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Each planting site needed to have one large hole for the guild (trees & ground cover) to be planted in. The rocky lava earth needed to be broken up with O'o bars, picks and shovels.

At each site a different combination of a banana tree and two other trees were placed in the hole together. John, Doug, Bruce and Don have observed that a wide variety of trees grow remarkably well in very close proximity to a banana tree - it acts as a nurse plant by providing lots of mulch and sun protection. The banana tree was always to the south so that the seedlings would be protected from the sun - of course this strategy should change if your seedling requires more sun. In addition to the banana tree the above guild includes papaya, canna and ebi nut(inocarpus edulis)

Albezia tree mulch was placed in each hole and mixed with some of the larger rocks and all of the smaller stones and soil that were initially removed from the hole. The idea for mixing so much of the original earth in the hole is to avoid a "bowl" effect. If there was little or no original earth in the hole the roots would bundle up in the hole only seeking out the soft, nutrient-rich mulch and not penetrating out beyond the edge of the hole/bowl.

This guild has a Pili nut in it.

Ground cover plants are inserted.

On all of the sites Perennial Peanut was planted as a ground cover. Perennial Peanut is an excellent ground cover because it fixes nitrogen and is very good at keeping grasses away. This site has Mac nut, coffee, and papaya trees.

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