We are Back

You have not heard from us for quite some time. Mostly because Loes was in Mozambique to earn some much needed cash as consultant. We are about to start building our lodge/B&B and since both prices and the US Dollar have been on the rise lately, we needed some extra cash. More about that in another blog. It is now October and that is the month we evaluate progress on our property since we bought the land in October 2006. Every year we take photo’s and describe the current situation to get some idea of how things are changing.

The trees are growing quite well. We have planted 2000 trees of 110 different species. About 1400 have been planted with support from people who wanted to sequester CO2. Apart from the trees, we have also planted bushes, flowers etc.. As a result, the area around the rancho’s looks less wild. During Loes’ absence our employee Justino has taken excellent care of the trees and very few have died. But it is still raining, the dry season, which starts mid December, is usually the critical time.

Since May this year (start of the rainy season) we have already had 2800 mm rain, about four times as much as the annual average in Holland. But even so we have had some dry days, 42 to be exact. And half the time we get less than 90 mm per week. So the other halfof the time it is not raining but pouring down by the bucket. The rain usually starts at 3 pm, so as long as we finish the work before that time, we have a reasonable chance to stay dry.

The main damage to our trees comes from insects, mostly caterpillars. And we have a love-hate relationship with them because some of them turn into very beautiful butterflies. We have counted at least 15 large colourful butterflies on our property, along dozens of small non-descript species. We have a small cage where we occasionally keep caterpillars to see what species of butterfly we get.

Since May we had a large white and yellow long-haired caterpillar in the cage. After a while the white turned yellow, but when the caterpillar moulted, it was white again. Later the base of the hairs turned darker as well. The caterpillar fed on mango leaves, so it was rather easy to keep. According to some people had would grow even larger. But we will never know (well at east not this year), because someone left the cage open and the caterpillar disappeared. Unless someone can identify the beast from a photograph.

The caterpillars of Juliana heliconae are a real pest. They are present in large numbers, on our passion fruit plants. So large that they eat all the leaves. The result is that, although we have planted five passion fruit plants two years ago and the plants can bear fruit in the first year, we have yet to harvest the first fruit. The butterfly is quite beautiful with orange wings and black spots, but that is rather cold comfort.

So this year we did some scientific mechanical control (someone with an M.Sc.pulled of the leaves with large numbers of caterpillars and crushed them underfoot). But unfortunately that did not help much either, there are just too many of the beasts. But at least this year all plants managed to flower and some plants did not lose all their leaves this year, so we still have good hopes for next year. Also because we planted five granadillas. We also have wild passion fruits on our property and those are also quite tasty.

The guavas are also attacked by caterpillars, but we have so many guava trees that the effect on the harvest is negligible. You just have to be careful not to touch the caterpillar when harvesting the guavas, because the hairs sting. Loes has harvested a large bag of guavas and is going to make jam and juice.

The most annoying caterpillar is a stem borer that attacks the mahoganies and the bitter cedars. The caterpillar eats the core of young shoots and the growing tip of the tree. One of our largest mahoganies has lost the top fifty cm to this nasty beast. The tree does not die, but will produce a couple of new branches. But that means that the tree has lost its value as a timber tree, because it will no longer produce long straight planks or beams. Which is why mahogany cannot be grown in plantations.

We had expected that our fig trees would also be defoliated by a caterpillar, just like last year. But somehow, that did not happen although trees in the surrounding area did suffer quite badly. We assume that at our property the caterpillars were all eaten by birds and other animals before they could become a pest. Especially cuckoos like to eat hairy caterpillars and we have at least two species of cuckoos flying around. So long live our biodiversity.