Carob Inoculant -- searching for a source in Australia

Hi, I have been lurking on the forum for a few years and just joined.

I'm from Australia and I'm trying to find carob inoculant. I found an old thread where someone mentioned that it is/was available in Australia, but I cannot find any suppliers by searching the net.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Hello, welcome to the team Chris!

I have no experience in this, and am posting so that your thread gets a "bump."

Is there any way to find a thriving tree near you and digging some roots/soil without harming the tree?  Then you could blend the roots, make a "tea" and inoculate with that, similar to a mushroom slurry?

Dustin Rhodes wrote:Hello, welcome to the team Chris!

I have no experience in this, and am posting so that your thread gets a "bump."

Is there any way to find a thriving tree near you and digging some roots/soil without harming the tree?  Then you could blend the roots, make a "tea" and inoculate with that, similar to a mushroom slurry?

Hi, Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I do not know of any healthy trees that have proven bacteria. They seem to go ok without anything, but if they are not fixing nitrogen that really limits their potential, especially in the very poor soils I'm growing them in. I have called a few places, but still a few wholesale nurseries that I will try calling if I cannot find a source online. I prefer not to harass busy people who I do not buy products from if possible.

I thought it was debated whether or not C. Siliqua form root symbioses

Windy Huaman wrote:I thought it was debated whether or not C. Siliqua form root symbioses

I think the mechanism/s involved may not be well understood, but there is evidence supporting the benefits of inoculation. This is a different paper than what I was looking for, but has a paragraph summarizing the topic.

Long  lime  ego,  carob  tree,  like  most  legumes belong  to Ceasalpinoideae subfamily, was  considered to  be  not  nodulate  and  unable  to  fix  atmospheric nitrogen   (Martins-Louçâo   and   Rodriguez-Barrueco, 1982;  Martins-Loucâo,  1985).  In  1996,  Misbah  et al. reported isolation and characterization on phenotypical features   of   the   symbiotic   bacteria   associated   with carob  tree.  Soon  after,  the  activity  of  the  enzyme nitrogenase  was  detected, in  vitro  culture,  inside  the carob   roots   and   bourgeons   (Byan   et   al.   1996). Therefore,   the   application   of   bioinoculant,   platnt-growth   promoting   rhizobacteria   (PGMR)   such   as endophytic    bacteria Azospirillum,    improved    the performance  of  carob  plants  by  nitrogen  fixation  by a mechanism  other  than  nodulation  (El-Refarey  et  al. 2011).

from http://gjournals.org/GJAS/Publication/2015/February/PDF/121114393%20Konate%20et%20al.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266017155_Improving_Growth_and_Salinity_Tolerance_of_Carob_Seedlings_Ceratonia_siliqua_L_by_Azospirillum_Inoculation

I have been growing three carob trees for just a few years. Two seedlings, a Tylliria and a Santa Fe and one cutting grown Sfax. This last fall the Santa Fe flowered for the first time and it turns out to be a male, . I will graft some fruiting wood onto this tree. The Sfax had a pod on it when purchased, so I have at least one confirmed female. I purchased these trees from Exotica nursery in Vista, California.
I found a good write up on carobs:   http://rfcarchives.org.au/Next/Fruits/Carob/Carob3-88.htm   which I believe was written in 1987 so keep that in mind when reading it and timelines are mentioned. I also found a nursery in Australia which has grafted carob trees available, Limestone Station in Broken Hill Australia. They advertised 7 varieties: Casuda, Clifford, Sfax, Santa Fe, Irlam, Tylliria, Waite. Maybe they know of how to innoculate a carob tree.  Limestone Station nursery will not ship to me since my location is outside of Australia.
I am in Vista, California (San Diego county) where some very old and beautiful carob trees are growing. One of our schools, Vista Magnet Middle School ( formerly Lincoln Jr High and originally Vista High when built in 1938) has several ancient magnificent trees which I believe were planted when the school was first built in 1938. They may have been planted by Dr Coit who did some carob research in Vista at that time.
Oceanside, California and Coronado Island, California both have many old carob trees growing in their older neighborhoods. I am sure that the only reason the trees are still alive on Coronado Island is due to HOA homeowner rules and restrictions preventing new homeowners from chopping down mature trees. If it is a male tree the new owners don't like the smell during flowering season, and if it is a female they don't like all the pods when the fruit is ripe and starts dropping. Most of these people don't even know the pods are edible, let alone good for you!
I recently purchased carob (Santa Fe and Tylliria) pods from Mulberry Haven in Ojai, California. They primarily sell Mulberry fruit but also have carob pods. Carol Vesecky (owner of Mulberry Haven, 913 Oso Rd. Ojai, CA 93023 ) can be contacted at  cbvesecky@gmail.com if you want to buy pods. She also runs a site http://biointensiveforrussia.org & http://biointensiveforrussia.igc.org for a vegetable growing method in Russia. She is usually pretty busy so be patient for a reply. Her carob pods were featured by John Kohler "Growing your greens" on YouTube.

Chris Wang wrote:Hi, I have been lurking on the forum for a few years and just joined.

I'm from Australia and I'm trying to find carob inoculant. I found an old thread where someone mentioned that it is/was available in Australia, but I cannot find any suppliers by searching the net.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Try giving 'Daleys Fruit Tree Nursery' a call/email - they carry a huge variety of exotic trees and may know. They're located in northern NSW.

F Agricola wrote:

Chris Wang wrote:Hi, I have been lurking on the forum for a few years and just joined.

I'm from Australia and I'm trying to find carob inoculant. I found an old thread where someone mentioned that it is/was available in Australia, but I cannot find any suppliers by searching the net.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Try giving 'Daleys Fruit Tree Nursery' a call/email - they carry a huge variety of exotic trees and may know. They're located in northern NSW.

I would very much second that about Daleys.  Having dealt with the for over 20 years, they have been nothing but helpful.  They are in Kyogle and ship Australia Post.
The other thing to do would be introduce timber around (cut and drop) and you could develop a naturalised colonies.  A lady local to us just has the poor clay soils and her trees are fabulous.
I have not seen any evidence of nodes on the roots.  A go to for information would be to do a permies or web search for mother tree and read about tree communication..
Good luck with it all.