Since I have moved back to the farm, I almost immediately started my small scale nursery back up, and what never ceases to amaze me is how excited I get every time the seeds that I have planted start germinating. Especially if it has been a long gestation period on plants that I am really looking forward to growing.
Just this week, I have had three such surprises - the one being my pomegranate trees finally emerging. These seeds were planted about two months ago from a parent tree - it is the first time that I have tried growing them from seed and I wasn't quite sure about the gestation period. In some cases when I am propagating food or medicine plants for the farm, it comes down to extensive research on the plant, the germination process as well as the gestation period, in other cases it more of a 'oh look, here's seeds, I wonder if this will grow?' scenario - with the pomegranates - it was the latter.
The seeds I used was from the fruit of the variety of Gissarskii Rozovyi pomegranate tree, as time goes on, I would really love to expand my collection to some of the other 13 cultivars of pomegranate trees - however, I am happy to start off with planting some more of these.
Another surprise I got was when two types of my non indigenous Acacia trees that I planted with the intent of propagating and harvesting for the medicinal market finally decided to show face. I have planted both these seeds early February already, and after months of nursing them - I get to see them for the first time.
First out was the Acacia Confusa.
Lets face it, the majority of fruits cultivated agriculturally in South Africa is non indigenous, and although I am pro growing indigenous plants - you also sometimes need to follow the market, as long as you do so responsibly and do not allow for invasive species to take over natural habitat - all should be well. This is the case with the Acasia Confusa for me.
There is a great demand for this plant in South Africa, and I happened on a market willing to buy whatever root-bark I could supply, that is - If I could get the plant to grow here. So far I have managed to germinate some of the seeds - but the real test will come when I establish them in the outdoors.
The rootbark and tree bark (both harvested sustainably) of this plants holds some medicinal properties, and they are both equally high in tannin used especially in the leather tanning industry - but also they are used in the Ayahausca preparation process. Not exactly sure what the purpose is for the market I am selling to - but I can give a good guess...
Then of course there was the second acacia type that germinated as I mentioned above.
Acacia Accumelata
Just as is the case with the acacia confusa - the Acacia Acumelata is another consignment grow trial, again this plant fetches a very high price on the market, this is due to the fact that this is one of the plants that contains easily harvestable psychoactive alkaloids - more specifically DMT.
Although I am not familiar with the world of preparing either DMT or Ayahausca, I have absolutely no problem trying to grow either of these plants, and could be a great way of diversifying the farms income crops if I can get these plants to sustainably grow here.