Expanding our nursery : a team effort

Its still amazing to me, that in East Lombok there really are no plant nurseries
Save for the forestry departments relatively small opetation there isnt any private enterprise

And yet the people really want fruit trees
And fruits grow well here. But the trees are unavailable or too expensive for the local economy because theyve been shipped all the way from Java.

We are expanding our nursery to supply our needs and the farmers nearby who want to cooperate in increasing agroforestry in the area

Our demonstration plots have created a lot of interest. Because of the success of so many kinds of fruit trees at the site, it is now plain to see that in this land that was still forest not long ago, that trees are the smart choice

We can get timber trees from the forestry department for free, so we are focusing on fruits and also rare native plants for conservation forestry

Here we show the germination beds where we are sprouting Pomelo and Longan rootstocks

As well as Indian Pomegranate seedlings

The expansion of the nursery starts with the bamboo frame. Bamboo only lasts a few years but it is cheap and locally available. It is also easy to work with

Our team work together to set up the structures

A bamboo nursery will be part of this summers project list! We want to be self supplying bamboo in future

When we are done building the frame we need some shadecloth, however we are still waiting for the funding needed to purchase the cloth

This expansion will allow us to grow appriximately 10,000 more fruit trees and to begin producing our own grafted trees

Our team has collected and maintains the mother plants of different types of mango, soursop, Jambu and figs

We have succesfully introduced 7 new types of fruit to the local area. Sweet tamarind, passionfruit, pakistan mulberry, pomegranate, acerola cherry, fig and grapes

This year we really want to get going with rootstocks for longan and pomelo, also lime, more sweet tamarind, oranges, mango and jackfruit

We have a lot of requests for trees already. We will exchange some labour for trees with local farmers as part of a fair exhange to those who dont have money but want trees.

We also use the space to experiment with new crops, like these butternut squash! Doing well.

Thankyou for reading!