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Tree planting Afrikaans | Xhosa

Click to enlarge!		 Let’s plant a tree

Trees are planted for building material, firewood, 

Click to enlarge!		 to serve as windscreens or hedges, for food, aesthetic purposes, medicine, shade, shelter and for the prevention of soil erosion and the improvement of soil fertility.

Click to enlarge!		 What kind of trees should be planted?

The purpose the tree must serve, will determine the choice of tree.

If trees are planted for shade, for instance, the obvious choice is a tree species that has a wide-spreading leaf canopy (crown); for firewood, choose a quick-growing tree with slow-burning wood; for building material, a strong, straight-growing tree that has few side branches.

Be sure that the tree is suitable for the environment in which it is to be planted. Is the species adapted to dry conditions or does it need a great deal of water? Is it resistant to frost? Will it tolerate brackish soil? Does it prefer deep soil or can it grow in shallow, rocky ground? Will the species be termite resistant?

Click to enlarge!		 Preparing the hole for planting

Dig a square hole with the sides 0,5 x 0,5 m, and the depth also 0,5 m. If the hole is round, the tree will not grow well, because the roots will grow in a circle instead of branching into the surrounding harder soil.

Mix the soil with a bucketful of compost or old, dry kraal manure. If there is a phosphate shortage in the soil, half a tin of bonemeal can be added to the soil-compost mixture.

If the particular area is dry, or the planting occurs during the dry season, it is necessary to water the tree down to the roots.

Click to enlarge!		 The following two methods are quite simple:
  • With the bottle method, small holes are punched into the bottom of a 2 litre plastic cooldrink bottle. Place the bottle in the hole, close to the tree’s roots, so that when the hole is filled up, the bottleneck sticks up out of the ground. Fill the bottle with water and screw on the top so that the water does not evaporate from the bottle. Water the tree regularly by unscrewing the top and filling up the bottle.

Click to enlarge!
  • With the stone method, stones as large as a fist are packed in one corner of the hole, right to the top. Pour water over the pile of stones, thus ensuring that the water reaches the roots of the tree.

Planting the tree

Fill the hole with the soil-compost mixture so that the eventual surface of the soil will come to the same height of the stem as it does in the nursery bag in which the tree is growing. Take the tree out of the bag and place it in the hole. Fill the hole with the remainder of the soil.

Give the tree at least two buckets of water every two weeks during the first two years.

Click to enlarge!		 It is also important to protect the tree. Keep animals away from the tree by placing a few thorny branches over it. Never break a branch off a young tree, or damage the tree in any way.

S Steyn
ELSENBURG / WESTERN CAPE forestry extension