Basella alba

Ceylon spinach will grow either from a piece or from the dark purple fruit.  It thrives in a variety of moist or wet conditions and will grow all year round.  I have it growing in a bath trough in soil covered with bagasse cane mulch in full sun. It is also growing in a water soaked gravel bed in the shade house, where it self-seeds continually.

I have transplanted the young shoots into pots in a standard potting mix and these plants are thriving on the veranda in partial shade.  It does not seem to attract any pests except my chickens will peck the leaves if they can reach them. The plant does benefit from the occasional dose of all-purpose fertiliser which gives the leaves their glossy dark green colouring.

The leaves are rich in vitamins and minerals and can be continually harvested to provide fresh greens whenever needed for cooked dishes and the younger leaves for salads.  Ceylon spinach can be substituted for English spinach or silver beet in any recipe.  When preparing, wash leaves and remove the thickest stalks before chopping and blanching.  Spinach combines well with soft cheeses and pine nuts and is great tossed fresh into Asian stir fries. The dark fruit can be used to colour jellies or as a fabric dye.

For best results, harvest young plants when around 20cm high, then, cut them back to the first node. Allow the vine to keep growing and keep harvesting, pinching out the ends of the vine to make it branch and become less leggy.  The vine can be allowed to ramble along the ground but it is easier to pick the leaves if the tendrils are trained onto a trellis.

Text and photos by Kaye Cronan

Enjoy the sweet fruits of your labour

Nick Cronan

President RFA

My yellow mangosteen is going berserk at the moment,usually it has,at any given time,flowers–small fruit–mature fruit–and two or three fruit ready to pick.

It had a bit of a holiday after the “big wet” 2010/2011 ,but now, ten months later,has had a massive crop all maturing at the same time.Great if you are commercial and want to harvest the crop all at qnce, but I hope it returns to its old ways of having just a few maturing at a time ,but throughout the year.

Summary of Mossman activities for 2011

After a very wet, wet season we kicked off in April.  The year has been quite eventful at the Mossman branch a Barbecue at our place at Julatten which was well attended. Lots of tropical fruits and nibbles, and plenty of people who like to talk about fruit trees. Wow!

In June we visited another farm in Julatten and although they had Tropical fruits they were primarily a commercial herb farm selling to the local restaurants and shops. It was interesting to see how the growing beds were hilled up so that the heavy rains of the wet season wouldn’t water log the herbs.  All in all, a very successful setup and a large variety of herbs.

July we visited two properties in the Mowbray valley both these farms were on the coastal strip near the edge of the Great Dividing Range. The soil and the climate were different to the high tableland of Julatten. Lots of well established trees and a higher rain fall.

            Mowbray Valley

August found us in Mareeba on a large converted tobacco farm which is now a successful organic tropical fruit orchard. Many varieties of established tropical fruit trees have been grown without chemicals. The only spray was organic cultures. Some of the locals live entirely on raw fruit and vegetables.

In the same month we had a trip to Mission beach to have the Tatura trellis explained by the man who designed the trellis Bas Van Den-ende. This was exciting as these fruit trees had survived on this trellis after a large cyclone had been through.

October and we all went to Whyanbeel just north of Mossman to look at lots of Mangosteens and lychees in a well established orchard. As always the ladies brought their delicious cakes etc made with tropical fruits and herbs that would astound any cook.

Our last get together for the year was at Sugarworld at Edmonton south of Cairns where we shared a barbecue with Cassowary coast and members of Sugarworld Friends. There, after many tasty delights we toured the park. Some very old and some replanted tropical fruit trees, mostly older varieties.

We are now taking a break as the wet season rolls down from the north and the anticipated 2012 Field days and the RFA AGM to be held at Mossman.

`                                                               Les Drew Mossman Branch

MOSSMAN BRANCH
mossman@rarefruitaustralia.org
Phone Dawn – 07 4098 2664
MACKAY BRANCH
mackay@rarefruitaustralia.org
Phone Paul – 07 4959 8671
CASSOWARY COAST BRANCH
cardwell@rarefruitaustralia.org
Phone Michael – 07 4068 3669
HINKLER BRANCH
Phone Jenny – 07 4157 9691

WORDS BY PAUL RICHARDSON

PHOTOGRAPHS BY PAUL RICHARDSON AND ROGER GOEBEL

 A recent global survey found 780 described coconut varieties. Many have been developed specifically for certain commercially important traits. Tall varieties represent the majority in commercial production due to a higher copra yield and longer productive lifespan, but the merits of the dwarf varieties are well worth considering especially for the backyard or small scale production.

There were eight dwarf varieties selected from the Solomon Islands and imported by the Townsville council in the early 1980’s. The original plan was to replace some of the tall palms along The Strand with these impressive compact varieties for foreshore stability and tourism appeal. I won’t elaborate on the perceived danger issue but it is said “coconuts have eyes of their own and have long serve mankind”.

The original Solomon collection has been well maintained and one of the originals, the Malay Golden dwarf found its way to the far north with thanks to the old Kamerunga research station in Cairns. There are also a number of the shorter palms, known as village dwarfs, growing around the Cape York Peninsula. They are very compact palms – small enough to grow in containers and bear numerous, small, golden orange fruits with thin husks and great flavour. Others are the Red Spicata dwarf which has a stalkless fruit attached directly to the main stem of the bunch, a Malay Yellow dwarf which is also very thin husked with medium sized light flavoured fruits, and a Giant Green dwarf which has a full size crown but extremely compact trunk.

 In general, dwarf coconuts are self pollinating, precocious, high yielding, easy to harvest, and tolerant of diseases such as ‘Lethal Yellowing’ and poor soils. Many will fruit within four years in a moist tropical climate and reach full output by six years, often with coconuts touching the ground. The productive life is considerably less for the dwarf palm varieties which have life spans of approximately 40-60 years, as opposed to 80-120 years for talls. Dwarfs reach heights from 5 to 12m, depending on variety, although, at a much slower pace than talls, as generally all the palm proportions are smaller.

Plantation production of dwarf coconuts has been most successful in Brazil where the market is for drinking coconuts rather than oil production. It is estimated three billion coconuts are consumed by Brazilians annually and there is a growing demand for tetra-pak coco juice export products from USA and European markets. They are the wealthiest coconut farmers in the world as their product is easily harvested at only 8 months maturity, for peak sugar and electrolyte concentration, and at 12-14 months being fully mature and oil ready.

 WORDS BY ALISON GOTTS, PHOTOGRAPHS BY DIGBY GOTTS

Travelling across the outback of northern Queensland, we stumbled across the extraordinary story of Albert de Lestang, who leased seventy five acres from the government in 1920, to experiment with food trees on a property near Lawn Hill, which was, and still is, an oasis in the desert.

The place is called Adel’s Grove, after the initials of his name, and it is close to the Riversleigh Fossil Fields and the Lawn Hill National Park. 340 kilometres north west of Mt Isa.

He was a fanatical plant collector and sold and traded seeds with nurseries and botanical gardens throughout the world. By 1939 he had planted and recorded over 1000 varieties of plants. Water from the creek was carried in kerosene tins to the garden, and channels were created to divert the water to irrigate the trees.

In early 1950 disaster struck and a man-made fire destroyed all his buildings and records while he was away, though the fruit orchard survived. In the same year he then experienced record floods and a plague of rats which ring-barked his orchard.

An extract from a letter Albert de Lestang wrote to David Gordon, Nurseryman in Glenmorgan, 18^th September, 1952, shows his despair:

“The priceless botanical collection of over 2000 varieties have been abandoned, the gardens overrun by saplings, kunai grass and sword tussocks; what the fire left of the fences is wreck, yards gone, home site bare of buildings but the flimsy shack I live in. What still stands of the one time glorious gardens is the fruit plantation I try to maintain for a living. Having cut all experimental work for lack of equipment and labour, too old and weak to carry on alone, failure to find one to take over from me at death. Since the place is destined to revert to wilderness is better now than later.”

Albert died in 1959 in a nursing home at Charters Towers. He was seventy five years old.

The question is ‘how much of Albert’s botanical legacy can still be found at Adel’s Grove?’ Adel’s Grove is now a privately run camping ground and restaurant, offering tours of the area to visitors, on the banks of the Lawn Hill Creek. The oasis that Albert depended on to keep his plants alive, now provides a picturesque spot for campers, amongst the remnants of his fruit plantation.

A botanical list which was recorded by de Lestang in 1939 of the species he had introduced is still available. Scanning the list, which has more than 600 species on it, some rare fruit names draw the eye:

Artocarpus communis,

Artocarpus integerifolia,

Averrhoa carambola,

Barringtonia edulis,

Diospyros discolor,

Eugenia brasiliensis,

Feijoa sellowiana,  

Inga pulcherrima,

Lucuma nervosa, 

Macadamia integrifolia,

Monstera deliciosa,

Mangifera foetida,

Myristica fragrans,

Nephelium lappaceum,

Passiflora foetida,

Pometia pinnata,

Psidium guajava,

Tamarindus indica,

Terminalia catappa,

Theobroma cacao,

Zalacca edulis.

We walk along the banks of the creek, and I imagine what the area would have been like in the 1930s and 1940s, and look for evidence. There are many large Mango trees still thriving and burnt out mango stumps standing as monuments.  The mango harvest would still be bountiful – November may be a good time to visit.  Lime trees are scattered through the area, but apart from some bamboo clumps, there are some cassias, a custard apple sucker growing out of a stump, but no other fruit trees.

A conversation with Albert begins in my mind. What fruit trees thrived here, under his gentle care? What did he learn about growing rambutans, fifty years before the rambutan industry started in tropical Queensland? We have tried to grow Salaks and we wonder – how successful were they for him? This is a special place for a rare fruit enthusiast to explore, and rake over the ghosts.

Originally published in the Permaculture International Journal No.43 June – Aug 92

Of all food producing systems, the annual vegetable garden has the greatest potential to supply a high proportion of our daily food needs. It is also the most labour intensive, re-quiring continuous input year round to yield a constant and continuous harvest of fresh wholesome food. The aim of design for a home garden, or Zone I, is to maximise food production where it is convenient and easy to maintain and balance this with the other uses of the backyard or area immediately around the house. The objective is to grow an abundance of fresh herbs and vegetables all year round with the least amount of work. Thus it will concentrate on ways to eliminate unnecessary work through the design and placement of the garden itself, the plants that grow in it and the methods and techniques employed for garden construction and on-going maintenance.

It makes sense to plan such a garden close to your main centre of outdoor activities where it is readily accessible, and develop it along routine paths traveled daily or frequently for other chores and activities, i.e. en route to the clothes line, compost heap, nursery, chicken pen, etc.

Before designing the garden we first need to carefully examine our whole outdoor area, measure it and draw a rough plan to scale. Then mark the north point and plot in house and existing garden features (e.g. sheds, clothes line, BBQ, trees, permanent pathways etc). Wind exposure and turbulence, sun access and aspect in winter and summer, un-pleasant views requiring screening, the visual exposure of your space from the outside world; all need to be integrated with the needs, tolerances and growing habits of the individuals plants, along with your aesthetic requirements and the functions the garden must perform as a part of your living environment. Next make a list of all outdoor activities; all the things we want to have or do in that area – the list may include some or most of the following:

• Gardens – herbs, vegetables, flowers;
• Outdoor kitchen – BBQ, sitting/eating area;
• Recreation – exercise, sunbaking, play area for children (also consider age and changing needs as they grow up);
• Work area – for hobbies, carpentry, bicycle repair, etc. this space can double as a recreation area;
• Compost heap/bins; Storage shed/area – for tools, garden materials, recycling bins, firewood;
• Poultry and other pets;
• Clothes line;
• Shade house – glass house, cold frames, nursery;
• Pond or water garden;
• Fruit trees;
• Pergolas, trellises, arbors.

How can they all fit into one back¬yard? If you have trouble a skillful designer can help you to work out what goes where to its functional and aesthetic best. Sometimes it is necessary to make compromises due to the size and constraints of the site, and your own priorities and capabilities. However it is important to consider these factors right from the start to avoid costly mistakes, cost in terms of time and labour as well as money.

A few important points to consider:

• Eliminate unnecessary lawn – keep only what you need for active recreation, perhaps under fruit trees and clothes line.

• In small yards avoid any small areas of lawn, they can be more trouble than they’re worth. Small recreation and sitting areas can be paved with stone, brick or recycled pieces of cement slab with low succulent/hardy ground covers and creeping herbs growing in between and over them.

• Have permanent paths in gardens, either paved or an easy and cheap alternative is to lay down cardboard as a weed barrier and cover with a 10cm layer of sawdust. The saw-dust will soak up runoff water and nutrients from the garden and once a year can be raked up onto the beds as mulch or put into the compost heap, a new layer of fresh sawdust will replace it which also helps to deter snails and slugs.

• If you’re busy or haven’t gardened before, begin with a small area of garden (1-2 square metres) and once it is under control, thriving and working well, slowly expand it bit by bit according to your master plan.

• Keep things together that relate to each other; tools and compost near the garden; pergola over eating area; have one large garden area with good paths and a weed barrier rather than lots of little gardens.

• Use your vertical space – the sky is the limit! Climbing plants can adorn fences, trellises, walls, verandahs and pergolas bearing fresh harvests of grapes, kiwifruit, climbing peas and beans, cucumber, loofas, passionfruit, cane berries, chokos, pumpkin etc

• Utilise pleasant microclimates to maximum effect and create new ones in your design – cool shady spots for summer, wind sheltered sun traps for winter.

Robyn Francis has a getting-started booklet available by mail order “Micro-Eden, Permaculture for Small Space & Urban Gardens” PO Box 379, Nimbin, NSW 2480, Ph/Fax (02) 6689 1755; Email: erda@nor.com.au

An Ausaid project to improve fruit quality and diversity, rediscovers the old orchard research stations lost to the jungle

WORDS BY DIGBY GOTTS*

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DIGBY GOTTS

I have been involved with Community Sector Programs in Solomon Island, a non-government local organization supported by AusAid funding, for three years.  Working with two local men, we have designed a project to improve fruit quality and diversity throughout the country, and we are now implementing this project.

Local conditions

Solomon Island has a very hot and wet climate, similar to my home at Cape Tribulation but a little hotter most of the year, rarely going below 20C. The climate and soils seem ideal for growing many of the equatorial fruits, but very few make their way to a market anywhere within the country. Fruit sold in markets is typically of very poor quality: fibrous mangos, thin fleshed papaya, small green mandarins, avocado with huge seeds and so on. On a good market day in the capital, Honiara, you might find the odd stall with local sweet oranges or soursop or a good mango at triple the normal price.

Establishing nurseries

The project is intended to train interested people so that they will establish a seedling nursery of some of the fruits that grow well in their region. Once their nursery is completed, we are able to return to give more training on vegetative propagation.  Initially people are being asked to identify the best fruiting trees in their region and use these for budwood source material to develop their skills.  When they demonstrate continuing commitment and skill, we return with known varietal bud wood. The “we’ll help you more if you participate” model has been deliberately chosen to avoid a cargo cult syndrome. We start by delivering a nursery establishment workshop which ends with the handing over of 100 poly bags to each participant for planting up with seedlings. If that is done, we can give the organizers/lead farmers the shadecloth and cut timber for a small nursery at the workshop location, then pocket knives with sharpening stone and secateurs.  After 18 months we have given nursery workshops to around 400 people, handed out 30,000 poly bags and helped to establish 27 lead farmers’ nurseries for demonstration of our expectations. Over September 2009, we completed a first round of propagation workshops at many of the lead farmer nurseries. As they develop confidence and skill, lead farmers are expected to then start running their own workshops for family and community, passing on the knowledge and the opportunity.  I have also written a basic text book for use in Solomon Island about the why and how to grow fruit trees. This will be distributed to participants as further backup to the workshops and to encourage their own teaching of the principles involved.

Sourcing the budwood

Originally, we intended to introduce varietal budwood of selected species from Australia but a small miracle allowed us to avoid this costly complication. Five provincial horticulture research stations were established in about 1990 by Solomon Island Ministry of Agriculture, along with a main base of operations outside Honiara. Each of these was planted up with a collection of varietal mango, carambola, guava, rambutan, citrus, avocado, sapodilla and cashew as well as a wide variety of seedling mixed fruits such as jaboticaba, star apple, local canarium (ngali nut), local barringtonia (cut nut), miracle fruit, durian, purple mangosteen, yellow mangosteen, abiu, canistel, black sapote and many more. However, the government failed to make lease payments and villager owners refused government staff access to those blocks. No care or management had been applied for 15 years and most of the trees had died. The management base outside Honiara was also one of the major targets for disaffected elements during the civil unrest in 2000. All buildings were burned and all records, including planting records, were lost in the fires. In 2006, I was taken out to the remote island of Kolumbangara to visit the one orchard remaining on government land. I found many of the fruit trees still there but in a diseased state and buried by the jungle. It was impossible to walk through the orchard.  An interesting historical orchard, but useless from a horticulture point of view without knowing what cultivars were present. The agriculture foreman, Roy was still living at the station even though he had been unemployed for 6 years, and showed us around.  Roy pulled out his suitcase and produced the original handwritten planting records from 1990 for the orchard. Eureka! We were able to decipher the plans and identify the exact locations of 48 cultivars of mango, 10 carambola and 19 rambutan as well as all the seedling trees and other ‘odd bods’ then lost in the jungle!

Miraculous recovery

Funding was made available and over the last year, Roy and three workers have cleaned up the undergrowth and overgrowth on 3 Ha with bush knives and hand saws. The recovery of the cleaned fruit trees has been remarkable, with everything showing flushes of new growth.  We plan to get him a small chainsaw so he can prune the mango and rambutan trees to enable a flush of new tips which can be harvested next year for grafting onto rootstock now being established in his nursery. These grafted plants and bare budwood can then be distributed to lead farmer nurseries for further multiplication and distribution to their circles of influence.

Trifoliata rootstock

The citrus area of this orchard had been totally lost with everything missing or dead. As citrus is not very successful in the region we will use known local fruiting trees for propagation material rather than imported varietal budwood that will probably not survive in the long term. There are good local pommelo, sweet orange, mandarin and red grapefruit that we will be collecting and grafting onto Citrus trifoliata rootstock. Trifoliata has been chosen for its distinctive triple leaf, making it easy for beginner growers to recognize the rootstock suckers and cut them away.  Overgrowth from rootstock is the number one killer of budded citrus through the Pacific, so while this choice may not be the best for a commercial planting, it will give the plants a better chance of being looked after. Ten thousand tri seeds have been imported from Australia and distributed to about 10 leading nurseries for potting up. Budding onto these will start by about March 2010.

Future of the project

We are now about half way through the planned lifetime of the formal project. Its success in the long term will depend on it being able to self sustain through the long juvenile period of the fruit trees, when there can be no financial return and none of the quick gains most aid projects rely on for political acceptance. However the joyful participation by so many people in so many workshops, and the sheer number of seedlings already potted up makes me hopeful that the skills of grafting and budding will also be picked up and carried on. I look forward to coming back one day to find some Nam Doc Mai or Jit Lee in the marketplace.

[1172 words]

*Digby Gotts is the co-owner of Cape Trib Exotic Fruit Farm at Cape Tribulation, QLD and has worked as a horticulture consultant for a variety of aid projects in the Pacific.

IMAGES

001 Digby runs a grafting workshop for 45 farmers at Sasaa, Guadalcanal.

002 Roy Vaketo, manager of Ringgi orchard, on Kolumbangara, shows the emerging research orchard, once the rainforest has been cleared.

003 The fruit market at Auki, Malaita.

004 Picking ngali nut (Canarium indicum), an indigenous nut tree in the Solomons

005 Establishing a nursery on Choiseul Island.

006 Getting ready to graft a mango seedling