Aug

5

Trees, mostly

August 5, 2023 |

old gray mare prob at 3-month hi at 35%.

Lott/Stossel: Election Betting Odds

books read this weekend:

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World

The Battle for Investment Survival

The Tree in My Garden

Trees: A Complete Guide to Their Biology and Structure.

i find the study of trees - especially how high they grow, and how they develop buttresses, and how they branch out and compete with other trees for light - immensely revealing for the various moves.

Big Al suggests:

The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization

Nils Poertner comments:

In many parts of central Europe, the Beech tree used to dominate the landscape thousands of yrs ago. Used to be well over 2/3 - and even today it is like 1/3 in Germany. Why? They tend to grow super and sort of take away all the light from slower growing trees. An oak tree would not stand a chance.

Gyve Bones suggests:

Long term strategy: planting a grove of oaks in a forest in France to be ready in 150 years to replace the roof of Notre Dame de Paris when it burns down.

Peter Saint-Andre offers:

Oxford's Oak Beams, and Other Tales of Humans and Trees in Long-Term Partnership

Peter Ringel writes:

For the last two years I am involved in a project for a German horticulture company. They mainly produce young plants of ornamental plants aka flowers. As a little side project (in early stages) they also produce Paulownia trees (as young plants).

Paulownia is the fastest growing tree in Europe. They originate from Asia. (Some criticize them as invasive species.) Typical commercial applications are wood for instrument manufacturing, wood pellets for energy production or particle boards. The wood is very light (caused by very fast-growing).

See a Paulownia grove.

Propagation is a little challenging. Usually it is done in-vitro via Biotec-lab, which we have. It is not the easiest variety for in-vitro. We also had some success to propagate via cuttings from mother plants.

Laurel Kenner comments:

Terrible idea to grow these, down there with tree of heaven, kudzu and bamboo. Yes, they are quick to grow, but also impossible to eradicate or even to contain. I am not an eco-hippie, just a gardener.

Zubin Al Genubi adds:

A friend planted a tree farm about 25 years ago with rare exotic hardwoods such as Koa, Bubinga, Cedar, rosewood, mahogany, ebony. It is a multigenerational project but some early woods are being harvested. Some of the rare woods will be very valuable as they are disappearing in their disappearing native habitat. There are numerous governmental grants benefiting the project as well.

Laurel Kenner responds:

I like the project. The idea is not to grow "trees" that are in effect big weeds. Pawlonia is illegal in my state, CT, as is Norwegisn maple, another nasty weed-tree planted in a less enlightened day because it grew fast. They often come down in storms because they're weak. One memorably crashed over my driveway in a big blow and its eldritch too brach rang ny side doorbell.

Peter Ringel replies:

Yes, storms are an issue, especially during the first years. My big mouth was referring to the EU government as hippies, because subsidies and grant policies are highly ideological here. Not referring to anyone else.

The church of Greens has Europe tight in their grip and currently they like Paulownia. There is a trend / hype growing. Other psalms the church likes are "renewable raw materials" or "CO2 neutrality". Paulownia fit these mantras. (plants eat and need CO2 to confuse the church)

Paulownia are not really new to Europe. Introduced to Europe 100 years ago or so. So far they were unable to survive in the European wild in size. Maybe because of frequent stronger winds? On a farm, as industrial product it makes a lot of sense to me. I am obviously biased here, because this would be our customers. It is a nice economic product. E.g. after about the first 2 years of growth, farmers cut them back near the ground level. This timber can be sold. They rapidly grow back and faster than without cutting. A case of eat your cake and have it too. One argument is, to use this locally produced timber instead of importing from South America, Asia, Finland or Russia.

forgot: Paulownia on farms are usually all clones of hybrids. Like a mule, they can not reproduce themselves into surrounding areas.

Vic's twitter feed

Recent Posts

List of Authors

Aug

5