Does anyone have experience with building a living fence using the madre de cocoa tree? My understanding is cuttings can be purchased for around 1 peso each and they can basically be pushed into the ground and they will root. The foliage can be used as animal fodder also.
The rainy season here in the Dumaguete area varies, but is approximately from June - December. Your results may vary. Via Google: Gliricidia sepium Family: Fabaceae Common names: kakawate, madre de cacao Reference: Stuartxchange.com, Tropical Forages, Living Fences Origin: introduced by the Spaniards from Mexico, thoroughly naturalized throughout the Philippines found all over the farm easy to propagate by stem cuttings used as living fence pioneer tree used as cut and carry feed for ruminants, green manure leguminous – provides nitrogen for the soil this tree was given a Medal of Honor in Honduras! when it is in bloom, the leaves fall off THINGS TO TRY: Fresh leaves applied to the skin as insect repellant Leaves have a fetid smell; crushed, used to rid dogs of fleas and ticks and cattle, of ticks In Latin American, used by farmers to repel insects. Leaves are ground up, mixed with water, and the resulting paste use to bathe animals, and repeated every 7 to 14 days, decreasing the infections from tropical warble fly I want to see this: “As the tree pods hang-dry in the sun, they curl and explode, making a popping cracking sound. A cluster of trees with their pods snapping and popping and falling to the ground, in unison, make a fascinating afternoon of nature’s concoction of sound.” And this: “The tree is common in the southern Tagalog areas, shedding leaves around December and flowering February and March. In some areas, the blooming of its pink flowers is so profuse to deserve a comparison with the cherry blossoms. “
i had several years experience with living fences in panamá, so maybe i can be of help. the place we're renting has both cacao (the one chocolate come from) and madre de cacao used as fence posts. i don't find the cacao particularly attractive. it's a dense tree without much eye appeal (imho) and it's constantly dropping it's large coarse dark green leaves keeping the yard sweepers occupied. the madre de cacao or as my gf calls it, the ''a las doce'' (doe-say) is a light, airy tree with small leaves that catches my eye. like the malunggay, it's treated as a pollard and the new branches are planted out. seems to be a survivalist; there were some, yet to be planted, ±2'' diameter ''posts'' leaning against the fence when we moved here and i had to move them to lay a pipe. they where rooted in, so i ripped them out and leaned them against the fence a different location. they wilted for one day and then brightened up even tho they were just standing on the ground with roots exposed. 3 months later, i ripped them out again and planted them about 3 inches (3'') deep in rocky soil and they all flourished. i just checked the trunks on some older madre de cacao in the fence to see if their bark grew over the fence wire attached to them and it doesn't look to be a problem. we're at 1200ft elv and we've also seen madre de cacao doing well on dry seaside site. nice looking small tree... the little woman says ipil ipil is also a good fencing tree. i'm not familiar with it but it sounds kinda questionable if you read this wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipil_ipil sorry, we don't have any starts but ask around. norm : ))~
