Agroforestry Services: Crop shade  Agroforestry Services: Living trellis  Agroforestry Services: Windbreak  Management: Managed Multistem  Other Systems: Homegarden  Other Systems: Multistrata  Regional Crop  Staple Crop: Balanced carb  Staple Crop: Oil

Plants succeed in moist tropical climates with heavy rainfall and poor soils[ 303 ]. They grow in lowland areas below 800 metres, where temperatures never fall below 10°c, the average annual rainfall is 1,500mm or more and the driest month has 25mm or more rain[ 297 , 303 ]. They can withstand relatively hot dry seasons of 3 - 4 months[ 303 ]. Requires a fertile, moist, but well-drained soil, a humid atmosphere and some protection from strong sun[ 200 ]. Seedlings develop very slowly under forest shade conditions, and mature plants require full sunlight for optimal production of flowers, fruits and offshoots[ 303 ]. Plants are most productive when grown on relatively deep, fertile, well-drained soils, clay soils, and highly eroded laterites with 50% aluminium-saturated, acid soils[ 303 ]. Prefers a pH in the range 5 - 6.5, tolerating 4 - 7.5[ 418 ]. The spiny stem of the tree grows rapidly in height, attaining 15 - 20 metres in just 10 years[ 303 ]. Plants begin flowering when 3 - 5 years old, and can produce two fruit crops a year for the next 50 - 75 years[ 303 , 418 ]. Fruit yields may be as high as 10 - 30 tonnes/ha, but are often only about 2 - 3 tonnes/ha[ 418 ]. Yields of 50 - 100 kilos per trunk per year are not unusual[ 418 ]. For palm hearts the yield ranges from 4,000 - 10,000 hearts/ha per year[ 418 ]. Plants sometimes produce just a solitary trunk, at other times they can have several trunks[ 297 ]. Plants produce rings of needle-like spines 5cm long[ 301 ]. This can make harvesting the fruit and buds rather unpleasant. There is at least one named form, called 'Spineless', that is entirely free of these spines[ 301 ]. There are other forms that have seedless fruits[ 46 , 768 ]. A shallow-rooted plant[ 418 ]. Under subsistence conditions palms are often widely spaced but for intensive agriculture it is planted at 400-500 plants/ha for fruit and 3000 to 20 000 plants for heart-of-palm.

Carbon Farming

• Agroforestry Services: Crop shade  Plants providing crop shade especially trees.
• Agroforestry Services: Living trellis  Plants to physically support other crops.
• Agroforestry Services: Windbreak  Linear plantings of trees and shrubs designed to enhance crop production, protect people and livestock and benefit soil and water conservation.
• Management: Managed Multistem  Regularly removing some multiple stems. A non-A non-destructive management systems maintaining the soil organic carbon.
• Other Systems: Homegarden  Tropical multistrata agroforestry (multi-story combinations of trees, crops, domestic animals in the homestead).
• Other Systems: Multistrata  Multistrata agroforests feature multiple layers of trees often with herbaceous perennials, annual crops, and livestock.
• Regional Crop  These crops have been domesticated and cultivated regionally but have not been adopted elsewhere and are typically not traded globally, Examples in this broad category include perennial cottons and many nuts and staple fruits.
• Staple Crop: Balanced carb  (0-15 percent protein, 0-15 percent oil, with at least one over 5 percent). The carbohydrates are from either starch or sugar. Annuals include maize, wheat, rice, and potato. Perennials include chestnuts, carob, perennial fruits, nuts, cereals, pseudocereals, woody pods, and acorns.
• Staple Crop: Oil  (0-15 percent protein, 16+ percent oil). Some of these are consumed whole while others are exclusively pressed for oil. Annuals include canola, poppyseed, maize, cottonseed, sunflower, peanut. Perennials include high-oil fruits, seeds, and nuts, such as olive, coconut, avocado, oil palm, shea, pecan, and macadamia. Some perennial oil crops are consumed whole as fruits and nuts, while others are exclusively pressed for oil (and some are used fresh and for oil).