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gniman
Member
| Joined: | Wed Sep 6th, 2006 |
| Location: | Chennai, India |
| Posts: | 2 |
| Mana: |  |
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Posted: Wed Sep 6th, 2006 12:26 pm |
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hi...
I have just bought 17 acres of sloping wasteland in south India to plant it back with a diverse stand of trees.
60% will be Pongamia Pinnata, whose oil is a diesel substitute and the rest will be trees native to south India.
I want to plant in row-sets. In each set, there will be a centre line and on either side of it will be two more lines 15' apart. so in all, 5 rows in a row-set of 60' width.
There will be 5 such row-sets in the land and between each row-set will be a break of 20' width.
The centre line of each set will be planted with tallest species of trees like palms, tamarind and teak. On either side will be shorter trees - for fruits, medicine, timber, fuel, fodder etc. The outer lines will be planted with the shortest trees and plants. The trees will in an average 15' pitch, and triangulated.
In the 20' break between each row-set will be field crops, plants and dwellings.
I am planning to orient the row-sets in the east-west direction for maximum sunlight capture.
May I have comments on my approach. Am I planning it right? What suggestions, advise would you like to offer?
The project is in very early planning stage: http://goodnewsindia.com/pointreturn/online/?page_id=23
Thanks ahead
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Fred Morgan
Sponsor
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Posted: Wed Sep 6th, 2006 01:26 pm |
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Hi and welcome,
Sounds interesting. One thing that people make a mistake with is assuming that a tree they want to grow will grow in their soil.
I bring this up because you say wasteland - and yet included teak which is very picky on it soil requirements. One of the first things to do if you have not yet is test the soil and find out what is suitable for you soil.
Often with wasteland, you have to start with one type of tree / vegetation and then can switch over after several years.
Overall, it sounds intriging. Another issue you might want to consider with teak is that it hates competition of anykind - it is a pioneer species. Tamarind is a more "climax" type of tree if I remember correctly.
Of course, I am giving you information from Costa Rica where teak is not a native, you may well be able to get better information in India.
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gniman
Member
| Joined: | Wed Sep 6th, 2006 |
| Location: | Chennai, India |
| Posts: | 2 |
| Mana: | |
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Posted: Wed Sep 6th, 2006 01:41 pm |
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hi fred...
thanks for coming back so quick.
and thanks for your inputs. i am not keen on teak so much but it does grow 300 metres down-hill of the land i have. btw, the land is rich, red soil and is not so much wasteland as abandoned land because everyone prefers the plains where water does not not run off.
i am not so keen on 'scientific' analysis of the soil either. i think i will go along with observing what grows happily in the neighbourhood [-teak does] and focus on water harvesting and contour management and trust the rest to nature and birds.
i am not happy with trees that won't stand in a diverse plantation. neem, tamarind, mahua, jack, pongamia, gliricidia and a few others thrive well together in south india. i will be posting their generic names at the pointReturn site soon.
for now, may i invite comments on my plan to orient the rows in a east-west direction? isn't this the preferred approach?
also can you kindly post a note on what 'climax' tree is? what are the other types? a link perhaps, if posting an explanation is tedius/
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Fred Morgan
Sponsor
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Posted: Wed Sep 6th, 2006 01:59 pm |
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Be careful of how steep your land is for teak as well, normally it doesn't like more than 20% incline.
I actually recently planted some JackFruit that a friend gave me. Doing just fine on our land.
Climax refers to trees which make up the mature forest - teak is pioneer which means it does very well going from pasture / grass. Some climax species actually require shade.
Just looking to see what is growing well is fine, but a soil test is not a bad idea (and they tend to be cheap insurance)
300 meters down hill can mean a lot if the down hill is river bottom and you are on a hill.
I have never heard of people planting east / west - but since you are trying not to shade the smaller trees - that would be correct I am thinking - at least it is for gardens if I remember correctly.
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