I am planting some citrus trees, figs, brazillian cherry and custard apple. I was advised by a friend who studied permaculture to plant some legume trees with those to help fertilise the soil. I live out of Byron Bay at Ewingsdale Australia and i would like to know the name of some legume trees. I would prefere the trees to be small or similar size to the citrus. I would really appreicate if someone would advise me of some good tree names. Thank you.
Re: legume trees? Hi, I have been considering this whole idea of legumous plants and trees and trying to get my head around it. Having recently done my PDC. I am not sure what grows in your sub tropical region, but some of the things you can try are broadbeans & feild peas as an undercrop you cut them back before flowering and they will disperse nitrogen into the soil from the root nodules and then it is available for your trees. Tagasaste, will improve the soil with the added advantage of being a good windbreak, fodder, if you should need this. I don't believe you need to cut this one back to release the nitrogen. Someone has written about this plant on a previous post, so check that and find more detail about it. Hope this was of some help. Leanne
Pigeon pea and cow pea have both grown well for me in Brisbane. Both have nodules indicating they are indeed successfully fixing nitrogen
n-fixing trees/shrubs your friend is probably referring to Acacias, which are an N-Fixing tree legume. there's also Siberian Pea Shrubs, which fixes nitrogen. and various varieties of Elaeagnus, like Goumi, Silverberry or Autumn Olive, which all fix nitrogen (but aren't legumes).
Many of the tree legumes are very fast growing. If allowed to grow tall they provide light shading and wind/cold protection for young fruit trees. If you want them to stay the same size as your fruit trees, you will want to coppice (hard pruning) a few times a year to keep them in check. Use the prunings as mulch around your fruit trees as they contain Nitrogen. Hope this is helpful, Ryan