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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Inga as windbreak
« on: October 25, 2020, 04:20:57 PM »
After just cutting up another Inga tree that came down the other day without any strong winds, I thought it might be useful to post about them. I have seen references to their use as windbreaks a number of time so utilized them in mine. I have planted feuillei, striata, edulis, and spectabilis. I have found feuillei to be pretty much useless. This last one is the 3rd or 4th that have fallen over or split and come down. I also had one that started to fall over but I pulled it upright with my tractor, cut branches off one side to reduce weight on that side, and staked it back up with t-posts. I have also had a few instances of large branches breaking on these. Surprisingly, I don't recall them breaking when we were experiencing any especially strong winds.
The root system seems to run very shallow along the top of the soil. I do not know if this is typical or a function of our clay soil and abundant rainfall. I suspect that this is a big factor in them just falling over.
I have had one or two cases of striata breaking limbs but no tree failures so far (knock on wood). I have not had problems with the edulis or spectabilis to date. These trees have a more vase-like structure rather than spreading like feuillei (although I must admit I pruned the feuillei and striata to encourage a denser, spreading canopy). The spectabilis and edulis were also put in later and are a bit smaller than the other two species.
I just wanted to raise a red flag for anyone who may be considering these for windbreak duty. I liked the idea of getting fruit from the windbreak and getting the bonus of nitrogen fixation. I am kicking myself now for having used them as I am spending time I could spend on the orchard with cleaning up these things and just praying that they don't take out my hogwire fence when they come down.
The root system seems to run very shallow along the top of the soil. I do not know if this is typical or a function of our clay soil and abundant rainfall. I suspect that this is a big factor in them just falling over.
I have had one or two cases of striata breaking limbs but no tree failures so far (knock on wood). I have not had problems with the edulis or spectabilis to date. These trees have a more vase-like structure rather than spreading like feuillei (although I must admit I pruned the feuillei and striata to encourage a denser, spreading canopy). The spectabilis and edulis were also put in later and are a bit smaller than the other two species.
I just wanted to raise a red flag for anyone who may be considering these for windbreak duty. I liked the idea of getting fruit from the windbreak and getting the bonus of nitrogen fixation. I am kicking myself now for having used them as I am spending time I could spend on the orchard with cleaning up these things and just praying that they don't take out my hogwire fence when they come down.