To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Maybe it's not the soil. Maybe it's allelopathy.
Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2008 21:09:33 -0600
Stephen,
Australian Pines??!! I don't know about allelopathy, but I think their
roots will pretty much take up all the water and probably all the space in
the soil as well. They used to be very pretty trees in Florida when I was
a kid, then they were notorious weed trees, then they mostly got killed off
in various freezes. Or maybe people got wise and got rid of them. I don't
know, I mostly haven't lived in Florida for 30 years, but my family is down
there and so I see the same old places every year. I remember how pretty
they were, then how they got a bad reputation, and now I just don't see them
anymore. There was a line of them on the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge,
they got bit really badly in the freezes, probably the one in the late 70's,
then again '83 & '85. Hmmm... it would be interesting to see what the state
of Florida says about them. Donna