Biomass Plants for the Tropics!

Hi everyone!

I think most folks here, like me, come from temperate or subtropical climates. There's lots of talk about biomass crops for cooler climates, but 40% of the world's inhabitants live in tropical zones. I'm currently working on some permaculture projects in Southern India and need your help!

Does anyone know the best biomass/carbon accumulating plants for tropical climates?

We need to add as much organic matter to the soil ASAP! We're looking for both:

A) fast-growing woody species that can be turned to woodchip/biochar etc.

and

B) Vigorous herbaceous perennials that can be chopped and used for mulch easily.

Sincere thanks,

Charlie

Good luck with your project Kārlis!
I don't have any first hand experience in the tropics, so what I would do is use pfaf's plant database select 'tropical climate' and 'carbon farming' and any other restrictions and see what came up. I would ask locally to see which of them are easy to grow and get hold of from experience on the site.
If I were to guess at two that might be useful I would say Moringa trees and Canna might be worth a try

Hey Kärlis, I have a very stupid answer to your question: It all depends on the specific conditions of your site! Annual rainfall, length of dry season, lowlands or elevated location, sandy soil or clay, acidic or alkaline soil, existing fertility...you get the idea. I would recommend that you study which plants actualy thrive near the location (e.g. what is growing at the roadside over there?).

So all my suggestions below may or may not work for you.

A)
-Acacia mangium. I observed that only the most shittiest conditions are barely good enough for this tree...even everything is dry as hell, but it keeps growing and growing.
-Leucaena (if the soil is not too acid); Since it may become invasive, you may not want to be the first person introducing it to the region. It is a common roadside weed, so you can find it easily if present.
-Neem tree

B)
-pigeon pea (drought resistant)
-Tephrosia candida (drought resistant)
-Bananas (only possivble if some fertilizer input is available); Their mulch is very helpful, because full of water.

C) Other stuff (yes, you didnt asked for it
-cow pea (annual)
-If you have grassland, you may just want to regularly cut it and organize the mulch in areas where you start growing stuff. The trick with tropical grasses is to cut them before they become monsters.

Of course, this is just a tiny fraction of possibilities, others will surely add more.

Hi Nancy and Thomas!

Thank you so much for your answers.

I do use the PFAF database extensively but so far haven't found the filters super effective. I find a list of unknown names hard to relate to. Hence why I'm hungry for a good tropical agroforestry book with pictures etc.! I will consider Canna Lilies, thank you!

As for the suggestions for woody plants - our soil here is very dry and acidic so I think that rules out Leucaena. Neem also prefers alkaline soils.

Acacia mangium is an interesting possibility, as is Tephrosia candida - both drought tolerant, Nitrogen fixing, and fast growing in poor soils! I would prefer to work with native species - I just wonder if these two could be invasive?

Thanks again!
Charlie

Tephrosia candida originates from the Indian subcontinent - so no worries here.

Acacia mangium can be considered invasive, but then again it is already grown commercially in the south of India - so its not that you are introducing something completely foreign. In my experience, Acacia mangium needs soil disturbance to successfully reproduce and cannot handle weed pressure well when very young. I wouldn't want to pass up the opportunity to work with this plant. Remember that this tree does not take heavy pruning well (but is fine with limited interventions that still yield substantial amount of biomass), so after a few years you are likely to phase them out and harvest the wood and biomass - which in turn also means that the number of flowering is rather limted.

I asked Mr Google you first question and his answer was that  Lantana and Plumeria are considered good carbon accumulating options due to their heat-resistant nature and ability to thrive in high temperatures.

Are you familiar with these plants?

Hi again Thomas! Thanks so much for the extra info!

Tephrosia sounds excellent - we'll be looking into that one further!

I also love your enthusiasm about Acacia mangium. As it's a pioneer plant growing on bare ground, I wounder if it could become weedy in this landscape. We have a lot of wild fires here! On the other hand, it sounds like it will produce loads of biomass + nitrogen fixing to boot! I'd be curious to learn more about your work in Thailand, too. Are you using biomass plants there?

Anne, thanks for those suggestions, I'll do some more research there!

Appreciating your help guys!

Leucaena tree
Sugar cane
Bamboo
Napier grass (elephant grass)

All useful for many purposes, fast-growing, resilient in many climates.