I've found buried stems of Vanilla tend to rot but just placed on a damp medium and kept moist they readily put out roots. Tops of my old plants often get broken off by falling branches or fronds. The bits on the ground just put out roots and then go searching for something to climb. The old 'beheaded' vines put out a new shoot and head back up. I've probably got 30 or more plants in the garden now from that process. They have more roots on the tree trunks than in the ground. Vanilla is very easy with the right warmth and humidity, some people over think it and end up killing them with kindness.

This is from the Breadfruit Institute. They don't mention humidity which I think is also an important factor.

Growing Conditions

Breadfruit has a wide range of adaptability to ecological conditions. It grows best in equatorial lowlands below 600-650 m but is found at elevations up to 1550 m. It flourishes at 21-32° C and does not yield well where the temperature exceeds 40° or drops to 5° C. Below 5° C, the trees begin to show signs of cold damage—browning, curling and drying leaves that will die and fall from the tree. The latitudinal limits are approximately 17° N and S; maritime climates extend that range to the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Optimum annual rainfall is 1500-3000 mm, but trees can yield regularly on Pacific atolls that receive 1000 mm. Deep, fertile, well-drained soils are preferred although some varieties are adapted to the shallow sandy soils of coral atolls.

That's the problem with common names, no one really knows what the other is talking about.

They're very territorial and they have several nests spread out through a number of trees and shrubs. The bite/sting isn't as bad as some other ant species but the nests are easily walked into and then you get hundreds of them on you. I've seen people get quite hysterical when that happens to them. But I'm not allergic to ants so it's less of an issue for me, although very annoying (to put it politely). I haven't tried to eradicate them but sometimes encourage them into some areas.

They like large green leaves which they stitch up to make their nests. When the leaves wither they abandon that nest and make a new one. That can be very annoying when they keep destroying leaves on plants you like.

Apart from being hunters they are also farmers. Only seen them farming aphids and scale, nothing else, but that's not to say they wouldn't keep other pests. We have a carnivorous butterfly which lays it eggs near the nests and after hatching the larvae go into the nest and feed on the ant larvae. The ants don't seem to be able to do anything to them but when the butterfly emerges they do try to attack it. I killed some aphids the ants were farming and after they picked up the dead ones they also killed the rest of the aphids. Apparently they realised they liked the 'meat' better than the sugar. They will weave webs around clusters of mangos to protect scale. That could be a problem. They don't seem to adversely affect pollination though.

Generally they seem to keep away more pests than they protect. They occur naturally in southern and south east Asia, New Guinea, some Pacific Islands and Australia. In southern China they were apparently used for pest control in gardens from 1600 years ago. Bamboo poles were used to provide walkways for the ants to get into gardens from surrounding trees. There were studies done in Australia (in the 1980's I think) on the effect of Green Ants in Cashew plantations. The results were positive.

Green Ants don't take kindly to anyone climbing "their trees", they're very possessive. I don't have any problems pruning trees or harvesting, but I'm used to them. In one place I lived during a cyclone a tall tree in a neighbours place came crashing down in my yard. It was absolutely swarming with Green Ants. I told the neighbours it was their problem to remove it, I wasn't going near it. Later when I came home from work the tree was gone. They got professionals in to do it.

All in all they're okay by me. I named my property the indigenous language name for Green Ants.

It's called "Bellyache Bush" here and is considered toxic. Also a declared noxious weed. I've never heard of anyone eating any here but if it gets into where cattle are run there's problems. The cattle would try to eat the leaves and maybe that's the toxic part. I don't like it because I've spent a lot of time and effort trying to eradicate it.

Anthracnose is usually established well before it manifests itself visually in ripening fruit. You need to apply fungal treatments from when the fruit is small and immature. That's the time Anthracnose can develop as an unseen latent infection waiting for the ripening process to start.

I have a lot of viridiflora on my place so come the dry season there's lots of dry leaves available. I also use Black Wattle, Acacia auriculiformis, which seems good around any plant. But I don't use green matter, always age it first.

Thanks Mike. Debbie did quite a bit of rearranging of the landscape, you were lucky it ended up further south. But earlier on it was looking to be lined up for a close hit on you.

I think it's a matter of the individual you end up dealing with. I had some seed sent to me by a company in  USA. For some bizarre reason the company sent the seed in soil. This was a company that bragged that it sends seed all over the world. Obviously the person handling my seeds was braindead, who in their right mind would send actual soil internationally? Biosecurity contacted me. I explained the situation over the phone and they said they'd clean the seeds and send them on to me. The soil they incinerated.

In another incident some of the seeds I was receiving were from species that weren't prohibited, nor were they permitted. Biosecurity contacted me again and said I could pay for a risk assessment for those seeds. I told them to send me what was allowed and they could have the rest. So they sent me the permitted ones and the rest they destroyed.

I've posted plant material overseas and only once did I have problems. A post office employee refused to take the parcel claiming it was illegal to send plant material. I told them it was the problem of the receiving country, not Australia. Ended up I asked for the manager. He backed his staff so I insisted on seeing a copy of the act/regulations backing up their claim. They came up with the regulations prohibiting import of plant material into Australia without a phyto certificate. I pointed that out to them and asked again for evidence of the prohibition of export of plant material. They couldn't and eventually the manager told his staff to accept the parcel, saying to me that it would end up destroyed anyway and I will have wasted my money.

The problem is zealots who insist on going 'above and beyond the call of duty.' Those responsible for the destruction of the herbarium specimens must have been particularly dumb. There's always data sheets accompanying those specimens and that should have rung a warning bell. It'll be interesting to see whether any heads roll over this.

At the start of the mango season here they have an auction and the first tray goes for about $20,000 to 25,000. It's a marketing/charity event. It announces the start of the season and all the money goes to charity. Probably the Japanese are doing the same. Pretty successful really, the news got right around world.

My septic tank is about 4 metres from a Ficus which is about 8 - 10 metres tall with multiple trunks that started off as aerial roots. The absorption trench is about 60 metres away. Provided a septic is properly made and the outlet pipe runs far enough away from the tree so that roots don't make their way back to the tank there should be no problem. Ficus roots will find flaws and exploit them.

I can't remember the name of his variety. Didn't know he had a second variety, but remember, he does supply all over the country so he could have some that are more suited elsewhere, I don't know. But he'd let you know.

Most avocados won't do any good at all, although they will grow. Chris Nathaniel did develop a variety which is supposed to cope and fruit in Darwin's climate. Check with him and don't waste your time with the other varieties.