B io ph ile Issu e 18 - Biophile Magazine

soilforlifeIt's never too lateto plant a treeWhen a tree is propagated froma seed, the growth habit of itsstem and root system is differentfrom that of a tree propagatedfrom a cutting.Trees grown from seed have atall stem and a deep tap rootsystem.Trees grown from a cuttingoften have a shorter stem (theybush close to the ground) and donot have a tap root.by Pat FeatherstoneSoil for Life is a Cape Town-basedNGO which teaches people to grow theirown food. For more information aboutSoil for Life membership, and organicmethods for growing vegetables, herbsand fruit, please phone Pat on (021) 7944982It’s Spring. The trees herald the change ofseason by bursting forth with their newfoliage, many preceding the soft greenswith breathtaking shows of delicate blossomsthat produce the fruits and seedswhich will be welcomed by man and beastalike in the summer that lies ahead. It’s anapt time to celebrate Arbor Day, althoughperhaps not the best time to plant trees,especially in the Cape with the hot, drySummer months ahead. The beginningof Winter would be far more appropriateas the Winter rains would enable the rootsystem to establish itself before the growthspurt brought on by the rise in temperature.No doubt many thousands of treeswere planted on 7th September by wellmeaningpeople in the grounds of schools,churches, hospitals, clinics, office blocks,parks and along highways and by-waysaround the country. How many of themwill be given the care and respect that theyneed to reach maturity?How many will last long enough toprovide homes for birds and beasts in theirlofty boughs, or provide us with muchsought after protection from the elementsall year round?How many will bear fruit?Did you plant a tree?Around the world, over thousandsof years, man has impacted on the greatforests by felling huge swathes for livingspace, fuel, building materials andcropland. Mankind is continuing ‘the old,old story’ as told in The Epic of Gilgamesh– the earliest recorded story of what happenswhen forests are cut down. Rivers siltup, the land turns into desert or scrubland;civilisations succumb to environmentaldegradation. It happened with theSumerians in the once ‘Fertile Crescent’of Mesopotamia, the Greeks and Romansand many other cultures too. It’s happeningright now at an ever-increasing pace tomatch the exponential growth in humanpopulations.Africa is being hard hit and Thom Hartman,in his book The Last Hours of AncientSunlight describes what has happenedin the West African country, BurkinaFaso. Like Lebanon, where magnificentCedar forests covered 90% of the land inGilgamesh’s time and where forests werereduced to less that 7% coverage in 1 500years, this small country has turned into adesert in a generation or so. Burkina Fasohas a population explosion. Self-sufficientfor tens of thousands of years it nowproduces only 40% of its food requirements.The thick, impenetrable forests aregone. Wood is used five times faster that itcan grow and one Berquinian farmer wasquoted:"In my father’s time, millet filled allthe granaries and the soil was deeperthan your body before you reachedrock. Now we have to buy food in allbut the wettest years and the soil isno deeper than my hand. When wewere boys, the forest was all aroundus, too thick to penetrate. Graduallymore and more of it was clearedaround the compounds, until oneclearing met the next and made thegreat openness you now see."Forty hectares of forest are purportedto being cut down every minute of everyday. Have we not learnt from the mistakesof past civilisations? Headline news awhile back recorded the destruction ofhundreds of hectares of forests in Kwa-Zulu Natal. There was discussion of howthis would affect the economy.Planting cuttings ortruncheonsSome tips for beginners.• Bury the cutting about half its lengthso that there are a few buds above thesoil to produce the shoots.• Keep the soil damp to the depth towhich the roots penetrate. Do not letthe soil dry out.• Use hardwood cuttings in winter,and softwood cuttings in spring andsummer.How will impact on us in other ways?Have you given it a thought? Did you planta tree, or two, on Arbor Day to ensureour survival into the future? It’s not toolate, you know. Get out there and dig ahole. Refer back to previous issues of thismagazine for instructions on how to goabout it. Choose your tree carefully. Plant itwith love. Nurture it into the future. And ifyou’re looking for creative, low-cost ideas,here are a few:• Plant a tree on your birthday.• Plant one over the festive season, insteadof spending your time and money in shoppingmalls.• Give trees as gifts to show how much youcare.• Teach other people how to plant and takecare of them.• Save seeds; take cuttings. It will reducethe cost of planting trees. It may take a bitlonger, but your patience will be rewarded.• Plant a tree from a truncheon (smallbranch) taken from another tree. It takes ashorter time to grow a tree.56 Biophile Issue 18