 Vines
Tanegashima island is blessed with a subtropical climate and the jungles which
often grow in this type of environment. And of course, what would a jungle be
without vines. The vines growing up in our mountain are problematic, to say the
least. They are extremely invasive. They quickly climb mature trees like our
cypress and oak and compete with the tree canopies for light. Eventually the
vines completely envelop the tree canopies, cutting out the sunlight, and
effectively killing the trees.
In the farms, however, it was a much different story. The vines on the trees
were much thinner, probably due to periodic trimming, but still had the strength
to make them useful.
Varying in thickness from a strong fishing line to a small tree, the vines on
this island can be used for a wide variety of projects.
To date I used these vines to support veggie vines such as green peas and even
to tie the individual stems to the supports. This worked out fantastic, albeit
for only one season, as the vines tended to dry out eventually.
These are what the thick vines look like as they thin out once they reach the
tops of the trees.
Sometimes getting these thin usable vines can be a bit tricky. Basically you
need to keep pulling the thicker base vines until the thinner vines come out of
the tree tops. |
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