Hi

Having supplied iboga in the past, used it myself and read about possible danger to its longevity on here, I have started planning a large scale iboga farm.
I have limited knowledge on the subject so will be jumping in the deep end but I have financial support and family who have lived in equatorial africa and have agricultual qualifications so hopefully we will be able to pull it off.

The three main questions i have to start with are:

Firstly i would like to witness the plants growing in their natural conditions and ideally meet people who are growing/harvesting them already + obtain fresh seeds pods. I figure gabon/cameroon would be best for this, but thats as far as i've got. Can anyone direct me to an existing farm or specific area where iboga is currently grown / prevelant?

Second: Sustainable harvesting tequniques. This seems to be a mystery but if anyone can help with this that would be great, or does anyone have ideas as to how to make this practical on a relatively large scale?
I'm thinking of placing rocks under the plants to encourage the roots outward which could make harvest alot more simple and reduce the disturbance to the plants. Any opinions on this or other ideas to ease the proccess would be much appreciated. Knowledge on what % of roots can be harvested and tequnique to minimise damage would be ideal if this knowledge exists.

Third: What level of soil moisture? I've read that as the plants originate from rainforest they are used to wet soil. I will most likely be growing in the open so there will be alot less trapped moisure. I plan to use shade trees in a similar climate but the soil is likely to be much dryer than they are used to. Will the plants need daily watering? Or will they adjust to a less moist soil?
I plan to use a friends invention: http://valeipanema.com.br/omni-verdi.asp to try and keep as much moisture in as possible but need more info so i can plan around their water needs

Any help and advice is appreciated. Or other people planning the same thing feel free to get in touch and we can share knowledge as these projects evolve

Peace + positivity

You might have better luck with your questions on

The Share The Seeds forum
and
The Eboka forum.

Not that you won't necessarily get some good answers here. GL!

i would very much LOVE to turn the place i live into a working co-op entheo-farm....
with other projects going on, like a store front for food, and art, or anything else.

Maybe a community garden, or something... i actually already have the perfect place,
but probably going to lose this opportunity, because i don't know anyone interested.

iboga is definitely one i'd like to grow, and i don't know answers to the questions,
but i'd be interested in the answers too. Goodluck expanding! That's a great vision.

Mano: Its always possible to find people with a similar vision, you just need to look in the right places and put as much energy as possible into your dreams. I know a tonne of people who would love to be involved in your vision, they are all on the other side of the world unfortunately. Keep searching and you shall find

Thanks rhythm for the links, im aware of eboka, not heard of sharetheseeds. I will check them both out. I've been an idle member here for years so decided to stop here first.

Hey dude,

For your first two questions, particularly the first one, I think it would be definitely worth getting in touch with Tatayo and Ebando. I think they should be supportive if you explain what your aims are.

http://www.ebando.org/

I have heard one can harvest a certain proportion of roots from iboga when it reaches a certain age, and it will regenerate to some degree. So sustainable harvesting techniques may indeed be feasible, and are definitely worth looking into.

It may also be worth getting in touch with Bart Hawkins or Cassandra Linnea, a little while back they launched a crowdfunding indiegogo project to fund a sustainable iboga plantation but didn't get very far funding wise...it does sound to me like you are in much better position to enact this though so I say go for it! We are in dire need of more iboga farms.

http://vimeo.com/106033265

I'm sure you've already seen it, but attached is a guide for iboga seed germination to get them started.

Thanks alot for your responses they have been a massive help!
I've done alot of learning in the last week and sent out a few emails.

My original questions remain open to further advice or directing but i feel more confident that i can pull this off.

A friend of mine has just started an airoponics experiment too, hopefully that will yield some positive results too

If it's not too much to ask, would you mind providing details as you are able?

Thanks!

He has just started so theres not alot to report in terms of results, the seeds havn't germinated yet.

The idea behind it is that although iboga takes many years until harvest in soil, using airoponics the roots should grow as a mass of small roots, with a much higher amount of root bark produced in the same time.

He plans to harvest a little after a year to test potency, but potentially in 1-2 years it may be possible to have the same harvest as a 10year old tree in soil.
Whether or not there will be sufficient alkaloids after this time remains to be discovered.

If this test run goes well he already has the right equiptment to scale up and supply large quantitys.