Drought Resistant Trees

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Tasawwur
Posts: 5
Joined: April 13th, 2015, 11:03 am
Country: Pakistan
City: Lahore
Gardening Interests: Kitchen Gardening, Trees to reduce our carbon foot print.

Drought Resistant Trees

Post by Tasawwur »

Dear All,
I'm a new member for this website as well as gardening fraternity. I've started up kitchen gardening however I'm more concerned about rapidly depleting underground water level in Pakistan Overall.
This is nothing new as I quite remember articles of warning keep appearing in newspaper over time. But we as a nation and our government pay no heed to such warning and keep wasting our resources especially water and now fertile land as well. This is now actually showing its results into rapid land degradation.
Major cause which I found during my search on internet was deforestation in order to cultivate more and more land and other reasons as well, trees were cut down. It is observed in international research that roots of tree help retain water level and prevent seepage or its rapid depletion. Rapidly decreasing underground water level coupled with windstorms or overgrazing of herds/ livestock damages/ removes the upper layer of the soil which is considered most critical for cultivation. Ultimately, not only we have to dig deeper for water tubewells; but we also need to provide more fertilizer to makeup the deficiency of soil nutrients. As a result, this is turning our very fertile lands into barren wastes of sand dunes.... especially in areas of Rahim Yar Khan and Bordering area of Punjab/Sindh where I have witnessed this phenomenon myself and discussed with the locals.

Now after much search over the internet, I have come to the conclusion that there are certain steps to avoid this land degradation and to cope with drought like phenomenon. These include
1. Tree Plantation of drought resistant species at boundaries of the fields (Preferably trees with roots quite deep)
2. Rainwater Harvesting Techniques combined with drip irrigation.
3. Crop rotation (with the precise advice from specialists regarding which crops to grow for which soil nutrient.)

Above findings are result of my readings of certain international agencies e.g., UNEP, IFAD etc. We might need some customization in accordance with our environment. Comments from experts are quite welcome and specially needed regarding which Trees can be planted in drought ridden areas?
Izhar
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Gardening Interests: Fragrant plants, shade gardening, bulbous plants, annuals
Location: Karachi, Sindh

Re: Drought Resistant Trees

Post by Izhar »

There are many trees which grow well in these conditions like:

Prosopis cineraria
Balanites roxburghii etc
talha.bin.ayub
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Re: Drought Resistant Trees

Post by talha.bin.ayub »

U don't need to worry about land degradation or leaching at your garden. It's at community level plantation that it will be of significance and more imp at hilly/mountainous terrains where land slides are a risk


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talha.bin.ayub
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Joined: December 2nd, 2014, 7:51 pm

Re: Drought Resistant Trees

Post by talha.bin.ayub »

So there r desert plant varieties u can plant that require little water and poor soil. These plants like yuccas, adeniums, junipers, hundreds of succulents thrive on neglect... Search for plants ideal for South Florida climate and u ll have your options doled out to u


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