January 2011: Mangrove Nursery Started

The original mangrove forests around Guanaja Island contained three true species of mangroves: Red (Rhizophora Mangle), Black (Avicennia Germinans) and White (Laguncularia Racemosa) . Our restoration plan calls for a perimeter of red mangroves, which grow in the deepest water, and inland of those, in shallower water we will plant Black and White mangroves. The result should imitate the natural distribution of the pre-Hurricane Mitch forest.

Black and White mangrove seeds (propagules) are small and easily succumb to being devoured by crabs or to other natural forces . Hand planting them directly or by scattering does not produce good results. Also, in some areas, red mangrove seeds do not survive when directly hand planted. typically do to either storm waves, seaweed fouling or very heavy crab predation.

Therefore we must grow the Black and White varieties, and also some Reds to a larger size before planting. To do this, we started a nursery in January of 2011. This small experimental nursery has already helped us learn a few things: (1) partial shade is best for the young plants (2) plastic bags work as containers, but plastic pots require less labor, (3) We now have an idea of the labor required and (4) we will be able to transplant this first crop anytime this summer and learn more about survival of our nursery plants in the wild.

We are planning now to create a much larger nursery with a sparse thatch shelter providing shade and with space for 5,000 starts at one time. Our goal is to grow and then transplant, 20,000 nursery trees over the next few years.

Thank you to volunteer Doug Manning for spearheading the creation of our experimental nursery, with about 700 mangroves now growing!

Scroll down to see the photos below:

About half of our experimental nursery shows here. The starts shaded under nearby trees showed faster growth and require less watering than those in full sun. We have now moved these into a shady location. Choice of container appears to be of some importance. Bags are cheap but slow to fill with mud. The ridged styrofoam containers are much faster to fill and hold up better over time, but cost more. We are still searching for the perfect container...something biodegradeable?