Bactris gasipaes

Peach Palm or Bactris gasipaes is a tropical tall, slender palm that grows up to 24 m in height. It is native to South and Central America. Thorns are present on the trunk and suckers are formed at the base. Seed oil is used medicinally as a rub for relief from rheumatic pains. It is also edible and is used for cooking. The ovoid, yellow to orange fruit is highly nutritious. It is cooked or ground into flour and used in baking. The seed is edible as well - consumed as a nut or made into a meal to flavour drinks. The apical bud is cooked as a vegetable. The pinnate leaves are used as a thatch and as a source of green dye for fabrics. Plant spines are used as needles in tattooing. The roots have vermicidal properties. Fibre used in paper-making can be obtained from the whole plant. The wood is used in construction. Peach palm is grown from seeds or suckers.

Bactris gasipaes is an evergreen Tree growing to 15 m by 7 m at a fast rate.
It is hardy to zone 10 and is frost tender. The flowers are pollinated by Insects, wind.
It is noted for attracting wildlife.
Suitable for: light , medium and heavy soils, prefers well-drained soil and can grow in heavy clay and nutritionally poor soils. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic soils and can grow in very acid and very alkaline soils.
It can grow in semi-shade or no shade. It prefers moist soil and can tolerate drought. The plant can tolerates strong winds but not maritime exposure.

Agroforestry Services: Crop shade Agroforestry Services: Living trellis Agroforestry Services: Windbreak Management: Managed Multistem Other Systems: Homegarden Other Systems: Multistrata Regional Crop Staple Crop: Balanced carb Staple Crop: Oil
Plants succeed in moist tropical climates with heavy rainfall and poor soils. They grow in lowland areas below 800 metres, where temperatures never fall below 10°c, the average annual rainfall is 1,500mm or more and the driest month has 25mm or more rain. They can withstand relatively hot dry seasons of 3 - 4 months. Requires a fertile, moist, but well-drained soil, a humid atmosphere and some protection from strong sun. Seedlings develop very slowly under forest shade conditions, and mature plants require full sunlight for optimal production of flowers, fruits and offshoots. Plants are most productive when grown on relatively deep, fertile, well-drained soils, clay soils, and highly eroded laterites with 50% aluminium-saturated, acid soils. Prefers a pH in the range 5 - 6.5, tolerating 4 - 7.5. The spiny stem of the tree grows rapidly in height, attaining 15 - 20 metres in just 10 years. Plants begin flowering when 3 - 5 years old, and can produce two fruit crops a year for the next 50 - 75 years. Fruit yields may be as high as 10 - 30 tonnes/ha, but are often only about 2 - 3 tonnes/ha. Yields of 50 - 100 kilos per trunk per year are not unusual. For palm hearts the yield ranges from 4,000 - 10,000 hearts/ha per year. Plants sometimes produce just a solitary trunk, at other times they can have several trunks. Plants produce rings of needle-like spines 5cm long. This can make harvesting the fruit and buds rather unpleasant. There is at least one named form, called 'Spineless', that is entirely free of these spines. There are other forms that have seedless fruits. A shallow-rooted plant. Under subsistence conditions palms are often widely spaced but for intensive agriculture it is planted at 400-500 plants/ha for fruit and 3000 to 20 000 plants for heart-of-palm.