| Growth
Rings, WV |
Fores-@aol.com |
| Oct
11, 2006 14:28 PDT |
Bob:
I am probably a little more familiar on growth rings than most
people
because of the number of stumps I have to look at in my work.
The maximum sustained growth rings I have seen on species in
WV...by
sustained I would mean at least five consecutive years.... are
yellow poplar
1-1.1" ------------------average
.3"
red oak
.8" --------------------------
.4"
white oak
.7"
--------------------------- .2"
scarlet
oak
.8" ----------------------------
.3"
chestnut oak .3"
---------------------------- .1"
black
oak
.6"
-----------------------------.3"
sugar
maple
.5"
---------------------------- .2"
red
maple
.6"
---------------------------- .3"
white
ash
.7" ----------------------------
.3"
eastern white pine 1.25"
---------------------- .5"
sycamore
.75" ------------------------------.3"
hickory
.3" -----------------------------
.1"
In terms of slow average growers chestnut oak and hickory are
worst.
A general rule of thumb here is that dominant red oak trees will
grow an
average of 4" per decade in a "wild" unmanaged
situation . 16" DBH red oak is
40 year, 20" is 50 years and 24" is generally over 60
years old. There are
always exceptions like the 180 year old red oak that is 10"
DBH and the 65
year old red oak that is 42" DBH. I
have found that under management 7.5 to 8"
per decade increment can be expected.
Here black oak can rival red oak in overall quality. Red and
black oak
trees can be very tall and single stemmed trees of both species
can produce clear
limb free stems for up to 65 feet although 50-60' is most
common.
The biggest difference I have had to get used to since
emigrating from New
England is how small the taper can be in several species of
hardwood trees.
On really good sites white pine can probably beat out any
other trees
growing in WV for both height and volume growth. There is
supposed to be a white
pine plantation at Fernow experimental forest near Parsons, WV
that is 70
years old and has 70,000 board feet per acre but that is the
extreme end.
However, I think that there are lots of places here where annual
per acre volume
growth far exceeds 500 board feet per acre per year.
Unfortunately, in spite
of impressive growth....and NO WHITE PINE WEEVILS...here it is
largely looked
upon as a weed tree.
I think that in most situations white pine will out produce
yellow poplar in
timber growth but I also think that the yield of high quality
lumber will be
higher per acre for poplar than pine. It is not common in much
of the state
and I sold my last white pine tree in a sale I marked in 2004.
At Crummies
Creek we have two native eastern white pine trees but they are
three miles
apart!
Russ
|
| RE:
More for Russ |
Robert
Leverett |
| Oct
12, 2006 06:10 PDT |
Russ,
Very interesting. I am both surprised and not surprised at the
comparison of white pine to tulip poplar. I'm not surprised
because I
see white pine outgrowing every other species here in New
England. I am
surprised because tulip poplar eventually gets much larger than
white
pine. They are both comparably long-lived. So at some point I
presume
that white pine shuts down its rapid radial growth while tulip
poplar
continues chugging along. It would be fascinating to see average
growth
curves separately in terms of height, diameter, and aggregate
volume
over time. I have a sneaking suspicion that we'd be surprised by
some of
the trends.
Bob
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