Young Trees

Coming back to the nursery after a year was absolutely overwhelming. It is hard to believe how fast everything grows here.
The 4000 small seedlings planted in May 2019, were transplanted to another field one year later in the rainy season. This was quite a challenge and a new experience for everyone involved, as this type of tree rearing is completely new here.
Unfortunately, I was not able to be on site for the action. Nevertheless, I tried to be supportive from afar by making a video of a planting cut together with a colleague in Kiel. It was absolutely necessary to prune the young trees heavily, otherwise they would not have survived the transplanting, because unlike in Germany, most tree species here have leaves all year round.
I was a bit afraid that the whole thing would go wrong. And at first the young trees didn't look good either.

But that has changed quickly. Only a small percentage did not grow. The plants benefited greatly from the pruning and grew back all the more vigorously. Our new drip irrigation was very supportive here.

After a few months, the area has almost become a small forest.

Now the next rainy season will start soon, then these 4000 young trees will be transplanted to their final locations in Moshi District. Another big challenge.