About the Inga genus

[SouthOfBorneo]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum, and the reason I'm joining this forum aside from being in a tropical country is because I'm wondering about the genus Inga for these few days.

Apparently, this tree is being utilized to combat slash and burn farming which is being done in tropical rainforest areas of Africa and South America. The sad news also it's being done also in Borneo, but probably illegal logging is the bigger threat over there over our precious rainforest.

You guys can search "Inga Alley Farming" for more information and get lots of result. In summary, farmers are expected to plant rows of Inga shrub or tree and plant starch or cash crops in the "alleys" formed between rows of Inga trees. The merit of the method is that Inga is fast growing, and as such, farmers can prune them to form mulch around their crops and when they're getting big again, they will act as shade to prevent weeds and protect the crops from excessive sunlight (probably). Also being in the family of Fabaceae, they're nitrogen fixing legumes. I can also confirm, living in tropical country, legumes, any kind, be it weed, shrub or tree, all of them thrive in our climate.

The question is, why doesn't these rainforest savers advocating Inga Alley Cropping mention the economic bonus of harvesting ice cream beans?? Are they don't taste that particularly "good"??

Btw the reason Inga got in my mind recently is because I have been studying mycology for a few months. I'm doing trial and error of trying to isolate wild mushroom into culture, and there's one specific ectomycorrhizae from Thailand which is known to form connection with various family of trees including Fabaceae and that got me thinking about Inga, they're fast growing and they yield fruits. If I don't bring this up here, where should I? 

[Seanny]

There are issues and benefits to slash and burn. We can solve them.

[pineislander]

I think they neglect Inga fruits because they don't have a great economic benefit, taste is vaguely similar to ice cream but probably too perishable to think about shipping them, and most of those growers are near-subsistence farmers. If you want to grow them, I'd suggest direct planting rather than in containers. I planted quite a few and they come up strong from large seeds with a distinct tap root. Putting them in pots may slow them down. Mine sat still for many months but seem to be slowly picking up speed now. In south Florida

[SouthOfBorneo]

Thanks for the replies!

Btw, what's a good substrate recipe for the nursery stage?? Would straight red soil do??

[pineislander]

Thanks for the replies!

Btw, what's a good substrate recipe for the nursery stage?? Would straight red soil do??

I doubt that would work well in containers. You need a soil analysis for in ground planting to expect good results. If you are talking about native soil of intact rain forest that is one thing, if degraded logged & previously slash/burned soil that is far worse. You need to research further and take maximum advantage of what is already known in your area and elsewhere, find an analog to Inga like some other tree legume already successfully grown there as an example would be my suggestion. Start small, experiment, analyse results, try again.

One analog you'll find interesting will be the work of Ernst Gotsch in Brazil.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf9s-yeskYZweEuKyq1ia6w/videos

An overview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSPNRu4ZPvE&t=1s

[fruitlovers]

Ingas will grow in very poor soils. Here they can grow right into the lava rock! They also drop tons of organic matter and enrich the soil that way, not just through nitrogen fixation.
In their native countries the fruits are sold in some markets. Some species are lots better and bigger than others. I think the main reason the potential of the fruits is not mentioned is just ignorance.
It might be interesting for you to know that while ingas are recommended for "saving" the forests they themselves are on the verge of extinction. The genus inga is very large, with between 250-300 species, and many of those are on the endangered list. I posted a list of endangered species of fruits on this forum, and the genus that has the most endangered species on that list is inga. So maybe some of those endangered species should be used for alley cropping?

[SouthOfBorneo]

Thank you all for the replies you have provided! Really informative and educational. Those videos about Agenda Gotsch are indeed really well made. Based on what Oscar said I assume that regular red soil will do, since that what I thought at first after reading that Inga grows in poor soil. Precisely, that one quality of the genus Inga fits perfectly for Agenda Gotsch's agenda