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Albizia love
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11-08-2012, 12:47 PM
I read about a tree farmer on Kauai who has planted albizia trees. Apparently it is a nitrogen fixating plant and he uses the leaves as fertilizer for his other trees. Anyone using albizia leaves or mulch? Where did you scrape it up and how is it working?
11-08-2012, 02:09 PM
We have been using them as mulch. We are surrounded by albizia forest so my husband chops down the young albizia as they spring up on our place and then strips the leaves and uses them as mulch around other plants. So far the only downside has been the d*mn mynah's use the stems to dam up our gutters so they have a bath tub.
I read that in Africa the leaves are used as chicken feed. I wonder how they would work for pulp for making paper and rayon? Carol
Carol
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys. Polish Proverb
11-09-2012, 06:17 AM
Being a legume, albizias are very good at fixing nitrogen - almost too good. When they invade our native forests they produce more nitrogen than our native species can handle. It's sort of like overdosing on vitamins. So it is not advisable to plant albizia, which spreads like wildfire anyway, but certainly a side benefit of eradication can be harvesting for mulch -not only the leaves but the chipped wood as well.
11-09-2012, 08:45 AM
Sorry to say that our chickens don't like Albizia. We don't either. Have written the owner of a neighboring lot 3 letters requesting for her to take them down as they pose danger, injury and loss should they fall down. We're going to send her another letter as she requested for us to get estimates. It's so scary hearing the branches fall especially during high winds. The Albizias are such a nuicance.
"a great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." w. james
"a great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."
w. james
11-09-2012, 10:20 AM
Seems like it would be better to plant eucalyptus. It isn't native but it isn't invasive, doesn't create an artificial forest canopy ecosystem like albizia does, doesn't have long overhanging leaf-heavy branches to snap off. Eucalyptus also extracts toxic waste out of the soil like arsenic and heavy metals. When incinerated, the toxins are there but almost totally extracted out with modern incinerators.
When the Pepeekeo biomass fuel plant comes on line, the county will probably start eradicating the albizia to sell to the plant. There are only two big concentrations of albizia, down Kahakai and Hiway 137. For being invasive, it hasn't really made the jump out of Puna and will be fairly easy to eradicate.
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
11-09-2012, 02:34 PM
quote: Actually, Eucalyptus aren't so great either. Before living here, I lived on a Oahu in a Eucalyptus forest. There is something in their leaves that doesn't allow other vegetation to grow. So there were tons of Eucalyptus trees and barren earth underneath.
11-10-2012, 03:51 AM
quote: Up past Laupauhoehoe, there is a lot of eucalyptus, with large forests on ag land. Yes, that is all that grows there, the ground is almost bare. But there are smaller stands of eucalyptus on various farms around there and they blend in well with the rest of the vegetation. Albizia is such a nasty tree, with huge limbs that can snap off, the wood grain is too porous to be much use beyond pulp and fuel, they sprout like crazy, and are dangerous to cut down. Better trees would be koa and 'illiahi but they don't grow well in the lowlands.
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
11-10-2012, 10:03 AM
@pahoated: There are another 2 large concentrations of albizia besides those you mentioned: along Pahoa-Kapoho road on the way to Lava Tree Park, and up Ka'ohe Homestead Rd. behind Pahoa High.
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