I’m just wondering if anyone has observed or noticed a difference in gliricidia cutting growth performance when planted at different depths. We usually bury about 20-40cm depending on the specific hole. I’d like to get a little more precision within that 20-40cm range, but the main thing I’ve found is making sure that they are stable and aren’t wiggling at all, especially after the first rain after planting. Depth also slightly depends on the diameter of the cutting because the heavier/bigger cuttings need more depth to support all the weight. Do roots only come out at the terminal end on the bottom, or would they come out at other nodes as well? Has anyone planted/observed a felled gliricidia flat along the ground with shoots coming straight up from the ground and roots on the bottom of the log?
Has anyone else done plantings at an angle like this? If so, any recommendations on depths for different soil types?
I work with gm/ccs and have done quite a lot of different experiments with species like gliricidia. I hope the photo will upload. We planted this cutting at about 30cm depth in a very hard clay soil. We made the hole using a heavy bar that we pounded in before the rainy season. As you can see, the roots formed at the top and worked their way down. When we took it out some of the roots broke off.
The roots will form at the bottom if the planting station is soft and the soil is not too moist and the cuttings has been handled with care and planted short after cuttings. The key is to plant before the rains, after the tree has seeded and at a minimum depth of 30cm in soft planting stations. We plant 1.5m cuttings that are at about 5cm in diameter.
Tyler, I think the answer to planting depends on the situation and the weather. In a fence, we typically plant as Nathan described and that works well. However in a nursery situation if can be very different. Earlier this we planted about 1000 very thin (pencil thin) branches about 3 inches into the soil in our nursery bed. They were watered daily and we got nearly 100% “germination” and very quickly. Because they were so tall and so thin and planted so shallow, we ran something like a clothesline about 5 feet above ground level in their row to tie them to so they wouldn’t fall over.
We recently dug up some cutting that had be planted a year ago. They had roots mostly from the side but some from the bottom too.
I have worked with hundreds of farmers who have planted tens of thousands of gliricidia cuttings in Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Mali, Burkina Faso, Kenya and Malawi. By far the best depth is 50 cm. If you plant them less deep, a large percentage will not die. And, of course, planting them any deeper is just way too much work. Even 50 cm is a lot deeper than most farmers will want to dig them. That is why we seldom introduce very many in a totally new area, because farmers will just not dig the holes deep enough if they haven’t seen all the benefits these trees provide. For more information, see the paper I wrote on gliricidia on ECHO community.
