Review of our 2020 Pine and 2021 Eucalyptus and Casuarina Trees

Our first project at Winterthorn Farm was a crop of 3,500 pine trees planted in February 2020. The following year we planted a larger crop of eucalyptus and casuarina.
This video shares a quick review of how these older trees have grown. We discuss how the trees are looked after including the important aspect of fire prevention.

[@Okavango-1]

Great progress! I have followed you from the time the farm was being cleared and through the entire planting period. I must admit that i am overwhelmed and profoundly excited for you at how everything is going. Congratulations! I am preparing my first 2 acre farm for Pine planting at the beginning of 2023. You'll forever be my inspiration.

[@mondofarms4343]

Thanks Job. All the best with your project 👍

[@Okavango-1]

Feedback time. All the 1000 pine trees in the inaugural 2-acre piece of land are doing well and already at a meter tall after just 1 year. I am now preparing another 5 acres for 2500 pine trees that will be planted at the start of 2025. Thank you, Mentor (Yes, you are my mentor. 😊)

[@mulebanshimbi9770]

Thus is amazing progress. I notice pines are growing and thriving in somewhat rocky soils, an indication that the trees are tolerant and resilient to tough plant conditions.

[@mondofarms4343]

Yes, our trees do well in rocky places as we say in the videos. This is true in natural settings as well. From what we have seen it is a lot to do with lack of competition from other plants. It has actually led us to locate all our tree plots on areas of the farm that have "poor" soil or too steep, meaning they cannot easily be used for vegetable growing.

[@FARMCO-zi1nd]

Pines trees actually thrive in mountaneous areas@@mondofarms4343

[@nawamubita8501]

Lovely stuff - narration on point.

[@mondofarms4343]

Thanks

[@mwiingangandu4856]

Each time am watching your videos I wear a smile on my face, sadly there is no "double subscribing"😂 great works there sir! Learning through your inspirational works. God bless!

[@mondofarms4343]

Glad you like them!

[@mavistandoh8865]

Nice one Chisha! Thanks for sharing.

[@mondofarms4343]

Glad you liked it!

[@mwenyasafeli1616]

Am in the process of planting some this farming season getting inspired sir keep on the good gesture of enlightening us

[@mondofarms4343]

All the best

[@bridgetchitambo8504]

Very educating. I need to visit your farm with my children.

[@mondofarms4343]

Sorry for the late response. As much as we welcome visitors to our farms from time to time, we do find that the visits disturb our work. After all we have deliverables and targets to meet. So we decided to help other farmers by making the videos we share on this KZbin channel. It's the best we can offer for now. One day, we will start to hold Farmer's Days and invite the public to visit in a structured manner. We shall certainly publicise it as much as possible.

[@zisoofnature_theeye4965]

Wow! I'm inspired sir..

[@mondofarms4343]

Thanks

[@Mfzambia]

Great presentation sir. Glad to watch your program

[@mondofarms4343]

Thanks and welcome

[@WISDOMMULENGA-b1v]

Thank you for the information.

[@mondofarms4343]

Our pleasure!

[@natashamuntemba9080]

👏👏👏👏 Good job. Please discuss termite management as well

[@mondofarms4343]

Yebbo

[@fredsimon7816]

Love this channel

[@mondofarms4343]

Thanks Ba Fred

[@GK-hp4gt]

Awesome! Thank you for the update. So, looking at the eucalyptus trees, they are have a lot of branches. Being that they are to be used for electric poles, then would need to be straight. Would pruning them at their current height help them grow taller in an straight and faster? From my knowledge I think branches compete for nutrient and therefore stunt the growth of the tree.

[@mondofarms4343]

Thanks. One of our biggest struggles in our farming has been conflicting advice in agronomic. For example, when we planted our first trees, the guy who supplied them advised us on several practices to follow, including pruning side shoots. This was meant to encourage long stem growth. We did that for the first pines we planted in 2020. Then in 2021, we visited Zambia's' largest tree plantation for some training. And of course, the shot found that idea. The experts there had their own logic that while the trees are still young, they need all their leaves in order to maximize overall growth. They said they only prune in year 5. So, we have applied a certain amount of confirmation bias and went with the advice from the big guys, especially as our planted area of trees has grown, making it all a lot more labour intensive to prune each year. As I said, lots of conflicting advice and I have to keep making judgement calls as we learn the tree plantation game over the next few years.

[@levisilungwe9080]

Great job sir

[@mondofarms4343]

Thanks Ba Silungwe.

[@esthernguro5132]

Well done👍👍👍

[@mondofarms4343]

Thank you 👍

[@232323pamela]

Love this!!!

[@mondofarms4343]

Hi Pamela. Glad you liked it. I have been working on another TreeStory video that we will publish soon. This one will be aboit how we produced the thousands of seedlings last year.

[@mwanamazala5088]

I have watched most of your videos, and it's great to see detailed info shares on the progress of each project. Great content. How big is the farm? And what do you think of the fact that Chieftain Nkomesha does not issue letters for titles on land in Chongwe?

[@mondofarms4343]

Hi Mwana Mazala. Our farm is on the larger side. Issues of traditional land tenure are always complicated and I would not ever comment on them here.

[@Michael-gx9gd]

❤

[@mondofarms4343]

Thanks. The 2020 babies have really grown, and we will share a look at them again soon.

[@Dennis_Kibet_Media]

Great work there. You are environment's best friend. And just a btw, which phone are you using man? The recording is fire🎅🔥🔥

[@mondofarms4343]

Its a Samsung Galaxy S20 plus. Excellent phone!

[@KapayiMalaika]

I always get inspired when I watch the videos at Mondo farm, how many times do you give booster for pine and eucalyptus and what about during dry or hot season how do you manage the plantation.

[@mondofarms4343]

Thanks, we are glad it is helpful. I need to be honest, in our early years, when the areas planted with trees was just a few hectares, we used to manage to go out and apply booster to the pine, eucalyptus and casuarina. But now, the tree blocks are just too large for that. So we leave the trees to fend for themselves. Which is what the big forestry plantations do. After all, they are trees that would normally grow in the wild.

[@KapayiMalaika]

@@mondofarms4343 thank you so much for the reply sir, coming this rain 🌧️🌧️ season am planning to plant 2 hector's as well

[@glenmalesa8902]

Just how many hactares of land, at minimum, one needs for commercial plantation of these trees? And after first harvest at 14 years, how long is the following harvest ? I have enjoyed watching this

[@mondofarms4343]

Hi Glen. So real "commercial" plantation of timber trees are HUGE. We're talking thousands and thousands of hectares like the ZAFFICO ones in the Copperbelt. Most plantations established by private entities are much, much smaller. It's good to be realistic about size and scale. We refer to what we are doing at Winterthorn as a pilot plantation. We have been using it to learn about growing trees for several years and built experience. We plan to establish a much bigger plantation later further out along the Great East Road. Regarding harvesting, pine trees are usually taken after 12-14 years (depending on size and growth), and it's a one-off. They don't grow again. That is why one has to plant a succession each year. Eucalyptus trees are usually harvested after 6-8 years (depending on growth and size). Technically, they can grow again from the stump, but the second growth is much slower and takes a lot more years.

[@clydeushibantu2372]

This is beautiful and adorable keep it up Sir...Do you sale seedlings for the 3 trees?

[@mondofarms4343]

Indeed. We will have some pine and eucalyptus seedlings available for this coming rain season in a few weeks time.

[@clydeushibantu2372]

The seedlings will be sold @ how much?

[@patrickojangole5905]

Congratulations sir. The project is mokash project - it will bring money however according to the way Iam looking at the ground. Pine would/ could best for that rocky soil ground. Plant too mahogany trees at the boundaries .

[@mondofarms4343]

All the best

[@waltershadreck3491]

Don't they need a bit of pruning to make them grow taller? I am actually inspired and have started looking for pines and eucalyptus nurseries around here to grow them.

[@mondofarms4343]

No, we were advised strongly against pruning by the experts. They say that the young trees need as much vegetation as possible for feeding at this stage. Let them build and grow first. Pruning is normally done in the 5th year.

[@koolvibes100]

Are the eucalyptus also planted on 2 hectares of land with a spacing of 2x2 metres?

[@mondofarms4343]

Yes

[@ibettergthan_life6371]

What is species those's the pines?? Pinus ponderosa??

[@mondofarms4343]

No it's pinus oocarpa, (Mexican Yellow Pine) which is one of the dominant species in this part of Africa. Pinus ponderosa is found in Westwrn North America, which has a rather different climate to us. I am assuming that the people that pioneered exotic pine species into Southern and other parts of Africa, and set up the original tumber plantitions in the 1950-60's, chose species that could be best adapted to these areas. The other common species here are Kasiya (from India) and PCH.

[@nicholasmumbi554]

Inspired by you,am in kapiri Mposh, where can I buy seedlings for pine and eucalyptus.forgive to ask for line.am working on a hector hopefully I can add on.

[@mondofarms4343]

Hi Ba Mumbi. We supply pine and eucalyptus seedlings to customersaround Lusaka. Since Kapiri may be too far in terms of transport cost, my advice is to look for suppliers in the Copperbelt, especially Ndola. Facebook is full of many people advertising them. Pls search there on the various Zambian farming groups. I saw a couple even yesterday.

[@admiralversiotheeamericane540]

I live in Southern California in a desert like aria, would thees pine trees grow well by themselves if I were to planet them here?

[@nicholaskizito4438]

You should give it try. Start with 50-100

[@admiralversiotheeamericane540]

@@nicholaskizito4438 ok I’ll try that👍.

[@mondofarms4343]

Hi Admiral. Sorry for the late response. The varieties of pine and eucalyptus we plant here in Zambia are ones that have been successful in tropical regions like here. In particular, we started with pinus oocarpa, which is native to Mexico. Also called.Mexican Yellow Pine. www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&client=ms-android-samsung-rev2&source=android-browser&q=pinus+oocarpa My first move would be consult others who have grown pine in your area and see what worked for them, and more importantly, what us available from suppliers.

[@admiralversiotheeamericane540]

@@mondofarms4343 ok I’ll try that. Thanks for the reply back👍

[@clydeushibantu2372]

How much are you selling the eucalyptus seedlings?

[@mondofarms4343]

Sorry, we are not selling tree seedlings this year. But they are readily available from many sources. Look for tree growing groups on Facebook, where many sellers advertise.

[@clydeushibantu2372]

@@mondofarms4343 thanks

[@allcreationandnature447]

how many trees did you plant in 1 hectare?

[@mondofarms4343]

The number of stems depends on the spacing. Google something like "stems per hectare calculator" and you will find several tools to help you. Back in 2020, we used to plant our trees at 2m spacing, but then later changed to 2.5m from 2021 after different advice.

[@allcreationandnature447]

@@mondofarms4343 Thank you for the information

[@AcksonPhiri-lj4hb]

Am interested in pine trees .where did you get the seedlingsing

[@mondofarms4343]

Pine seedlings are readily available and no doubt, you will find them with some effort. There are a number of Facebook groups dedicated to growing pine.

[@AcksonPhiri-lj4hb]

@@mondofarms4343 thanks so u were buying at how much per plant

[@sam78ize]

can foreigners buy land for you to manage in your country?

[@mondofarms4343]

Anything is possible. For now, we are still getting more skilled in crop farming and developing the plenty of land we already have. But if you're serious, then please get in touch via our email, which you will find on the Channel Description, or on our website at www.mondofarms.zo.zm

[@zisoofnature_theeye4965]

Where can I find an affordable farm land for me to start farming this.

[@mondofarms4343]

I am sure you will manage. Good luck.

[@Muhammad-kv4zi]

Casorina tree design video plz 🇧🇩🇧🇩

[@mondofarms4343]

Could you please expand on your request? I would like to know exactly what you asking for.

[@ibrahimababou616]

Do you have an instagram??

[@mondofarms4343]

No we don't. We have a Facebook page, but to be honest, I am not ad committed to it as I am to KZbin.

[@edwinsiwale8556]

Am in Kapiri and started with musangu tree plantation of one hectare in 2022, planted another hectare of musangu in 2023, & I want to diversify to pine tree plantation of which I have already acquired the seeds, but I have little knowledge of how to manage the nursery, but have learnt something from your experience. Thanks and continue sharing the information.