Planting trees

Already 12 months after the planting of the calamansi lemons the young tree has produced fruit

Thinking in long terms, trees provide the most stable economic basis of the farm. They are also a rather multifunctional investment as they act as natural windshields and additional fences, and besides they are also useful in defending the other plants against insects. We exclusively use locally adapted tree species and we try to use as many parts of a tree as possible. Besides the lumber and the fruits also the leaves of many trees have proven useful as human or animal nourishment. Right now about 3 to 4 hectares of the farm are planted with papaya, calamansi (lemon) and moringa trees, with many more to follow. Within 2010 during the rainy seaso an additional 2 hectares are to be planted with 100 pilinut-trees and about 30 neem-trees. All in all we will have about 5000 trees growing, then. Because we have planted all the trees at different times, there will be a continuous harvest troughout the year.  A continous harvest is better than a punctual one. If we had to sell all of our harvest at once, this could happen at a time when prices are low, dumping our profits.

All of this may sound very well but the biggest problems hide within little details: Between the time when a tree is planted and the moment when it is finally fruit bearing, there is a harsh battle taking place against weeds and pests of all sorts. In the beginning we had this problem completely underestimated and lost a lot of our funds for that. But these days we manage to cope with those things better already. First thing to do was to cut and dry the unwanted weeds and to allocate the resulting biomass as mulch cover around each tree. That way, the soil is kept moist in dry times, other weeds are prohibited to grow and earthworms are attracted which help to reduce the use of dung and fertilizers. The calamansi trees are planted triangular in a distance of 3.5 meters to each other. In the center of each triangle , we always plant a papaya tree. This fast growing trees are giving shade to the ground, which is alas another way to suppress the weeds. Alternatively to papaya trees in some sectors squash and melons are planted, also providing weed-suppressing shade with their leaves.  As soon as the calamansi trees have developed a full canopy we shall use the ground for animal breeding and probably also for mushrooms.

Calamansi tree with the sorrounding mulch of dried weeds

Harvest of the moringa leaves

Moringa is a fast growing, tropical tree with a practical use for every single part of the tree. Especially the leaves contain a good lot of vitamins (and here especially vitamin a), proteins and minerals. But the full vitamin content is only to be found in the fresh leaves, theay have to be prepared within a few hours when harvested. The dried leaves can only keep their vitamin content when they are dried thoroughly shortly after the harvest. Sunlight is no good in this process and should be avoided as much as possible. As soon as our mechanical drum dryer is fit for use the other farmers of the area may plant their unemployed areas with moringa trees, because organized marketing is then possible. The demand for dried moringa powder is still much higher than the local supply. This is also aplies to all the other parts of the moringa tree like seeds, blossoms, and roots. The additional profits will have a positive impact on the local economy. There is also an indian breed of moringa available now which is more productive than the wildgrowing local variety. These trees need neither be fertilized nor be treated with any pesticides.

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