Dear all,
as some of you know, Kostas has a
project to reforest Greece, whose destruction of the ecosystems is well described in Montgomery's book "Dirt, the erosion of civilisation".
The
thread of Kostas is quite long, 17 pages as of today, see the link below. For those who do not want to read everything: It started over 7 years ago, and Kostas has shown that some
trees grow well in some areas, some trees grow better in others. In drylands it takes quite some time till an area is regenerated
enough to be stable, and Kostas uses many different species for this: Nitrogen fixers, Trees, Shrubs, Deciduous, Evergreen...
As an addition to the "normal" (=bitter) holly oak
Quercus ilex, he would like to try sweet ones, sometimes called
Quercus ilex "rotundifolia" or
Ilex rotundifolia. This one grows in Spain (llamado encina dulce) and Portugal, where it was once a
staple food for humans in the dehesa, not only used as fodder. This tree would allow future humans to eat something more in Greece, instead of relying on environmental destruction for financial gain.
Konstantinos Karoubas wrote:
...
If anyone reading this from Spain or Portugal and has access to edible oak acorns, when they mature this winter...I would gladly pay for them. It's a good point...another tree that provides food for our two legged friends.
As far as fungi, inoculation, shading etc. - we don't have these luxuries at the moment Hans....I want to keep it simple...just put the seeds in the ground and let nature decide and choose what to keep and what to reject.
Maybe you or others can test these points and make recommendations based on the results.
Kostas
As his last message above is probably lost in all the other information, I open a new thread to maybe get to some people who might have access to sweet holly oak. As
Xylella fastidiosa is a problem, I do not recommend to send scionwood to graft the oaks. But as the bitter/sweet-ness is inherited, the chance of getting sweet ones from sweet ones is here. Not a 100%, but at least you don't kill everything with a disease.
I just wrote this thread to support Kostas (without asking, I hope it is ok), if you want to send some ask him directly.
The thread of Kostas
https://permies.com/t/14353/Reforestation-Growing-trees-arid-barren
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I am looking for acorns to grow trees indoors in Denmark. Potentially for bonsai, but I'd just love to have a few oaks to complement my Babobabs. Oaks are such great trees!
