists. i cant wait to hear more. thanks for sharing!

  5. Can’t wait to see more of the incredible work that “Hombres de Maíz” is doing. Those of us in more arid climates will be waiting patiently and watching closely. Thank you for sharing this amazing knowledge. Grow on!

  6. Well done, this is truly fascinating stuff. I only recently became aware of aquaponics and then through Geoff Lawton’s email i got introduced to this amazing ancient system. You are awesome!

    thanks for the report

  7. Rodrigo, thank you for this illuminating article which has educated and inspired. Keep up your important research, good luck and keep us all posted.

  8. This was a great article. It gave me some good ideas for my own gardening. I live in Florida, and it is very difficult to get water to the roots of my plants. You can water, and water, then you swipe the sand and it is dry a 1/2 in down. Keep up your good work. I am so glad to have found your article.

  9. Fantastic article!
    Thank you so much for sharing, and I look forward to hearing more, and hopefully one day learning how to make a chinampas system in person from Los Hombres de Maíz!

  10. Thanks for the article. There is surprisingly little information or record of this highly productive form of pre-colombian agriculture / aquaculture. I have spent a lot of time digging up research and visiting up still-functioning chinampa sites outside of Xochimilco. My senior thesis was focused, in part, on this form of agriculture / land management and its potential for re-vitalization. For anyone interested in some additional information after reading the above. Here is a fairly in-depth piece I wrote a number of years ago: https://anthropogen.com/2011/04/24/chinampa-raised-bed-hydrological-agriculture/

    Additionally, for anyone interested in Chinampas, I would highly suggest reading about the raised beds of Los Llanos de Moxos, in Bolivia, another similar form of landscape domestication. Here is some background info: https://anthropogen.com/2011/05/31/the-domesticated-landscapes-of-los-llanos-de-moxos-bolivia/

  11. Hi Rodrigo,

    Thanks for an excellent background intro and description of your trial chinampas systems. I’m excited for you and am more excited to hear of a step by step description of how to make one ourselves. I have a potential permaculture consulting client here that has some very flat land in a temperate climate and I think this may be an excellent way to increase production for him. At the moment, it is rice paddy with some vegetable for their home consumption but I think they could up production significantly with this system.

    Let me know when there is more! :D
    Jay

  12. would this work in Melbourne in Southern Australia where we get frosts and cold cold weather, (but we don’t get snow)? I am wondering if it is only for tropical/temperate climates, and how does it work over winter in cold areas. It is a wonderful idea and sounds like at least we could adapt it to growing vegies quickly and easily in summer here, and maybe let the water drain out over winter….

  13. Hi Marina,

    I’m about 60km north of Melbourne up in the Macedon Ranges and autumn, winter and spring are serious growing times for vegies. There’s been no snow here for 4 years now.

    My gut feel is that this excellent system would work very well over summer in Melbourne as the vegies would have access to lots of water as needed and there would be minimal evaporation in the Mediterranean climate.

    Up here the vegies grow in the shade over summer, but at other times of the year require little to no watering in raised garden beds. It is largely frost free here though, so this may be an issue with your location.

    The good thing about Permaculture is that it doesn’t dismiss techniques. In your own garden you can apply all sorts of techniques, just keep an eye out to see what works and what doesn’t.

  14. Thank you very much everybody for your kind words, its a pleasure being able to show this.

    I want to thank permaculture news (Craig) for the space. Regarding the step by step process of making a chinampa youll see that the physical construction of one is, someway simple (Basically an artificial island sorrounded by water) but the biological balance needed in the system is very delicate, specially because we are working with static water that has no flow att all, thats why the correct type and amount of acuatic plants, animals and water is needed and explaining that part is dificult in a text (maybe ill do a video someday) in my case took me 6 months living on a Chinampa everyday to fully understand correctly this system so ill try to explain the best i can when i post “how to make a chinampa”.

    About chinampas in cold weathers the thing is: as long as the fish and plants can tolerate the cold, its fine because chinampas have frost resistance and offers protection to plants, but o a certain degree (not in temperatures below 0C. ). But if you have very nasty cold wheater, it wold be a good idea to make greenhouse chinampas :p (why not?). I dont know how this system would react in a very cold weather i suppose like any other water body it could freeze, etc. But definitely it would work marvelous in summer.

    Thank you very much and if you want, to see updated pics of the chinampa, just visit us on facebook:
    https://www.facebook.com/Proyecto.colectivo.Hombres.de.maiz

    Have a very cornfull week!

    Rodrigo Lañado
    Hombres de Maiz

  15. I wish you would do a video or documentary on this. I’d love to learn more about this and I’m sure others who read this would too.

    Please write more articles on this!

    Sheri

  16. Really great work and thanks so much Rodrigo. I really look forward to your future article about building small chinampas and finding more about them in general. Having successfully used aquaponics for several years now, I am always looking for other ways to refine and improve the system to increase its potential and lower it’s ecological footprint even more.

  17. I’m sure you could write and sell a small book about this! Clearly there are many key parts that when put together help to build soil and grow food in this system. Thank-you so much for sharing and I will buy your book when you write it!

    Jackie

  18. Many thanks Rogrido for a fascinating and inspiring article, and thanks also to Spencer for the related links

  19. I had to read about Chinampas for social studies and came across your piece that brought it to live and current and I wonder if you want to talk to my on-line school?

  20. This looks really fabulous. Congratulations.

    I’m not sure this would be suitable in a very dry climate where you try to avoid any open water to reduce evaporation. Coming from a humid climate myself, I wonder if you can run this with no more irrigation than an ordinary planting bed (sunken bed for example). Of course this does not matter if you get enough hard surface run-off to replenish the water supply.

    Not a criticism, just a question and something to think about.

    1. No problem Birgit, ots a logic thing to think about, about that in particular, the secret is how wide and deep you make those chinampas and the vegetation you use precisely to avoid that to happen. The prototypes i have made in semiarid climates have been able to hold .60 cms of water for periods over 7 months loosing only a half of its water, i recently made a mini documentary in case you want to see it (link above your comment) i strongly reccomnd that people should experiment and try this at their own climates and regions, you would be amazed trust me…

      And Thank you Birgit, have an awesome week!

    1. Thanks Rick! u would love to upload new images from the chinampa to this post but i dont know how to do it.. :(

      1. Hi Rodrigo,

        I think that this is indeed a brilliant idea. I was wondering if you could give me some guidance as to how I would construct a chinampa here in Northwest Texas for an Urban Farm that my husband and I will build shortly. Is it basically excavating the soil and then creating an artificial island with rocks surrounding the soil, or are you infilling the entire area with rocks in the bags? Also, how deep do you make the chinampa and how does the wicking action occur to supply nutrients to the plants?

        We are wanting to build the chinampa liner with pond clay, instead of plastic tarp, how do you think the chinampa would fare from this change? Pond clay is supposed to expand when wet and hold in water in this way. Would you recommend for us to buy row covers, seeing as how it is very dry, windy and sunny here, in order for the chinampa not to lose too much moisture?

        You mentioned having the correct biological balance with aquatic plants, animals and water. Could you give me a rough estimate of plant ratios such as 25% aquatic plants in the system or such, and how many fish per gallon of water?

        These are all the questions that I have for now, but any other advice you could offer would be very appreciated, thanks.

  21. Chinampas and similar systems were traditionally constructed in shallow spring fed lake basins, marshlands, and seasonal flood plains. Clay and mud from lake bottom, aquatic plants, dry-crop silage, manure and silted muck were piled upon one another in precise layers between paralleled reed fences anchored in the lake bottom. The material used in constructing the raised platforms is excavated so as to create narrow canals which divide elevated areas.

    Pond clay would be far more preferable then a plastic liner as the plastic liner would inhibit capillary action required to bring moisture up into the cultivated beds. There is no real established or set percentage of ideal aquatic plant coverage. One of the primary functions of having aquatic plants in the chinampa canals is to periodically harvest the biomass and build up the beds through subsequent layers of aquatic plants and muck from the canal bottom. Look at it this way: you are basically farming aquatic plants as your primary mulch / nutrient / biomass source. You manage aquatic plant populations in accordance with their growth rates and your cropping / mulching regimen.

    Row covers could be useful to extend your growing season (depending on temp fluctuations) however one of the benefits of a properly functioning chinampa system is that the water in the canals create a humid microclimate around the beds which can perform the same function as a row cover in protecting from frosts. As far as wind goes I would recommend establishing living wind breaks instead of relying on row covers.

  22. Thank you Spencer and Rodrigo for responding. You have provided good information for me to start experimenting. :)

  23. We own a house in Arizona with an old failing pool. It was cheaper to fill than repair. If I lived there still, what a great opportunity to try building a chinampas. Maybe others will consider giving this a try.

  24. Curious why using this for semi-arid area, given that it was originally for a lake setting. Regardless, it does seem to be working for you. Would love to know more details…

  25. The one thing that seemed to be missing, is humanure. Clearly there is plenty of nitrogen available, from aquatic plants. But how is potassium being cycled/replenished, in modern chinampas?

  26. Anyone out there have advice on incorporating a cost effective and sustainable chinampa system throughout my Vista Foothills homestead?

    I’m a pdc student of Geoff Lawtons. I’m currently stocking up on Native seeds, mapping out property boundaries, plotting egress and ingress infrastructure (made out of permeable materials), plotting out efficient Chinampas systems I can incorporate throughout the food forest system here. Still in the observatory and due diligence stage.

    Lots of progress so far. Lots of ups and downs. But I’m looking for insight from others out there.

    What’s the best way to incorporate this throughout sandy slopes of 9°-50° (75% @ 25°;15% @ 9°;10% @ 50°)

  27. This sounds like a good idea for where you have a lake, but what if there is no lake?

    Also, in a drought, sometimes the level of a lake will drop, and if it becomes very shallow or shrinks away from the shore, what will happen?

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