April 2020

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The Myrtacae family of plants is useful in that they have very useful Essential Oils in them. This is very good for rubbing on skin to prevent insect bites such as Midges, Mosquitoes etc.

The Millaa Millaa vine (Elaeagnus triflora) has the nicest berry and the Sunshine Coast is its southern most limit (in nature it occurs coastal NE Qld). The berries of this plant are really nice to eat, but the vine doesn’t have any berries on currently because the flowers are eaten by a tiny caterpillar (that you need a microscope to see) called an Indigo Flash (Rapala varuna simsoni) I actually thought there were male and female plants but the flowers are eaten by caterpillars, making it impossible for them to reproduce.

The Native Ginger (Alpinia caerula) berries are really nice – especially if you’re exhausted and you need a little bit of a pick-me-up – they taste of lemon but be warned – you take the dry outer coating off and chew/suck the seed and find it has a little hotness to it. Every part of the Native Ginger plant is edible  – you can use the leaves in cooking to wrap food but very often you’ll find that cut-bees have taken a little circle out of a leaf. These cut-bees use the leaf portion to plug up the hole of their nest – which is a mud nest usually in the bank of a stream – there you’ll probably see some pretty serrated leaves.

The other favorite of mine is the Midyim (Austromytrus dulcis) It has lovely edible berries which can be made into jams but it takes an awful lot of picking, my mother has made Midyim jam, and it is delicious, The berries fall off quickly, but if you crush and smell the leaf, you will know that it’s in the Myrtacae family, which is related to the Eucalypt tree. The Midyim berries taste different depending on the area in which it grows. Moreton Island grows the most succulent big berries as big as your thumbnail but this only happens after rain. 

The Black Bean (Castanospermum australe) was originally thought to be edible but obviously it isn’t. The Aboriginees used to soak the seedpods in running water for six weeks, then dry them then put them back into running water for another six weeks. They were then taken out and roasted, and then they were edible – they would be pounded and turned into a flour.  You’ll see them listed in textbooks as poisonous, and if you eat 6 of these you’ll get stomach cramps – the leaves and bark smell of cucumber. If the leaves are up too high, get your car keys and scrape the bark to identify the cucumber smell.

One of them is the Bandicoot Berry (Leea indica) and in some of the books they say it is edible but they can really sting the mouth.

The lovely powder-puff Lilly-pilly (Syzygium wilsonii) has a white berry – it is edible but quite tasteless. Most of the Syzygium have lovely edible berries.

The Cabbage Tree Palm (Livistona australis) is edible – you can take the heart out and eat it as a vegetable but you actually kill the tree – you do it with lots of things like the Tree Ferns and the Piccabeen Palms (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana) and they have a cabbage flavour, but of course you kill the tree so I’d better not tell you about that!

The Walking Stick Palm (Linospadix monostachya) has beautiful berries – I was very gingerly not eating this one because I saw the movie about the Stinson Plane Wreck and a survivor came up with a berry in his mouth which he fed to another survivor.  I thought this was a peculiar thing to do and blamed the eating of the berry for the act, but the fruit isn’t really poisonous, and really tastes quite nice to eat. Plant the seed after you’ve eaten it and grow a walking stick palm. The Weevil Plant (Mollinaria) is not a Palm.

There are several vines which have edible fruit – the climbing Pandanus (Freycinetia excelsa) is all through the forest here – it has a Pandanus like fruit – red and succulent and if you get them before the birds find them, you’re lucky as they’re always at the top of the canopy.

The Lomandras have little teeth on the ends of their leaves – if you pull them up you can eat the little white bit at the base – it tastes a little like coconut but sometimes people mis-identify them and they try and chew some sedges or grasses so it’s important to know what you’re eating.  The Aboriginal people would collect the fruit called nuts and pound them up to make a flour – there’s male and female plants – these plants are used extensively in landscaping.  You can eat the light green tips but as soon as it turns dark green, the chlorophyll makes it bitter.  Anything light green is yummy and chewy when raw.

The Cocky Apple (Planchonia careya) grows from Bundaberg to North Qld. and quite often they have big round fruits which the cockatoos eat but quite often they have a big witchity grub in them that the Aboriginees ate.

The natives also ate the gall from the Bloodwoods (Corymbia) they were called Bloodwood Apples, and they would have a very nice witchery grub inside them. 

There are several plants in the bush which are very good for getting rid of sandflies and mosquitoes. They have a remarkable smell – each one has a different lanolin type smell and this particular variety is the one which has the most oil in it – it’s called the Sandfly Bush – the best one is Zieria smithii –you rub a couple of leaves on your skin – don’t strip the tree – you only need a leaf or two.  The oils will coat your skin and stop the insects from biting you. As you sweat the smell wears off so keep a sprig in your pocket to reapply when needed.  Some of the chemical companies are using it in their repellants. It doesn’t keep mossies/sandflies away if you plant it in your garden – the leaves have to be crushed to release the oils.  It also works on leeches. I tested it on my brother – I got him to rub it on one leg before he went down to Kondalilla Falls and when he came back up, he was riddled with leeches but only on one leg so I said to him “Doesn’t that prove something?” and he replied “It’s not very scientific!”

Another bush tucker plant are the Backhousias.  B. myrtifolia is good for making tea – if you crush the leaves, it smells like juicy fruit – you can have a one leaf cup or a two leaf cup – just add boiling water to the crushed leaf. Young leaf is best! B.citriodoria is also good for tea and can also can be used to keep the moths and silverfish out of the linen cupboard and there is also B. anasata which smells like aniseed. 

The Orange Thorn (Pittosporum multiflorum) (previously known as Citriobatus) has lovely berries which the birds eat but it’s prickly so it allows the birds to hide in it and it’s good to plant where you don’t want people. There’s a thornless one out around Cooroy.

The Brown Pine (Podocarpus elatus) has a plum-like fruit which fall from the tree and are quite delicious – used in jams and liqueurs – you can’t tell when they are a small plant if they are male or female – you can try the wedding ring over the top but I wouldn’t recommend it – I tried this when I was pregnant and I was suppose to have 2 boys and I had 2 girls!!

The Leichhardt tree (Nauclea orientalis) has pretty flowers and when the fruit fall they become soft and juicy and you’re suppose to be able to eat them but I’ve tried other people on them but they said it was just OK!

The really nice one is the Candle Nut  (Aleurites moluccana v moluccana) – grows really fast and is very large – on the ground you will find little rocks which they produce as fruit – you can roast these they are quite a nice nut – like coconut – roasted is best because it has a lot of oils in it – roasting will take the oils away – the toxicity is in the oils. The fruit were threaded by our early pioneers and used as a candle and it use to burn for a long time because of the oils in the fruit. Candle Nut is a laxative! They crossed the Qld Nut (Macadamia integrifolia) with Maroochy Nut M. tetraphylla and found that the fruit were even better and called it “Home Beauty” and it has nice pink flowers. 

We have to start thinking of keeping plants which are indigenous to our area – the more trees you bring in the more pests you may have in the future. The Davidsons Plum (Davidsonia pruriens) – some have fruit on the stem and others have fruit on an axil – you need to stew them or make a jam – they’re very tart if eaten on their own.  It’s a very large tree so keep it pruned to the height you want and it will reshoot. You’d do this to get the fruit. There’s a Nth Qld variety and a Southern variety which is called Davidsonia pruriens v.jerseyiana which is the nicest one – very useful as an indoor plant – will even fruit inside!  When it is flowering, take it outside as it smells like a mouse has been through the house.

The Monkey Nut (Hicksbeachia) have lovely looking fruit – I’ve never eaten it as I’ve needed the seed to grow.

The Burdekin Plum (Pleiogynium timorense) has male & female trees and the fruit is lovely when stewed.  

Flax Lily (Dianella spp) – the possums love to eat my berries and although a lot of the different species are very tasty, you should only try one or two as they were not a part of the Aboriginal diet in the areas where records were kept so never use them as the major ingredient if you are cooking with them – different species have different colours.

The Swamp Hisbiscus (Hibiscus diversifolia) has an edible flower but suffers from beetle attack so spray them with lemon or garlic you won’t have any problem.

If ever you get bitten by anything from a spider to a jumping ant, rub the sap of the Spider Lily (Crinum pedunculatum) on it and it will cure it within 5 minutes – the aboriginees used it as a treatment for marine stingers – I used it for a jumping ant bite and it lasted for 4 hours – after that I couldn’t hold onto the steering wheel of my car but I also gave it to a fellow who had been bitten by a redback spider and I saw him sitting there in agony so I fixed him with the Crinum which fixed him – the doctor rang me up afterwards to find out what plant I had used on it. What I think happens is that the bite is acid and the plant was alkaline and it was neutralizing it. The Crinum which are growing around Floras Restaurant here can be used with any bite eg ants, spiders and Aboriginees use them if they get stung by marine stingers and bluebottles. 

Cunjevoi (Alocasia brisbanensis) All parts are poisonous but if you are stung by the Gympie Stinger tree you can use the sap on your skin and after you peel off the dried sap it will then take the glass particles out of your skin – sticky tape also works. 

Mistletoes don’t always kill the host tree. If the tree didn’t want it on, it would cut off the circulation from that branch and the branch would then drop off. This particular one specializes on Wattles Amyema congener ssp congener – beautiful flowers and lots more nectar than other flowers to ensure pollination. Each mistletoe species is host to a different tree and what I want to know is how the bird knows what tree to sit on.  If a tree is unhealthy you’ll notice that the Mistletoe will attack the weakest tree. The bird carries the Mistletoe seed and expels it out which spreads the Mistletoe around. Pipturus argenteus – there are male and female in these trees has little white translucent fruit which you can eat and they’re lovely and sweet and the Mistletoe bird loves them so if you have one of these in your garden  you’ll have the continual delight of the Mistletoe bird song which is cheery, happy and sweet. There’s about 8 other birds which share it with the Mistletoe bird.

Most grasses have fibrous roots and the sedges have rhizomes and somebody said that Blady grass (Imperata cylindrica) must be a sedge because it has nice white rhizomes but it also has fibrous roots – the white rhizome of the native Blady grass is very nice to eat – it tastes like coconut. Although it is an undesirable here, they sell it in Melbourne to put in their gardens. Cows can’t graze it as they have difficulty in digesting it and it has poor food value . It can also be used for thatching. The lovely plant  Psychotria loniceroides has clear coloured berries and as they’re so small it takes a lot to have a feed but when you’re on a long bush walk they’re pretty good.

The Brown Pine (Podocarpus elatus) have male and female trees and of course only the female have fruit which is nice in jams. 

The nicest part of the  Scrambling Lily (Geitonoplesium cymosum) to eat is the new young growth but all parts of the plant are eaten – it’s like snow peas.

The native Quince (Guioa semiglauca) has male and female trees.

The Sandpaper Fig (Ficus coronata) is edible and it has a lovely way of getting pollinated – the fig has flowers in the centre of the fruit – the male and the female wasp pollinate the fig by going inside the fruit – the male is born blind and wingless and he mates with a female and doesn’t leave home so watch out when you’re eating a fig that you don’t bite into him!

The lovely Fern (Culcita dubia) was used in the old days to pack strawberries – it’s not bracken and quite often you read in books that the bracken’s fiddlehead (ie the new shoots) were eaten by the Aborigines but I think they mistook it for this particular plant because I know that tree ferns were used in such a way that they’d cut down the top to eat but that would kill the treefern as it did with palms also. It tasted a bit like cabbage but the cabbage tree is really good for tiny marsupial mice – Antichinus. This fern likes to grow in the shade whereas the Bracken (Pteridium esculentum) grows out in the sunlight. The Bracken fern is cancer producing (poisonous).

The Water Vine (Cissus) has lots of different qualities – it contains oxalic acid and the fruit has little crystals on its grapes and some people are sensitive to it. You can drink the water from the vine – I was given some juice from the vine and it tasted a little like sugar cane but it was a little hot. Cissus hypoglauca is another vine which can be very drying in the mouth – test it out on your partner first!! Another vine that is edible is Burny vine – it has male and female. 

The Blue Quandong (Elaeocarpus grandis) children seem to like it more than adults as it has a lemony flavour.

The Cabbage Tree Palm (Livistona australis) – the heart of this tree is edible. The buttress roots of rainforest trees have a way of channelling the water so that the tree will get enough moisture – you’ll notice that when the tree is on a cliff they will be stopping the water from flowing down so they’re planning to have as much moisture as possible by having large buttressed roots.  These buttressed roots on the rainforest trees aren’t very deep – they’re all on the top – that’s where most of the rainforest litter is held so that’s why they stay up on top.

The Candle Vine (Pothos longipes) is edible has a flat stem but resembles a candle and the leaf on the end looks like a flame – it has red berries but usually the birds get them before you do as it grows high in the canopy. The many vines are useful for food for the different birds because they’re at different layers in the canopy – the top layer has fruit, the middle layer has vines and the ground layer has the grasses and ferns.

The Corduroy Tamarind (Mischarytera lautereriana & Diploglottis cunninghamii) has a jelly-like fruit on it around Christmas just like the big tamarind and the pioneers use to use it to make cordial. You’d have to pick the fruit off the ground and you didn’t get dirty as it has a plastic membrane around it. The cordial has a lovely tingle as well and the reason it was called Corduroy tamarind was that it had stripes in the wood.

The Native Guava (Eupomatia laurina) has scented flowers – the Aboriginees called it Bolwarra. The fruit are taken when they’re soft and jelly like – it has a few seeds in it but save them to eat.  Eupomatia bennetii has a tuberous bulb, which contains water so if you’re in the desert you can try this one.

The Native Raspberry (Rubus) is very prickly – best one is Rubus moluicanas and this one doesn’t get out of control. The old adage that if a bird eats a fruit, then its safe for you is not true – a pure fallacy e.g. a bird can eat a White Cedar berry but it’s toxic to humans so testing your partner is still the best way!!!

The Native Mulberry (Pipturis argentica) has male and female plants and the fruit are juicy and tender – it’s a marginal rainforest plant. You can’t tell if they are male or female when you buy the plant.

The little Kurrajong (Brachychiton bidwillii) seeds taste like almonds but there’s a lot of irritating hairs around the fruit so its best to roast them – just take the little yellow casing off them after cooking.

Any of the Stinging Tree (Dendrocnide) fruit are edible and quite often I’ve eaten them and I’ve been told that if one of the stinging hairs got stuck in my throat, my throat would have swelled. What the Aborigines did was put them in their dilly bag and put them in running water.

The Celery Wood (Polyscias elegans) berries are purple and are hard to set seed so I decided that the only way I was going to get some was for a bird to eat them and collect the droppings – only trouble was I chose the wrong bird – a cockatoo chews and grinds their seeds and I should have chosen a fruit pigeon!! These plants can be transplanted very easily.

Wattle (Acacia) seeds are nice to eat with the nicest being Acacia fimbriata – quite often I’ve collected a bagful but once they come out of the pod the air  turns the seed hard so they are like very hard tiny rocks and I’ve discovered that if I leave them in the pod and let people take out the seed themselves from the pod  that they are just right to eat. The Acacia tastes a little bit like almonds – they’re ground up and put into cakes. Just a bit of a botanical lesson – all wattles have nectar glands and the nectar gland exists because they don’t have any nectar in their flowers so that’s why you don’t get any Honeyeaters in your wattles but if you hold your stem upright and look along the edge, you can see a little pimple-like structure and that’s a gland and as they have any nectar in their flowers they exude it from their leaves so you’ll often see them being eaten by insects. If you can’t see it, just run your finger along the top.  You might need a magnifying glass sometimes.

Ann has published some wonderful books. ‘Tree ID Made Easy’.

We had an article by her brother Tony Bean some years ago in our newsletter on Native Raspberries.

Article compiled by Sheryl Backhouse

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In Australia, the summer months are December, January and February

Now is the time to graft. Net trees against the Fruit Piercing Moth and other Predators after flowering and put up bait traps. Once trees have set flowers & fruit, start watering well otherwise you’ll have fruit drop. Deal with the Fruit Fly issue otherwise you won’t get good fruit – Organic Natural Ecolure or non-organic Rogor starting early summer – you’ll need a couple of sprays.

Summer Pruning of Stone Fruit – There is another school of thought that pruning in summer can push stone fruit into winter flowering and a fruit-fly free crop of stone fruit in spring.  Wait until the trees are in full leaf and beginning to bear fruit before cutting back. By now they have exhausted all their stored nutrients and are incapable of sprouting again with the same vigour. This is the easiest way to control growth of over-vigorous trees without waste.  It also means there is less to prune next winter.  After summer pruning, the energy of the trees is directed more towards fruit production and away from sprouting useless wood.  If summer pruning is carried out every year, even the most aggressive fruit trees are reined in.  Extra fruiting also acts as a brake to excessive growth.  With stone fruits, summer pruning brings extra benefits.  Most are susceptible to invasion by disease if pruning wounds remain unhealed and exposed for long periods in winter.  This is one of the reasons pruning operations are carried out during summer or autumn.

After pruning, healing starts immediately, quickly sealing up wounds and limiting disease entry.    Peach and Nectarine are now sprouting plenty of inward-growing and surplus new wood which carries little fruit and the same goes for Plums and Almonds.  Remove these branches. Overall weight of fruit is about the same  – difference is the remaining fruit fills out a little more to compensate so better fruit quality is gained. The traditional prune in winter results in a lot of new growth from the top of the tree and this in turn gets cut off again the following winter – a wasteful practice. (Peter Cundall – Gardening Australia and Bruce Chadfield)

General Pruning of your trees:  With very large trees, only prune 20% off the tree. If the tree needs to be pruned, it is preferable to take out just one major limb, and preferably an upright one each year, though you could get away with taking two out.

Having problems with getting your tree to flower/fruit? Peter Young from Birdwood Nursery says that if the flowers on your fruit trees are aborting, spray the following recipe on all flowers of your fruit trees – no need to use it on citrus. He emphasised that it must be sprayed on just when the flower starts to emerge although in Israel they put it on Lychee when the flower is 5-6mm. Mix 1gm Borax in warm/hot water with ½ gm Urea and 1 litre of water or if you prefer to use Solubor instead of Borax, you only use half a gram as it is twice the strength.

Asparagus   Mid-summer, stop watering or fertilizing to slow down growth.

Avocado    Prune November and February but no more than 20% of the tree. Nip & tuck small amounts to maintain the size tree you want..   As soon as the young red leaves turn green in January, inject against Phytophthora.

Bananas   Plant out in summer up until February. De-sucker in March – leaving one parent and one sucker per clump. Fertilise with one handful of Dolomite monthly to supply nitrogen. Molasses and Maxicrop for Potassium. Cover bananas. Fungicide – if yellowing of leaves with dark-brown or black speckle patches on the undersides is prevalent, consider spraying with Zineb, Mancozeb or equivalent.

Babaco   It will flower and fruit in one season in the sub tropics but here it has flowers and green fruit in Summer/Autumn then from Sept to Dec they ripen, while the next set start growing above this lot. This means you don’t get to cut down the tree to a stump for it to shoot again (if you do you lose a year’s fruit) so I run two branches and cut them alt years to get fruit every year. (George Allen)

Blueberry   Water well during fruiting.

Citrus  October and November are when the Bronze Orange Bugs appear on citrus trees. Juvenile are small and greenish, the next stage are a bright orange and the adults are large and dark coloured with ridges on their lower back. They all cause damage to your citrus trees by sucking sap and give away their presence by their foul smell. The young pale green nymphs appear in winter, their colour changes through orange to bronze as they grow to adults. Also watch out for the Spined Citrus Bug. They can be serious pests in some areas causing flower and fruit drop by sucking on the stalks. Hand removal is possible, use a bucket of hot water to knock the bugs into. It’s possible to use an old vacuum cleaner to suck up the insects but the smell would definitely linger in the machine. Wear protective goggles, long sleeves and gloves as the caustic fluid squirted by these bugs is very dangerous and painful, particularly to the eyes. Fertilize in November. If water stress occurs during November, December and January, young fruit that has set will drop off. October and March is when the female releases her eggs so this is the time to spray with pest oil.

Sweet Corn   To check if ripe, press into one of the kernels with a fingernail – if ready, sap will be milky.

Custard Apple   Spray the flowers with Boron when they are about one-third grown. Tip prune in Dec. and strip leaves to encourage 2nd flowering. Keep trees well watered. After fruitset, thin out to achieve larger fruit. Continue to hand pollinate Pinks Mammoth and Hillary White. Fertilise Jan. & Mar.with either Nitrophoska or Rustica  plus 2gms of boron per sq mtr.  Put old rockmelon or pineapple in a container to encourage the nitjulid beetles but contain so that crows don’t get at it. Collect pollen 3-5pm sieve then use a No 7 paintbrush – keep ground moist – prune to an open goblet cut at 60cm off ground then 2 leader branches then cut each branch at 40cm.  Watch for sunburn on trunk – paint with a waterbase paint.

Feijoa   Jan.  Apply 2 handfuls of Potash. Feb.  Sulphate of Ammonia – thin out fruit to achieve larger size on remaining ones.

Figs are only produced on new wood of the new season’s growth

Ginger   Ready to dig up in March

Granadilla   Strike cuttings during the wet season 30cm long from vigorous lateral branches. Fruit sets on new wood – pollinate 4-6 hours after flower opens

Jackfruit   Only leave 1 fruit per stem – cut off the others.

Lychee   Peak water needs approaching harvest – harvest only the mature fruit – fertilize with (organic) 100 g per sq. m. of Organic Extra 2 weeks before harvest. Net trees against pests and predators. Use Rogor or sulphur to control Erinose Mite on new leaf growth at 2 week intervals until new growth has hardened off.  Mulch trees well.  In SE Qld, do everything to encourage a prompt flush straight after harvest (beginning early March). Cincture after growth flush in March – do half the tree – copper wire used in Thailand.

Macadamia   Take soft mature tips for cuttings

Mango   Fertilize with 100 g per sq.m of Organic Extra to drip line. Prune after harvest and remove all the old stalks – don’t prune heavily as you’ll affect next year’s crop. Keep the tree to a manageable size.  Jan – Mar is the time to top work if you want to graft on a new variety. You can’t graft a monoembryonic onto a polyembryonic.  If Anthracnose is present, use a copper spray.  R2E2 is ready to pick when it has a flat top. Nov-Feb peak time for grafting Mango – use a Whip or Side Veneer graft

Passionfruit  (Organic) Fertilize monthly with 200gms of Organic Extra per vine and keep up the water. (Non-Organic) Apply Superphosphate if you’re getting lots of flowers and no fruit.

Papaw  Fertilize monthly with 50gms Organic Extra per sq.mtr. until May.or 200gms of Tropic. Every 3 weeks Fish Emulsion & Kelp. Spray with copper if Black Spot is seen.  Keep well watered.  Apply 3gms borax per litre – dissolve in hot water Nov and Jan. Chop down to 1 mtr. after fruiting has finished. Put a tin over the stump. Plant out seeds in Jan.

Persimmon   Start decreasing water.   Fertilise monthly until March with 50gms sq.mtr

Pitaya   If you get heavy dews at night, they definitely have a problem with pollen exploding.  Get a variety that self pollinates and check that if you’re hand pollinating, you get the male/female bit right so you’re pollinating the right part correctly! In Taiwan during the wet season, they slip a large brown paper bag over the flower in the afternoon and the following morning they would give the paper bag a shake to pollinate the flower. Moths do visit the flowers at night but some flowers have a long stigma that sticks out past the anthers and it doesn’t matter how many insects visit at night, pollination will not occur. In some varieties, the flower stays open until 9am the following morning and the honey bees do the pollination.  Varieties sold: Little Red which has large fruit which is bee pollinated in the morning; Thai White which is fully self pollinated and Vietnamese White which must be hand pollinated at night. (Peter Young – Birdwood Nursery)  You can also hand pollinate from a different species. Pollen will last up to 10 days in cold storage. (Edgar Valdivia)

Soursop   Fruit ready to pick when spines are a good distance apart all over the fruit and if really ready has a slight golden blush. Pick fruit when dark green fades to yellow green. Softens to ripe in 1-3 days.

Strawberries  Keep well watered to encourage healthy new runners. Plant out new runners in February and March

Potatoes  Plant out certified seed – don’t water too much until flowering starts and keep hilled up from then on.

Pumpkins   Plant out in January

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Stratification: that’s what we do to break dormancy in many seeds, particularly deciduous tree species from the northern hemisphere. It involves the storage of seed in semi moist conditions at temperatures near freezing for periods of from 1-3 months.

Seed should be from fully ripe fruit and is initially stored in cool conditions where it won’t dry out. This simulates the falling of bird pecked fruit with its subsequent drying and covering with leaf litter. The sticky outer coating of fruit initially prevents drying out of the seed and eventually breaks down exposing the seed to the conditions we refer to as stratification.

Seed from fruit consumed by humans shouldn’t have any sticky covering left. It can be briefly dried, dipped in a fungicidal solution and stored in a cool place where it won’t dry out. I store my seeds initially in plastic bags inside a styrofoam esky. This can then go straight into the fridge for the stratification stage.

A moist free draining mix of washed sand, sphagnum moss, perlite or the like is used for stratification. The medium should be damp but not wet. Traditionally seed is stratified in beds of sand outside. The southern side of a building increases the chill factor. A 3-4 cm bottom layer of sand is followed with a layer of seeds then covered with a layer of sand and so on. The top layer of sand is mounded up in the centre to allow for run off of rainwater. Protection from rats and mice is required. Similar conditions can be achieved by stratifying seed in a damp medium sealed in a plastic bag in the fridge. In spring after 1-3 months stratification stonefruit shells may have opened up. If not tap them gently with a hammer to open them and remove the seed. This can be planted in open ground or in pots. Well grown spring seedlings may be mature enough to be budded in late summer or grafted in winter.

If you’re in Adelaide, the Club meets on the 3rd Tuesday of odd months 7:45pm at the Burnside Community Centre, 401 Greenhill Road, Tusmore, corner of Portrush Road, behind Burnside Town Hall.  Visitors Welcome.   http://www.rarefruit-sa.org.au/

Authored by: 

Harry Harrison – President – South Australian Rare Fruit Society

Sourced from: 

Sub-Tropical Fruit Club of Qld. Inc Newsletter February – March 2007

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Air layering works on so this is a good indication that cuttings would probably also work if placed inside a mist box and rooting hormone was used. The fruit is ripe when the whole fruit turns purple. The outside skin also loses its gloss. They do not continue to ripen if picked green. They are overripe when the skin becomes wrinkled. If properly ripe they have a wonderful milk shake taste and milky colour. There are also green types of Star Apples. These are ripe when they turn to a golden colour. Both types also become soft, like an avocado, when ripe.   – Oscar, Hawaii

http://www.vnstyle.vdc.com.vn/
This is a good site with info on how the star apple (referred to as milk apple) is eaten in Vietnam. It contains plenty of images. The site is extremely slow so for those with a slow connection, here is a copy of what it says:

No better word than marvelous can be used to praise milk apple, or star apple, a tropical fruit with the name Vu Sua (milk from the breast). Upon entering a milk apple orchard, the most famous located in Can Tho province in the Mekong Delta, visitors can see for themselves the hundreds of milk apples suspended from the branches. The round smooth fruit are all of equal size. The shape of the milk apple matches the name attached to it, as does its juice, which is fragrantly sweet and milky white. If visitors are unfamiliar to the region, the locals will guide them on how to enjoy the fruit. A novice will certainly peel the fruit with a sharp knife, which may cause the precious juice inside to be wasted. When using a knife to cut the fruit, it is advisable to cut the fruit into two parts before using a spoon to scoop out the pulp, bit by bit, until nothing is left. The most popular way to enjoy the fruit by orchard owners is to eat the whole fruit. People tend to drill a small hole at the top of the fruit, lift it to their mouths, lean their heads backward, and drink the flow of the fragrant juice. One thing you should remember before taking in the juice is that you must squeeze the tough fruit until it becomes tender so that the juice mixes with the meat of the fruit to become a sweet and fragrant muddy substance that looks like breast milk.

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In Australia, the spring  months are September, October and November.

• Plant new fruit trees and mulch the old ones well – put in some Rosellas – they look great! Lovely as cut flowers

• Spray flowers of Custard Apples, Carambola, Mangoes, Avocados & Apples with 1g of Boron per litre of water

• Sulphate of Potash & Magnesium/Boron in Sept. to citrus

• Now is the time to practice your grafting/marcotting skills

• If you want to topgraft your Mangoes to another variety, then prune now and wait for new growth to appear in summer, then topwork

• Start watering heavily once fruit appear on your trees.

Abiu	100gms Sulphate of Potash per sq mtr.
Avocado	Inject sick trees with half-strength Phosphorous acid end of Oct. early Nov. when spring growth matures.  You can spray but one injection equals 3 sprays. 2gms per sq mtr of Borax or half strength if using Solubor.  100gm sq.mtr Gypsum.
Bananas	Plant out now. Fertilise established clumps.
Citrus	Watch for Leaf Miner which affects new growth – spray only the new growth with Confidor & Seasol.  Spray Citrus with Pest Oil to control Aphids/Scale and Leaf Miner. Bronze Citrus Bug – use Baythroid or above or pick off by hand. One kilo of Dynamic Lifter and a closed hand of Nitrophoska Blue per sq mtr plus Gypsum and occasionally Dolomite. If you’re on sandy soil, one dressing of Zinc Sulphate 30gms per sq mtr will do the trick for 4 years for zinc. Also Sulphate of Potash & Magnesium/Boron. Spring is the time to bud graft.
Custard Apple	Leaf loss should occur.  Time to prune new shoots on trees so growth goes into fruit.  Mulch and low irrigation. Fertilise with chook manure and foliar fertilize with zinc. Lime Potash and Calcium = sweet fruit – 2 handfuls (it needs trace elements now) Start watering in October when flowering commences. With shy-bearing Pinks Mammoth, spray the flowers with a mixture of 1tsp Borax, 1tsp Urea with 1ltr water. Use zinc on Cuban Fibreless Soursop to make it fruit
Feijoas	Jan – Apply half a handful of Super before flowering.
Figs	In July prune 2/3rds off as fruit is only produced on new wood of new seasons growth. Fertilize and mulch well.  Spray Mancozeb for Brown Spot & Rust control with Carbaryl to control the Fig Beetle and then monthly until harvest.
Green Sapote	Difficult to set fruit so Kaspar recommends a mix of fertilizers to the dripline: 2 cups Magnesium (Epsom Salts) half cup Zinc Sulphate Heptahydrate, half cup Agricultural Boron (Borax OK)
Jaboticaba	September – Fertilize with a handful of Potash 50g/m2
Lychee	A boron spray or two on the developing flowers is a good idea to ensure flower fertility. Increase irrigation during early fruit development.  Ease off the irrigation from early November (moderate water stress in December / early January can reduce fruit drop).
Mango	Once flowering occurs, spray with Mancozeb based spray every 2 weeks if anthracnose is present on flowers then copper on monthly on your fruit. Foliar fertilize with a 1% solution of Potassium Nitrate at beginning of flowering and repeat every 7-10 days later – induces flowering and fruit set. If you get a lot of rain that wrecks the flowers, prune off the diseased inflorescences (only) and they will usually flower again.Apply Calcium and Boron foliar fertilizer to flowers only when panicles are finger length every 14-21 days through the flowering phase until fruit reaches golfball size. If you want to topwork ie. graft another variety on, then now is the time to cut back the branches as you’ll be grafting onto the new shoots Jan – Mar next year. Florigon variety suggested for the Brisbane area. Start watering heavily once fruit has set on your trees.
Passionfruit	Vines come out of dormancy – apply fertilizer and mulch out to 2-3 metres.
Pawpaw	Spray with Wettable Sulphur with a wetting agent in the evening if Spider Mite is present. Half a teaspoon of Borax per plant/ m2.
Rollinia	Foliar fertilise with a 1% solution of zinc sulphate
Stone Fruit	Water well/prune out water shoots and dense foliage for better fruit size. Start fruit fly control program when fruit half grown. Take cuttings 45cm long from 1 or 2 year old wood. Remove leaves & cut squarely at the base immediately below a node. Only select cuttings from disease free plants.
Tamarillos	Flowering commences in the early varieties – low irrigation requirement
White & Black Sapote	Tip prune in October

Authored by: 

Sheryl Backhouse from various sources

Sourced from: 

STFC Newsletter October – November 2006

Date sourced: 

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This is a widely distributed shrub from Madagascar and Africa and it’s found widely through the tropics. The leaves are shiny and from 7-20cm long and are pale green in colour and are opposite on the branches. At fruiting time, small greenish white flowers are borne in clusters in the axils of the leaves and from these round to pear shaped fruit develop which can be up to 5cm and contain 4 or 5 large seeds. The fruit at full maturity is green smooth and has white dots, but if allowed to remain on the bush after maturity eventually the fruits shrivel and become brown in colour. At this stage the flavour is suggestive of the tamarind. You can also eat the fruit when it is fresh at full maturity and it is sweet and sub-acid suggesting an unripe or greenish apple. The shrubs are reported to be quite drought tolerant and seemingly well adapted for a wide variety of soil. Propagation is easily accomplished by cuttings or planting seeds and there has been little if any selection of superior varieties. Cold hardiness is unknown, but it should definitely be tried.

Authored by: 

Gene Joyner Palm Beach County Co-op Ext. Service

Sourced from: 

Sub-Tropical Fruit Club of Qld. Inc Newsletter June – July 2007

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Of the 60 or more species of the genus Annona, family Annonaceae, the soursop, A. muricata L., is the most tropical, the largest-fruited, and the only one lending itself well to preserving and processing. It is generally known in most Spanish-speaking countries as guanabana; in E1 Salvador, as guanaba; in Guatemala, as huanaba; in Mexico, often as zopote de viejas, or cabeza de negro; in Venezuela, as catoche or catuche; in Argentina, as anona de puntitas or anona de broquel; in Bolivia, sinini; in Brazil, araticum do grande, graviola, or jaca do Para; in the Netherlands Antilles, sorsaka or zunrzak, the latter name also used in Surinam andJava; in French-speaking areas of the West Indies, West Africa, and Southeast Asia, especially North Vietnam, it is known as corossol, grand corossol, corossol epineux, or cachiman epineux. In Malaya it may be called durian belanda, durian maki; or seri kaya belanda; in Thailand, thu-rian-khack. In 1951, Prof. Clery Salazar, who was encouraging the development of soursop products at the College of Agriculture at Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, told me that they would like to adopt an English name more appealing than the word “soursop”, and not as likely as guanabana to be mispronounced. To date, no altematives have been chosen.

Fig. 21: The soursop tree may bear fruits anywhere on its trunk or branches. Multiple-stems of this tree are the result of its having been frozen to the ground more than once.

Description The soursop tree is low-branching and bushy but slender because of its upturned limbs, and reaches a height of 25 or 30 ft (7.5-9 m). Young branchlets are rusty-hairy. The malodorous leaves, normally evergreen, are alternate, smooth, glossy, dark green on the upper surface, lighter beneath; oblong, elliptic or narrowobovate, pointed at both ends, 2 1/2 to 8 in (6.25-20 cm) long and 1 to 2 1/2 in (2.5-6.25 cm) wide. The flowers, which are borne singly, may emerge anywhere on the trunk, branches or twigs. They are short stalked, 1 1/2 to 2 in (4 5 cm) long, plump, and triangular-conical, the 3 fleshy, slightly spreading, outer petals yellow-green, the 3 close-set inner petals pale-yellow.

The fruit is more or less oval or heart-shaped, some times irregular, lopsided or curved, due to improper carper development or insect injury. The size ranges from 4 to 12 in (10-30 cm) long and up to 6 in (15 cm) in width, and the weight may be up to 10 or 15 lbs (4.5-6.8 kg). The fruit is compound and covered with a reticulated, leathery-appearing but tender, inedible, bitter skin from which protrude few or many stubby, or more elongated and curved, soft, pliable “spines”. The tips break off easily when the fruit is fully ripe. The skin is dark-green in the immature fruit, becoming slightly yellowish-green before the mature fruit is soft to the touch. Its inner surface is cream-colored and granular and separates easily from the mass of snow-white, fibrous, juicy segments—much like flakes of raw fish—surrounding the central, soft-pithy core. In aroma, the pulp is somewhat pineapple-like, but its musky, subacid to acid flavor is unique. Most of the closely-packed segments are seedless. In each fertile segment there is a single oval, smooth, hard, black seed, l/2 to 3/4 in (1.25-2 cm) long; and a large fruit may contain from a few dozen to 200 or more seeds.

Origin and Distribution
Oviedo, in 1526, described the soursop as abundant in the West Indies and in northern South America. It is today found in Bermuda and the Bahamas, and both wild and cultivated, from sea-level to an altitude of 3,500 ft (1,150 m) throughout the West Indies and from southern Mexico to Peru and Argentina. It was one of the first fruit trees carried from America to the Old World Tropics where it has become widely distributed from southeastern China to Australia and the warm lowlands of eastern and western Africa. It is common in the markets of Malaya and southeast Asia. Very large, symmetrical fruits have been seen on sale in South Vietnam. It became well established at an early date in the Pacific Islands. The tree has been raised successfully but has never fruited in Israel. In Florida, the soursop has been grown to a limited extent for possibly 110 years. Sturtevant noted that it was not included by Atwood among Florida fruits in 1867 but was listed by the American Pomological Society in 1879. A tree fruited at the home of John Fogarty of Manatee before the freeze of 1886. In the southeastern part of the state and especially on the Florida Keys, it is often planted in home gardens. In regions where sweet fruits are preferred, as in South India and Guam, the soursop has not enjoyed great popularity. It is grown only to a limited extent in Madras. However, in the East Indies it has been acclaimed one of the best local fruits. In Honolulu, the fruit is occasionally sold but the demand exceeds the supply. The soursop is one of the most abundant fruits in the Dominican Republic and one of the most popular in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Colombia and northeastern Brazil. In 1887, Cuban soursops were selling in Key West, Florida, at 10 to 50 cents apiece. In 1920, Wilson Popenoe wrote that: “In the large cities of tropical America, there is a good demand for the fruits at all times of the year, a demand which is not adequately met at present.” The island of Grenada produces particularly large and perfect soursops and regularly delivers them by boat to the market of Port-of Spain because of the shortage in Trinidad. In Colombia, where the soursop is generally large, well-formed and of high quality, this is one of the 14 tropical fruits recommended by the Instituto Latinoamericano de Mercadeo Agricola for large-scale planting and marketing. Soursops produced in small plots, none over 5 acres (2.27 ha), throughout Venezuela supply the processing plants where the frozen concentrate is packed in 6 oz (170 g) cans. In 1968, 2,266 tons (936 MT) of juice were processed in Venezuela. The strained pulp is also preserved commercially in Costa Rica. There are a few commercial soursop plantations near the south coast of Puerto Rico and several processing factories. In 1977, the Puerto Rican crop totaled 219,538 lbs (99,790 kg). At the First International Congress of Agricultural and Food Industries of the Tropical and Subtropical Zones, held in 1964, scientists from the Research Laboratories of Nestle Products in Vevey, Switzerland, presented an evaluation of lesser-known tropical fruits and cited the soursop, the guava and passionfruit as the 3 most promising for the European market, because of their distinctive aromatic qualities and their suitability for processing in the form of preserved pulp, nectar and jelly.

Varieties
In Puerto Rico, the wide range of forms and types of seedling soursops are roughly divided into 3 general classifications: sweet, subacid, and acid; then subdivided as round, heart-shaped, oblong or angular; and finally classed according to flesh consistency which varies from soft and juicy to firm and comparatively dry. The University of Puerto Rico’s Agricultural Experiment Station at one time cataloged 14 different types of soursops in an area between Aibonito and Coamo. In El Salvador, 2 types of soursops are distinguished: guanaba azucaron (sweet) eaten raw and used for drinks; and guanaba acida (very sour), used only for drinks. In the Dominican Republic, the guanabana dulce (sweet soursop) is most sought after. The term “sweet” is used in a relative sense to indicate low acidity. A medium-sized, yellow-green soursop called guanabana sin fibre (fiberless) has been vegetatively propagated at the Agricultural Experiment Station at Santiago de las Vegas, Cuba. The foliage of this superior clone is distinctly bluish-green. In 1920, Dr. Wilson Popenoe sent to the United States Department of Agriculture, from Costa Rica, budwood of a soursop he named ‘Bennett’ in honour of G.S. Bennett, Agricultural Superintendent of the Costa Rican Division of the United Fruit Company. He described the fruit as large and handsome (as shown in the photograph accompanying the introduction record No. 51050) and he declared the tree to be the most productive he had seen.

Climate
The soursop is truly tropical. (Sheryl: It grows & fruits very well in SE Qld) Young trees in exposed places in southem Florida are killed by only a few degrees of frost. The trees that survive to fruiting age on the mainland are in protected situations, close to the south side of a house and sometimes near a source of heat. Even so, there will be temporary defoliation and interruption of fruiting when the temperature drops to near freezing. In Key West, where the tropical breadfruit thrives, the soursop is perfectly at home. In Puerto Rico, the tree is said to prefer an altitude between 800 and 1,000 ft (244300 m), with moderate humidity, plenty of sun and shelter from strong winds.

Soil
Best growth is achieved in deep, rich, well-drained, semi-drysoil, but the soursop tree can be and is commonly grown in acid and sandy soil, and in the porous, oolitic limestone of South Florida and the Bahama Islands.

Propagation
The soursop is usually grown from seeds. They should be sown in flats or containers and kept moist and shaded. Germination takes from 15 to 30 days. Selected types can be reproduced by cuttings or by shield-budding. Soursop seedlings are generally the best stock for propagation, though grafting onto custard apple (Annona reticulata), the mountain soursop (A. montana), or pond apple (A. glabra), is usually successful. The pond apple has a dwarfing effect. Grafts on sugar apple (A. squamosa) and cherimoya (A. cherimola) do not live for long, despite the fact that the soursop is a satisfactory rootstock for sugar apple in Ceylon and India.

Culture
In ordinary practice, seedlings, when 1 ft (30 cm) or more in height are set out in the field at the beginning of the rainy season and spaced 12 to 15 ft (3.65-4.5 m) apart, though 25 ft (7.5 m) each way has been suggested. A spacing of 20 x 25 ft (6×7.5 m) allows 87 trees per acre (215/ha). Close-spacing, 8 x 8 ft (2.4×2.4 m) is thought sufficient for small gardens in Puerto Rico. The tree grows rapidly and begins to bear in 3 to 5 years. In Queensland, well-watered trees have attained 15 to 18 ft (4.5-5.5 m) in 6 to 7 years. Mulching is recommended to avoid dehydration of the shallow, fibrous root system during dry, hot weather. If in too dry a situation, the tree will cast off all of its old leaves before new ones appear. A fertilizer mixture containing 10% phosphoric acid, 10% potash and 3% nitrogen has been advocated in Cuba and Queensland. But excellent results have been obtained in Hawaii with quarterly applications of 10-10-10 N P K—1\2 lb (.225 kg) per tree the first year, 1 lb (.45 kg)/tree the 2nd year, 3 lbs (1.36 kg)/tree the 3rd year and thereafter.

Season
The soursop tends to flower and fruit more or less continuously, but in every growing area there is a principal season of ripening. In Puerto Rico, this is from March to June or September; in Queensland, it begins in April; in southern India, Mexico and Florida, it extends from June to September; in the Bahamas, it continues through October. In Hawaii, the early crop occurs from January to April; midseason crop, June to August, with peak in July; and there is a late crop in October or November.

Harvesting
The fruit is picked when full grown and still firm but slightly yellow-green. If allowed to soften on the tree, it will fall and crush. It is easily bruised and punctured and must be handled with care. Firm fruits are held a few days at room temperature. When eating ripe, they are soft enough to yield to the slight pressure of one’s thumb. Having reached this stage, the fruit can be held 2 or 3 days longer in a refrigerator. The skin will blacken and become unsightly while the flesh is still unspoiled and usable. Studies of the ripening process in Hawaii have determined that the optimum stage for eating is 5 to 6 days after harvest, at the peak of ethylene production. Thereafter, the flavour is less pronounced and a faint offodor develops. In Venezuela, the chief handicap in commercial processing is that the fruits stored on racks in a cool shed must be gone over every day to select those that are ripe and ready for juice extraction.

Yield
The soursop, unfortunately, is a shy-bearer, the usual crop being 12 to 20 or 24 fruits per tree. In Puerto Rico, production of 5,000 to 8,000 lbs per acre (roughly equal kg/ha), is considered a good yield from well-cared-for trees. A study of the first crop of 35 5 year-old trees in Hawaii showed an average of 93.6 lbs (42.5 kg) of fruits per tree. Yield was slightly lower the 2nd year. The 3rd year, the average yield was 172 lbs (78 kg) per tree. At this rate, the annual crop would be 16,000 lbs per acre (roughly equal kg/ha).

Pests & Diseases Queensland’s principal soursop pest is the mealybug which may occur in masses on the fruits. The mealybug is a common pest also in Florida, where the tree is often infessed with scale insects. Sometimes it may be infected by a lace-wing bug.

The fruit is subject to attack by fruit flies—Anastrepha suspensa, A. striata and Ceratitis capitata. Red spiders are a problem in dry climates.

Dominguez Gil (1978 and 1983), presents an extensive list of pests of the soursop in the State of Zulia, Venezuela. The 5 most damaging are: 1) the wasp, Bephratelloides (Bephrata) maculicollis, the larvae of which live in the seeds and emerge from the fully-grown ripe fruit, leaving it perforated and highly perishable; 2) the moth, Cerconota (Stenoma) anonella, which lays its eggs in the very young fruit causing stunting and malformation; 3) Corythucha gossipii; which attacks the leaves; 4) Cratosomus inaequalis, which bores into the fruit, branches and trunk; 5) Laspeyresia sp., which perforates the flowers. The first 3 are among the 7 major pests of the soursop in Colombia, the other 4 being: Toxoptera aurantii; which affects shoots, young leaves, flowers and fruits; present but not important in Venezuela; Aphis spiraecola; Empoasca sp., attacking the leaves; and Aconophora concolor, damaging the flowers and fruits. Important beneficial agents preying on aphids are A phidius testataceipes, Chrysopa sp., and Curinus sp. Lesser enemies of the soursop in South America include: Talponia backeri and T. batesi which damage flowers and fruits; Horiola picta and H. lineolata, feeding on flowers and young branches; Membracis foliata, attacking young branches, flower stalks and fruits; Saissetia nigra; Escama ovalada, on branches, flowers and fruits; Cratosomus bombina, a fruit borer; and Cyclocephala signata, affecting the flowers. In Trinidad, the damage done to soursop flowers by Thecla ortygnus seriously limits the cultivation of this fruit. The sphinx caterpillar, Cocytius antueus antueus may be found feeding on soursop leaves in Puerto Rico. Bagging of soursops is necessary to protect them from Cerconota anonella. However, one grower in the Magdalena Valley of Colombia claims that bagged fruits are more acid than others and the flowers have to be handpollinated.

It has been observed in Venezuela and El Salvador that soursop trees in very humid areas often grow well but bear only a few fruits, usually of poor quality, which are apt to rot at the tip. Most of their flowers and young fruits fall because of anthracnose caused by Collectotrichum gloeosporioides. It has been said that soursop trees for cultivation near San Juan, Puerto Rico, should be seedlings of trees from similarly humid areas which have greater resistance to anthracnose than seedlings from dry zones. The same fungus causes damping-off of seedlings and die-back of twigs and branches. Occasionally the fungus, Scolecotrichum sp. ruins the leaves in Venezuela. In the East Indies, soursop trees are sometimes subject to the root-fungi, Fomes lamaoensis and Diplodia sp. and by pink disease due to Corticum salmonicolor.

Food Uses Soursops of least acid flavor and least fibrous consistency are cut in sections and the flesh eaten with a spoon. The seeded pulp may be torn or cut into bits and added to fruit cups or salads, or chilled and served as dessert with sugar and a little milk or cream. For years, seeded soursop has been canned in Mexico and served in Mexican restaurants in New York and other northern cities. Most widespread throughout the tropics is the making of refreshing soursop drinks (called champola in Brazil; carato in Puerto Rico). For this purpose, the seeded pulp may be pressed in a colander or sieve or squeezed in cheesecloth to extract the rich, creamy juice, which is then beaten with milk or water and sweetened. Or the seeded pulp may be blended with an equal amount of boiling water and then strained and sweetened. If an electric blender is to be used, one must first be careful to remove all the seeds, since they are somewhat toxic and none should be accidentally ground up in the juice. In Puerto Rican processing factories, the hand-peeled and cored fruits are passed through a mechanical pulper having nylon brushes that press the pulp through a screen, separating it from the seeds and fiber. A soursop soft drink, containing 12 to 15% pulp, is canned in Puerto Rico and keeps well for a year or more. The juice is prepared as a carbonated bottled beverage in Guatemala, and a fermented, cider-like drink is sometimes made in the West Indies. The vacuum-concentrated juice is canned commercially in the Philippines. There soursop drinks are popular but the normal “milk” colour is not. The people usually add pink or green food coloring to make the drinks more attractive. The strained pulp is said to be a delicacy mixed with wine or brandy and seasoned with nutmeg. Soursop juice, thickened with a little gelatine, makes an agreeable dessert. In the Dominican Republic, a soursop custard is enjoyed and a confection is made by cooking soursop pulp in sugar syrup with cinnamon and lemon peel. Soursop ice cream is commonly frozen in refrigerator ice-cube trays in warm countries. In the Bahamas, it is simply made by mashing the pulp in water, letting it stand, then straining to remove fibrous material and seeds. The liquid is then blended with sweetened condensed milk, poured into the trays and stirred several times while freezing. A richer product is made by the usual method of preparing an ice cream mix and adding strained soursop pulp just before freezing. Some Key West restaurants have always served soursop ice cream and now the influx of residents from the Caribbean and Latin American countries has created a strong demand for it. The canned pulp is imported from Central America and Puerto Rico and used in making ice cream and sherbet commercially. The pulp is used, too, for making tarts and jelly, syrup and nectar. The syrup has been bottled in Puerto Rico for local use and export. The nectar is canned in Colombia and frozen in Puerto Rico and is prepared fresh and sold in paper cartons in the Netherlands Antilles. The strained, frozen pulp is sold in plastic bags in Philippine supermarkets.

Immature soursops are cooked as vegetables or used in soup in Indonesia. They are roasted or fried in northeastern Brazil. I have boiled the half-grown fruit whole, without peeling. In an hour, the fruit is tender, its flesh off-white and mealy, with the aroma and flavour of roasted ears of green corn (maize).

Food Value of Soursop per 100g of Edible Portion

Calories	61.3-53.1
Moisture	82.8g
Protein	1.00g
Fat	0.97g
Carbohydrates	14.63g
Fiber	0.79g
Ash	60g
Calcium	10.3 mg
Phosphorus	27.7 mg
Iron	0.64 mg
Vitamin A (B-carotene)	0
Thiamine	0.11 mg
Riboflavin	0.05 mg
Niacin	1.28mg
Ascorbic Acid	29.6 mg
Amino Acids:
Tryptophan	11 mg
Methionine	7 mg
Lysine	60mg

*Analyses made at the Laboratorio FIM de Nutricion, Havana, Cuba.

Toxicity The presence of the alkaloids anonaine and anoniine has been reported in this species. The alkaloids muricine, C19H21O4N (possibly des-N-methylisocorydine or des-N methylcorydine) and muricinine, C18H19O4 (possibly des-N-methylcorytuberine), are found in the bark. Muricinine is believed to be identical to reticuline. An unnamed alkaloid occurs in the leaves and seeds. The bark is high in hydrocyanic acid. Only small amounts are found in the leaves and roots and a trace in the fruit. The seeds contain 45% of a yellow non-drying oil which is an irritant poison, causing severe eye inflarnmation. Other Uses Fruit: In the Virgin Islands, the fruit is placed as a bait in fish traps. Seeds: When pulverized, the seeds are effective pesticides against head lice, southern army worms and pea aphids and petroleum ether and chloroform extracts are toxic to black carpet beetle larvae. The seed oil kills head lice. Leaves: The leaf decoction is lethal to head lice and bedbugs. Bark: The bark of the tree has been used in tanning. The bark fiber is strong but, since fruiting trees are not expendable, is resorted to only in necessity. Bark, as well as seeds and roots, has been used as fish poison.

Wood: The wood is pale, aromatic, soft, light in weight and not durable. It has been used for ox yokes because it does not cause hair loss on the neck. In Colombia, it is deemed to be suitable for pipestems and barrelstaves. Analyses in Brazil show cellulose content of 65 to 76%, high enough to be a potential source of paper pulp.

Medicinal Uses: The juice of the ripe fruit is said to be diuretic and a remedy for haematuria and urethritis. Taken when fasting, it is believed to relieve liver ailments and leprosy. Pulverized immature fruits, which are very astringent, are decocted as a dysentery remedy. To draw out chiggers and speed healing, the flesh of an acid soursop is applied as a poultice unchanged for 3 days. In Materia Medica of British Guiana, we are told to break soursop leaves in water, “squeeze a couple of limes therein, get a drunken man and rub his head well with the leaves and water and give him a little of the water to drink and he gets as sober as a judge in no time.” This sobering or tranquilizing formula may not have been widely tested, but soursop leaves are regarded throughout the West Indies as having sedative or soporific properties. In the Netherlands Antilles, the leaves are put into one’s pillowslip or strewn on the bed to promote a good night’s sleep. An infusion of the leaves is commonly taken internally for the same purpose. It is taken as an analgesic and antispasmodic in Esmeraldas Province, Ecuador. In Africa, it is given to children with fever and they are also bathed lightly with it. A decoction of the young shoots or leaves is regarded in the West Indies as a remedy for gall bladder trouble, as well as coughs, catarrh, diarrhoea, dysentery and indigestion; is said to “cool the blood,” and to be able to stop vomiting and aid delivery in childbirth. The decoction is also employed in wet compresses on inflammations and swollen feet. The chewed leaves, mixed with saliva, are applied to incisions after surgery, causing proud flesh to disappear without leaving a scar. Mashed leaves are used as a poultice to alleviate eczema and other skin afflictions and rheumatism, and the sap of young leaves is put on skin eruptions. The roots of the tree are employed as a vermifuge and the root bark as an antidote for poisoning. A tincture of the powdered seeds and bay rum is a strong emetic. Soursop flowers are believed to alleviate catarrh.       
In Puerto Rico, the wide range of forms and types of seedling soursops are roughly divided into 3 general classifications: sweet, subacid, and acid; then subdivided as round, heart-shaped, oblong or angular; and finally classed according to flesh consistency which varies from soft and juicy to firm and comparatively dry. The University of Puerto Rico’s Agricultural Experiment Station at one time catalogued 14 different types of soursops in an area between Aibonito and Coamo. In El Salvador, 2 types of soursops are distinguished: guanaba azucaron (sweet) eaten raw and used for drinks; and guanaba acida (very sour), used only for drinks. In the Dominican Republic, the guanabana dulce (sweet soursop) is most sought after. The term “sweet” is used in a relative sense to indicate low acidity. A medium-sized, yellow-green soursop called guanabana sin fibre (fiberless) has been vegetatively propagated at the Agricultural Experiment Station at Santiago de las Vegas, Cuba. The foliage of this superior clone is distinctly bluish-green. In 1920, Dr. Wilson Popenoe sent to the United States Department of Agriculture, from Costa Rica, budwood of a soursop he named ‘Bennett’ in honour of G.S. Bennett, Agricultural Superintendent of the Costa Rican Division of the United Fruit Company. He described the fruit as large and handsome (as shown in the photograph accompanying the introduction record No. 51050) and he declared the tree to be the most productive he had seen.

Ref:  http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/soursop.html

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Dirt soils – are they the same?  No!  Are they close?  No.

Soil has been one of my interests and loves since my college days. My background has been as a Park Ranger Naturalist and I did my Upper Division course work in soils and the ecology of soils. We talked about soils based on those mineral components and we divided our soils up between sand, silt and clay. The common misconception people have is that one’s good; one’s bad. There is no such thing. In nature, there is no such thing. In nature, there is no good and bad. It’s all trade-offs. Sands have benefits; sands have disadvantages. Clays have benefits; clays have disadvantages. Silts are a mixture – give me the best of a small world? 

Sand  Benefits of sand are they have great drainage; greater aeration; they don’t compact. Go out on the beach and jump up and down and come along with a pale and sand bucket and dig holes; the lifeguard can drive up and down the beach – sand doesn’t compact. Clays have advantages. They hold moisture; they hold nutrients; they have a high cat ion exchange capability. You apply nutrients in the form of fertiliser or other organic sources. They bind those and keep them available for plant uptake. They don’t leach through the soil. The disadvantages of sand is that they have good aeration and drainage – they dry out quickly; they need to be watered frequently; they don’t hold nutrients well so when you apply fertilisers they flush through the soil profile and they don’t bind the soil particles that remain available so you sands require fertilisers more frequently or you use a slow release form of fertiliser that remains in the root zone for a longer duration.

Clays have problems. They don’t drain well, they hold moisture too long and they compact easily. Probably the worst thing I have heard people do with sand and clay soils is they say “well, my clay holds moisture and my sand doesn’t and my sand has good aeration and my clay doesn’t, and my sand needs to hold more nutrients and my clay has good cat ion exchange ……., I’ll mix my clay and sand together or if I have clay soil, I’ll mix sand into it and it will improve the drainage, get better aeration, prevent compaction and …..wrong!”  If any of you have any construction background, how do you mix concrete?  Sand and cement. Cement is a clay so you take clay and sand and you add a little gravel and mix it but you didn’t get soil. Soils are a lot more than the mineral component. Soils ecology is the complex system of living, dead and dying organisms as well as mineral components and oxygen, water, bacteria, fungus, insects, roots and all of the interactions going on in that soil profile. It’s an eco system and similar to the eco system of the ocean, there are strata or layers of the eco system. Organisms that live in the surface few inches of soil cannot survive a foot beneath the surface. Organisms that live a foot beneath the surface of the soil cannot live on the surface and tilling your soil is not a good practice. Common for many decades we would plough the ground and you see advertisers who have cultivators and they tell you to go around your trees to control weeds and when you do that you’re disrupting the soil organism ecosystems causing problems for that soil. Now lets combine that fact with the way plants and trees grow.

On each tree, your root systems have 3 functions:

(1) is to anchor the plant and keep it upright.

(2) is to store food and nutrients to keep it through its dormant period.

(3) is to pick up water and nutrients.

The roots that pick up water and nutrients are cut out at the ends of the growing and developing roots are very fine delicate new growth called root hairs. These root hairs are extremely fragile and those are the roots that pick up water and nutrients – 70% of the root hairs – they are also known as feeder roots occur within the surface one foot of soil. 90% of the root hairs occur with the surface 3 feet of soil. We talk about deep root plants, tap roots, deep water and irrigating.

70% of feeder roots within the surface 1 ft of soil is where you want to focus your water and fertiliser programs. Deep watering your plants doesn’t mean putting probes and pipes into the soil and watering 3ft beneath the surface of the soil – there are no feeder roots there. Roots grow in the presence of water and air. Too much of either one or too little of either one and roots die. So in natural ground soils, in California we don’t have any ground water to speak of, the only ground water that’s available is what comes from the surface down. Also, oxygen exchange occurs from the surface down and when you have clay soils, the oxygen exchange occurs from the surface into the soil profile and it’s the lack of oxygen which often accounts for the lack of root development in the soil profile.

Growing in the ground, it has long been tradition to amend or prepare the soils before planting your trees, shrubs etc. They would tell you “dig a hole twice as wide, twice as deep, amend the soil with 30%-50% of organic material and use that to fill to acclimatise the container grown plant to the native soil. This is wrong. This is not a good recommendation especially when we’re dealing with clay soils, compacted soils, poor quality soils. Why? Because what happens is that we amend the planting zone and you have a plant that is growing in the landscape, how far out should the root system develop on a mature established plant? Two to three times the height of the plant in radius. That means that the 10 ft tree in your front yard has a root system that is 30 – 60 ft in diameter and you’re amending a hole 3ft across!!! Where’s the benefit? To help it get established? That was the claim! The claim seemed to hold true because we take a tree and plant it in the amended hole and plant another in the native ground, the one in the amended hole seems to grow faster, quicker, bigger – more rapidly but what happens in the long term is the roots contact the native soil and especially where your soils are poor, the roots want to stay in that amended hole where life is good and the root system does not develop well into the native ground. Plants which were done as a test to determine which was the best soil amendment to use, studies were done initially out of Oklahoma, Davis California plus several other universities throughout the country to determine what was the best soil amendment to add to the planting holes when planting trees and shrubs and repeatedly the outcome was the group which were the control where no soil amendments were added, outgrew and outperformed the other trees in the long term. These trees developed root systems into the native soil without any interface or transition problem and became better established, healthier, stronger trees than those where soil amendments were used. Soil amendments in the planting holes also have some other problems. Amendments have traditionally been organic material. What happens to organic material over time? It decomposes and as it decomposes, we lose aeration and drainage and you add organic material into a planting hole and that organic material decomposes as the plant settles and now the roots at the bottom of the planting hole lack oxygen and they develop rootrot. If the plant settles below ground? and the soil fills in to cover higher on the trunk on the plant, the plant can develop crown rot. Furthermore, it is the physical property of water that as you change from one texture soil to another texture of soil, water will not move from the first into the second until the first is saturated so you can end up with what is called “perched water tables” and instead of improving drainage, you often cause poor drainage soils to be much worse. Organisations like International Society of Arboriculture no longer recommend soil amendments for planting trees and shrubs. The Nurserymans’ Association for decades argued that soil amendments are a big part of our sales and if we tell people not to use soil amendments, then we’ll lose sales but now even that association do not recommend soil amendments in the planting hole.  Plant them in the native dirt but before you do, make sure that dirt drains adequately so that water and air move through the soil profile and as the water passes through the root zone of the plant, it pulls air in behind it – it fills the pore space in the soil. Drainage is imperative and adding soil amendments in planting holes does not improve drainage. Poor drainage soils are like bathtubs. If you dig a hole and fill it full of water and it doesn’t drain, it’s like a bathtub with a stopped up drain. If you have a bathtub with a stopped off drain and add soil amendments or organic material in your bathtub, what do you have? A swamp, mud, a peatbog. It didn’t fix the drainage. You just appear to because what people do is dig these big holes and water drains below the surface, you don’t see it so it and it sits on the bottom and the roots rot and that’s fine as long as the only water you get is from your irrigation because you can irrigate in moderation so that the water doesn’t fill up the hole from the top. Then you get a wet season and that hole fills up with water and the roots drown and die. We see that every wet winter in California. We pull out trees that have been growing for years because the root can’t get adequate amounts of air.

Mulching as opposed to amending the soil is the single best thing you can do for your soil. Think of the soils that we are all envious of. Those beautiful black soils of Illinois, Iowa. How did those soils develop naturally? Nobody added soil amendments into them. They developed by organic material falling from plants and trees that covered the soil and decomposed it from the surface downward. It was the action of the organisms within the soil; the earthworms, the bugs, the fungi, the bacteria that caused those organic materials to decompose and as they decomposed they produced humic acids that helped to dissolve excess salt, improve drainage, break up clay particles, improve aeration and to improve your soil, mulching is by far the single best thing you can do to your soil. Add to that the fact that it is feasible to amend the entire root zone of the plant. Can you amend an area 60 feet in diameter by 3 feet deep? You can with a backhoe and plenty of money but it’s not really practicable but you can mulch that same area 3 inches deep and mulching on a regular program keeping the mulch 2-3 inches over the surface of the soil, replenishing it as it decomposes will improve your soil in a number of years so that now instead of having poor soils, you have a rich growing area for the roots of your plants.

There are some things you can do to your soils that are beneficial in the way of chemical treatment.  Southern Californian soils are typically desert soils and desert soils are typically high in pH – they have a fair amount of salt because of the water quality that we get from the Colorado River. pH of soils in southern California average about 7.3-7.8 which is somewhat alkaline. Most plants prefer a pH of soil to grow in which is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 6.5 and they like it slightly acid. Tropical and sub-tropical plants like even a little more acid than that 6 to 6.5 are usually ideal for most of your sub-tropicals so how can we modify our soils to lower the pH and alleviate some of these salts? With mulching techniques and the addition of chemical treatment. Chemical is not necessarily a bad word. Chemicals can simply be inorganic materials – Gypsum is a naturally occurring mineral.  Soil sulphur in the form of sulphate anions is often used to alter the pH of your soil. It doesn’t do it overnight. Gypsum with 12-18% sulphate can change the pH of your soil but it doesn’t do it overnight. It relies on a bacteria in your soil to convert the sulphate to a water soluble form that changes the pH of your soil. The addition of things like gypsum is beneficial but you need the association of the bacteria and it takes time so it will be 3-6 months before you see any change. Gypsum has some other benefits – it can help to replace sodium in your soil with calcium. Sodium is detrimental to plants and it will allow the sodium ions to leach more freely through the soil profile. Calcium is a secondary nutrient that’s valuable for plant health so adding things like gypsum can be beneficial. Also gypsum in some clays and it’s not a magic pill, can cause clay particles to bind together into clumps called aggregates and as it binds together, it opens up larger pore space between the aggregate, allowing water to pass through. Adding things like gypsum to our soils can be beneficial on a yearly program. Gypsum is largely water insoluble so taking gypsum and spreading it out on the surface of your soil has limited benefit. There are more water soluble products that are better at improving the soil structure chemically when applied to the surface and watered in. One product is called Soil Buster, another is called Liquid Gypsum and those have some real improvements. Mulch your soil with organic material. Use whatever you can get. It’s just like what you eat. So if you use a mulch that has more components, you’re going to get more benefits but anything is better than nothing and the old idea that eucalyptus mulch is bad, are unfounded. It has been studied quite extensively used as a seed media, used as a potting media, used as a mulch and it has been shown has no detrimental effects on your plants. Be careful of Oak mulch which may have oak root fungus.

Compost worm castings provide humic acid which helps improve drainage. It decomposes quickly but it should be viewed more as fertilisers than soil modifications. A lot of research has been done by Garry Bender recently on the benefit of compost and preventing Avocado rootrot and the use of mulches on your soil are antagonistic to phytophthora which is the rootrot causing fungi that kills avocadoes. It doesn’t kill the phytophthora but it improves the root system of your avocado so that the symptoms of root rot are not so severe and avocados will often grow faster and produce more roots more quickly than the phytophthora can kill so producing a healthier eco system and healthier plants. In your soil there are harmful organics like phytophthora but there are also beneficial organisms like mycorrhiza and this has been the subject of much research done in the past 20 years. Mycorrhiza are beneficial fungi that are naturally occurring in most soils and have a very important association with root systems of plants. They greatly expand the surface area and absorbent capability of root systems and are incredibly beneficial in enhancing the ability of the roots of plants to absorb phosphorous from the soil; it improves the drought tolerance and improves the health of the plants’ roots. Most native soils have mycorrhiza but if you have a soil that was stripped you may need to reintroduce it to your soil and that’s also true of container soils.

Container Soils were formulated as soil material for growing plants in containers. There is no dirt in container soil and almost without doubt, anytime people put dirt from their garden and adding it to a pot, it will fail dismally. Why? Because you are introducing a lot of pathogens at that time and because the media compacts and when this happens you lose aeration and drainage, the mineral component of dirt is such that it’s not uniform and particles fit together like jigsaw puzzles impeding drainage, and without aeration and drainage, water and air, roots will die. Container soils are made out of products to give roots of plants good aeration, good drainage and water holding abilities and nutrient availability but container soils were never intended to be long term. If Garry were here, he would talk to you about soils and tell you that most container soils on the market today are … in a bag and he would also tell you that most container soils will lead to the death of your plant because he will argue that all container soils today are made principally of 75-80% organic material mostly in the form of wooden bark product and that those wooden bark product decompose and as they decompose, the soil compacts which then impedes air movement and water drainage and roots rot and plants die. Container soils were never meant to be long term. They were meant as a growing media from the time the nurseryman produced the plant until you put it in the ground at home and it not only takes most container soils a couple of years before that organic component breaks down to a point where it causes problems. I’m sure that most of you have had potted plants where you start out with a nice full potted plant and over time, it’s only half full of dirt. The dirt didn’t wash out; it decomposed and compacted and that’s the problem with most potting soils. Most commercial potting soils are pretty good; but there are also bad ones. There have been a number of studies on commercial potting soils: Super Soil, Patio Plus, Dr. Earth, EB Stone, Uncle Malcolm etc. are very good potting soils and they’re formulated out of components that are intended for good root development but they all decompose over time. Some also add organic fertiliser. Are they better than those that don’t? No, it’s just another way of fertilising. Some also add mycorrhiza. Because most potting soils are made up of sterile material, there are no mycorrhiza in most potting soils so a potted plant does not have the beneficial association with the fungi so we need to inoculate the soil in order to get that development of beneficial mycorrhiza. Mycorrhiza is amazing – not only does it improve the drought tolerance in the plant, water absorption capabilities, the abilities to take up fertiliser and also ecto-mycorrhiza which live outside of the roots protect it from many harmful fungi and bacteria because this fungi coats the outside of the root when fungi that normally attack roots of plants come and see roots which are covered in beneficial mycorrhiza they don’t see the root of the plant, they see the beneficial mycorrhiza and they don’t attack the root because they don’t know it’s there so the presence of the mycorrhiza on the roots are protecting that plant from harmful fungi by association. They have also just recently shown some amazing film footage using an electron microscope where mycorrhiza is not just a passage as we thought it once was. Mycorrhiza is a fungus and fungus rely on plants and animals for their nutrients. Most mycorrhiza will invade the roots of the plants and take nutrient from the plants to survive giving the plant back benefits but they find that mycorrhiza also in certain cases are actively killing soil organisms like nematodes. Mycorrhiza can produce a network of filaments that entangle nematodes and noose-like snares and strangle these nematodes killing them and as the nematodes decompose in the soil and die they become nutrient sources for these mycorrhiza – pretty amazing stuff! Adding mycorrhiza to your potting soil can be hugely beneficial and the time to add it is at planting time because mycorrhiza lays in a dormant stage until it comes into contact with the root and once it comes into contact with the root, it can grow and invade and colonise that root. The plant only needs to be inoculated once. You can buy mycorrhiza alone and inoculate the plant or you can buy soils that have the mycorrhiza in it and you can buy other additives.

If you have really bad drainage and want to put in raised beds, what do you do? A raised bed is a container. For long term growing in containers or in raised beds, you want to use a media that does not decompose or decomposes very slowly. The best potting soil or media in which to grow long term is one that does not break down and decompose causing root rot issues. That means we have to use a media that is either primarily inorganic material or is organic material that is either already highly decomposed. Pumice, decomposed granite and quartz sand for drainage. The problem is that all these things are heavy. Garry Matsuoka has a formula that he uses for most of his nursery plants and it’s 40% pumice, 40% peat moss and 20% perlite. The problem is that it drains really fast and it is really heavy but it doesn’t decompose so is satisfactory for long term container growing in raised beds. I would use something along those lines. You can mix in different proportions but peat moss does not decompose much because it is already decomposed. Rice hulls take up to 10 years to decompose and one potting mix I’m familiar with called Patio Plus by Kelloggs has the primary organic component of rice hulls v wooden bark chips which decompose in 3 years. If you’re going to grow long term in containers and use these types of fast draining potting soils with little organic material like Garry’s 40% pumice 40% peat and 20% perlite, you’re going to have to water at least every other day and sometimes every day and they do require mulch on the top of the soil.

I wouldn’t use Perlite in the ground as it tends to float – pumice is better.

Drainage is imperative  Dig a hole 2ft deep and fill it full of water twice. If it drains in 12 hours, or less, you’re fine. If it takes more than 12 hours to drain, you need to go to raised beds or containers or put in drains. 

Rock Dust takes a very long time to break down and add any nutrient value.

Note from Sheryl:   One of the guest speakers failed to turn up at the California Rare Fruit Growers Conference so Tom stepped in and this talk was totally impromptu!

TOM DEL HOTAL, a nurseryman for 37 years, holds 4 advanced certifications from the California Association of Nursery Professionals. He is also a certified Arborist, a certified pesticide applicator, and a member of the International Plant Propagators Society. He currently works full time at the Home Depot in Lemon Grove as a sales associate and as district trainer for the garden department. He is also a part-time horticulture instructor in the Landscape and Nursery Department at Southwestern College in Chula Vista. In addition, Tom has also restarted his own business / nursery “Fantasia Gardens”. Tom has been a member of the California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG) for the past 26 years and an avid grower of a great variety of fruiting plants on his property in Lemon Grove. He is a past president of the San Diego Chapter of the CRFG and worked for Pacific Tree Farms as the manager and propagator for more than 12 years. Tom is an experienced lecturer and speaker and gives many presentations to gardening organizations as well as at fairs, seminars and special events.

Australian Soil Resource Information System –  www.asris.csiro.au

ASRIS provides online access to the best publicly available information on soil and land resources in a consistent format across Australia. It provides information at seven different scales (view animation).

The upper-three scales provide general descriptions of soil types, landforms and regolith across the continent. The lower scales provide more detailed information in regions where mapping is complete. Information relates to soil depth, water storage, permeability, fertility, carbon and erodibility. Most soil information is recorded at five depths. The lowest scale consists of a soil profile database with fully characterised sites that are known to be representative of significant areas and environments.

Article compiled by Sheryl Backhouse

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Most people know that it is beneficial to have high levels of organic material in their garden soil, whether it is in an orchard, or a vegetable or ornamental garden. Digging in different materials such as compost, animal manures or green manures helps increase the levels of organic matter, and thus, the soil’s biological activity and fertility. The improved soil allows water to penetrate efficiently, supplies nutrients slowly to root zones of plants, and helps root development. In addition, the higher number of organisms such as earthworms helps cultivate and improve the soil.

There is a simple ‘home garden’ way to test the amount of organic matter in your soil. You will actually be testing the ‘biological activity’, which is a direct result of the level of organic material. The test could be used to help to tell whether the organic materials you are adding are having much effect, how long their effect takes to decline, or whether you might have some areas in your garden that are much lower than others in organic matter. 

The test is based on the length of time it takes for soil organisms in the soil to rot a piece of fabric. Where there is a higher level of organic matter in the soil, there will be a corresponding higher level of micro-organisms or ‘activity’, and the fabric will rot faster. The level to which the fabric has rotted over a given period of time is measured by a simple ‘load-bearing’ test.

The test is undertaken as follows: Choose several areas that you want to measure. For example, you might want to compare the results of one garden bed where you have added mulch recently, to another that you have added nothing to for a year, and see what the difference is in biological activity. Or you might have different garden beds where you have added different types of material, and you want to compare which is the better soil treatment.

Take some pure cotton fabric such as an old sheet, and cut it into strips about 30cm long and 3cm wide. Try to make them all the same width, for accuracy of results. Using a waterproof fabric pen, label one end of each strip with the information you want, such as the date, and area of the garden, and what type of organic material has been added. Push a sharp spade into the selected area of soil, to about 15cm deep, to make a slot in which to insert the cotton strip. Fold the strip in half over the blade of the spade and use the blade to push it back into the slot you have just cut. When you draw the spade back out, a couple of centimetres of fabric should be left protruding out of the soil. It is a good idea to take several samples at each selected site.

Leave the fabric in the soil for a period of several weeks, and then remove the strips on the same day. If they have almost completely rotted, they were left in too long, so the test will have to be done again. (If you had several extra strips in the same area, you could remove one each week to see how they are going). The higher the level of biological activity in your soil, the more the fabric will have rotted, and therefore, the weaker it will be. To test the strength of the partially rotted fabric strips, you simply fold one strip over the handle of a bucket and use it to raise the bucket just a little off the ground. Slowly pour water into the bucket until the strip breaks. Measure the amount of water in the bucket with a measuring jug, and record the results, along with the other information that you had written on the fabric. If you have taken several samples in the one area of garden, you can average the results for a better level of accuracy.

This technique can give you useful information about the amount of organic matter in your garden soil, especially if you repeat the test over a period of time, and collect and compare the resulting data.

This article was contributed by Jenny Awbery.