Subject: Re: Legumes

From: Victor Guest <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 12:15:22 WST

>From: Keith Elwell-Gavins <[email-masked]>
>To: Permaculture WA <[email-masked]>
>Mike Skinner wrote:
>> 
>> Jack,
>>      What kind of legume specifically would you recommend for the Texas 
panhandle
>> where I live? On dryland, particularily. The conflict I see is between 
water conservation and fertilizer/tilth improvement. This area receives 
between 15 to 25 inches in various sized events and temperatures usually 
10 to 15 below in winter and 100 degr>ees in the summer. Not to mention the 
wind of 45 mph. Challenging!
>>     Anyones' thoughts and comments would be appreciated.
>>         Sincerely,
>>            Mike Skinner, [email-masked]

I have seen Tagasaste (tree lucerne) come in to prominence in WA over 
the last few years and one of the ideas is alley farming at Dowerin with the
"Hedges" being one acacia or wattle and one tagasaste.
Taga as it is affectionatly called grows from Esperance to Geraldton to
my knowlwedge and from 12" to 30". It is used for feeding sheep and cattle 
and I have seen the effect of the nitrogen from prunings.
It was claimed that alley farming raised the yield by about 10%.
The Land Management Society have 3 plantations with about 24 varieties in
them and I can follow up there for you if you wish. 

>
>Mike, 
>        From my earlier post you can see that I'm also looking at the
>use of legumes in PC. My climate here on the central tablelands
>of inland New South Wales is also pretty severe with -10 degrees C
>winters to 40C summers. Rainfall is about 600 mm (24") but we seem
>to be having 3 or 4 years of drought out of every 5 at the moment.
>
>One of the best local legumes I have growing wild is the acacia
>species which have the advantages of being:
>So, I guess you can see that I like acacias. As a PC plant they are
>among the best, but even in Australia they have not yet been used to
>their maximum benefit. I do not know what species you have available, 
>but I think many of our varieties have been exported. If you do have
>any Australian spp. available, let me know and I will give you the
>horticultural info on them and suitabilty to your site.
>
>All the best, Keith.
>
> =====================
>  Keith Elwell-Gavins
>    Queanbeyan, NSW
>      Australia
> =====================
>

Regards,
          Vic
--
Victor Guest   V.G.Guest                       Perth, Western Australia
[email-masked]                  11 Carew Place Greenwood 6024 
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