Diospyros melanoxylon

Cultivation Details

A plant of the lowland tropics, where it is found at elevations up to 900 metres. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 25 - 35°c, but can tolerate 8 - 48°c^[1]. Mature plants can be killed by temperatures of -5°c or lower, but young growth is severely damaged at -1°c^[1]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 800 - 1,200mm, but tolerates 500 - 1,500mm^[1]. Older trees require a sunny position, although young ones are shade tolerant^{[2, 1]}. Requires a well-drained soil^[2]. Very tolerant of soil type, being found in poor denuded soils, hot and dry hill slopes, stony soils with quartzite, shale and sandstone, and also heavy clays^[2]. It however attains best growth and development on loose, porous soils in cool and moist sheltered valleys where it tends to be gregarious^[2]. Prefers a pH in the range 5.5 - 7, tolerating 5 - 7.5^[1]. Established plants are drought tolerant^[2]. The tree has a deep, tap-rooting habit^[2]. Flowers are produced on new shoots, the fruit taking 1 year to ripen^[2]. The tree produces good seed in alternate years^[2]. The tree is usually kept reserved and is not felled except in clear-felling coupes, as in the coppice-with-reserves working cycle in India^[2]. The main source of production of bidi leaves is from the bushes arising from the root suckers; leaves of bigger trees are stiff and brittle and therefore not capable of producing trade leaves for wrapping bidis^[2]. Where the objective of management is the production of leaves, heavy pruning is recommended as this promotes vegetative growth and the production of relatively large and thin leaves, although repeated pruning can cause stunted growth of trees^[2]. Plants up to 15 cm in girth are cut near the ground to encourage sprouting of coppice shoots, which gives best quality leaves after 40 - 50 days of operation. Coppicing experiments in India show that best quality of trade leaves are obtained by coppicing flush to the ground level twice, 2 weeks apart, then coppicing flush to the ground only once^[2]. The tree also pollards well, although the growth of the pollard shoots is slow. Pollarding is done to obtain a good flush of tender leaves, and plants over 15 cm girth are usually cut at 60 - 90 cm height^[2]. Management for small timber, poles or firewood requires a coppice rotation of about 30 years to give usable products^[2]. For ebony wood, a much longer rotation would be needed to give sufficient dimensions to the valuable heartwood^[2]. We have seen no individual confirmation for this species, but in general Diospyros species are dioecious and require both male and female forms to be grown if fruit and seed are required^[3].