Ipil trees.

[Guest guest]

I find this comment by Guru Gauranga to be completely lame. Who is living

> in a situation where we can neglect economic development. Land has to be

> paid for, equipment and seed purchased? Where does the Laksmi come from?

> Frankly, I dont know what ipil trees are but agroforestry is a viable and

> intelligent direction for devotees to get involved in.

 

Actualy ipil is not at all a cash crop, at least not in the usual sense. I

planted them specificaly to make a living barrier, or fence on our land.

Ipil, also known as Leucaena, is known as a miracle tree: It fixes Nitrogen

in the soil, is a great fodder for ruminants (cows), grows 6 meters in a

year, with a trunk of 5 cm. It can be used as a soil erosion barrier, if you

trim it low like a hedge, is great as a wind break for cyclones. Gives great

yields of fire wood, and has been used in some places to run ceramics kilns.

It can grow in poor soils, and is great for environmental regeneration

projects, (pause for breath).

 

That is a few of its uses, and depending on your needs it is very adaptable.

I like the idea of a fence, that grows itself (6 meters in a year, you wind

the lateral branches together, and then trim) which also provides fodder, or

a nitrogen rich green mulch!

 

I got 7000 seeds for free from an environmental group.

 

But yeah, profit, I'm all for it.

 

YS

[Guest guest]

>

> Actualy ipil is not at all a cash crop, at least not in the usual sense. I

> planted them specificaly to make a living barrier, or fence on our land.

 

How easily does it reproduce? Does it naturalize?

 

The reason I ask is becasue multiflora roses were introduced in America as

living fences, which they do a great job ot. Unfortunately, the birds eat

the

miserably small rose hips, then fly away and randomly deposit the seeds in a

nice coating of fertilizer everywhere. Many pastures have been totally lost to

roses and it is a constant struggle to keep them from taking over. It is

aggressive, invasive, and difficult to kill. Most the chemicals used for

control have been made illegal due to adverse effects on the environment.

Agent

orange was one of them.

 

The flowers are for the most part nonfragrant, small, fall apart on picking,

and the rose hips are too meager to consider for harvesting. It is fast

growing,

can get 8 fett high (over 2 meters) and much wider than that, very thorny,

and (stop reading here , scientists) possessed of a keen intelligence such

as

is always calculating on how to draw your blood if you attempt to cut them.

 

According to the old timers, and verified by my own observations, cutting

them

in the first 2 weeks of August will kil them - most other times it simply is a

rejuvenating pruning. Unfortunately, that is the hot time of the year. But I

have an old leather coat I put on and go out early in the morning and get a few

before it heats up. Still, I bleed everytime, no matter how hard I try to

avoid it. But if you don't make the effort, just the material world in

general, the situation just gets inevitably worse.

 

So my motto is, "Take time to kill the roses."