Establishing plantations

Zander has been used to establish plantations of olives, avocado, mango and many other exotic fruits in some of the most hostile soils in the world.

The role of organic matter in establishing a plantation is to keep salinity at bay and stop it interfering with the cultivation of the trees. Organic matter from peat or farmyard manure simply does not last long enough in the soil to do it. Zander humus will absorb the effects of salt for at least nine years — which is long enough.

Zander Corporation worked with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation to establish forestry in Morocco, and with Fresh Studios in Mindanao, the Philippines, to establish a banana plantation. In each case no chemical fertiliser was used, and the plantations flourished.

Method

• Wet the transplant and introduce AridGrow mycorrhiza to the lower two-thirds of the root ball, by dipping or by sprinkling onto exposed roots
• Excavate the planting hole in two halves; set the top half of the soil aside
• Mix the lower spoil with 2–5 litres of Zander humus, roughly one part Zander to four parts native soil, and return it
• Set the transplant two-thirds into the amended soil and return the unamended soil above it
• Firm in carefully, and raise a small bund at the surface to hold water

Then water: about fifteen litres per plant per week to begin with. After six weeks that can be stretched to once a fortnight. After a further six weeks the mycorrhiza has established and has begun to manage the plant itself, capturing water upwelling from far below.

Existing plantations can be retro-treated. For a tree or shrub, this is a single application of humus and mycorrhiza in the whole life of the plant.