We have a lovely rural property in Isaan but our house now looks out on an ugly bright purple tin roof (thank you sister in law - could you have built in a less convenient spot?). Consequently we would like a bit of privacy.

 

There is a wide swathe of cleared land between us - probably 50m wide. We both love the look of chamcha trees for shade as well as rapid growth.  Has anyone planted successfully and how much water/care do they need as youngsters since we will be asking a relative to care for it when we are not there.  

Edited April 14, 20188 yr by Goinghomesoon
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We have seven of them,planted around 7 years ago and now very big already.They do grow faster when you water them a lot and we planted

them 15 meters(15 feet) apart but now they are touching already.

The roots will grow very strong so i advice you to plant at least 10 meters from your house or other buildings.Nice trees and we enjoy them very much,also called raintrees the leaves fold up every evening around 5.

I envy you for having a large area to plant a raintree or more. I love those trees and was admiring a healthy medium size raintree today on the bank of a moat near our home. What is ideal for them is to be planted on high ground near a water way or pond.  The incredible 300 yo grandmother of them all in Chiang Mai, featured in my attached article, is on the bank of the Ping River. 

 

Good points from JVS.  They are a large tree, give them plenty of space. They will develop a massive trunk, root crown and lateral root system and wide spreading foliar crown.  

 

Raintrees are relatively easy to grow, once established they require little maintenance. I lightly prune young trees to establish good structural integrity of the scaffold limbs. Without some help, they can develop crossing branches and weakly formed crotches that predispose breakage and limit longevity.   Hopefully you have reasonably good growing conditions, good soil and water availability. They are susceptible to water deficit/drought stress, which can cause die-back and invite beetle-borer infestations in the trunk that finishes them off.  Other than that I have not seen common pests or disease issues. 

 

I recommend  concentrating on the irrigation program that you will use for the first year or two as the trees put out an absorbing root system. And make it  it easy for your relative/caretaker to water so it gets done adequately. You need to set up a sprinkler system, which can be an impact sprinkler on a hose end, or an installed system with well placed heads . Set it up to cover the entire area under the foliar canopy of the tree and beyond, not just at the base near the trunk.  Or you can make burms with soil to create a wide  watering basin that holds at least six inches depth of water for flood irrigation. Either way, water enough once a week during hot dry weather, to get penetration into the upper 10 inches of the soil profile. During rainy season there may be adequate rainfall, but sometimes not. You need to stay on top of it and water if there are long dry periods. A thick layer of organic mulch will minimize competitive weed growth and help retain soil moisture. 

 

Hope that helps. Don

 

Raintree.pdf

Thank you Don and JVS, lots of great information to supplement what our garden centre lady told us.  We are not sure of our in-laws capacity to look after young trees and keep them watered in the location we want them. So hubby has temporarily located a couple of 30cm specimens in containers near our water jars so they can be splashed each time anyone washes their feet or hands. We’ll see how they go and transplant them in rainy season. If they look good.  At 50 baht each we can always buy more if that doesn’t work. 

 

I am sceptical about the quality of the earth as well-digging in the area came upon strata upon strata of yellow clay about a meter underground. This combined with my sister in law’s brown-thumb maybsee our plans doomed, but we will try!

Thank you Don and JVS, lots of great information to supplement what our garden centre lady told us.  We are not sure of our in-laws capacity to look after young trees and keep them watered in the location we want them. So hubby has temporarily located a couple of 30cm specimens in containers near our water jars so they can be splashed each time anyone washes their feet or hands. We’ll see how they go and transplant them in rainy season. If they look good.  At 50 baht each we can always buy more if that doesn’t work. 

 

I am sceptical about the quality of the earth as well-digging in the area came upon strata upon strata of yellow clay about a meter underground. This combined with my sister in law’s brown-thumb maybsee our plans doomed, but we will try!