Karri forest

[Matildasmate]

Hi all I took a few shot's of some of the Karri tree's I planted about 9 year's ago , another 10 year's I should get some real nice timber , Karri's can grow to 295' high , there's a pic with my thong next to it , the thong is about a foot long . Some of these tree's are about 60' high now . Cheer's MM

 

[aquan8tor]

Boy thats some growth there. The karri bark looks almost similar to our birch. Nice stand of trees there for sure.

 

[WRW]

10' growth per year? Sweet!

 

[Matildasmate]

10' growth per year? Sweet!

That's actually about 6 1/2' a year and some of them are about 1' thick , I expect in anther 10 year's I will have some 2' thick , no idea how high , if I had sandy country they would have done much better , all the Tassie blue gum's around here are planted in sandy soil , but I reckon the Western Australian Karri's I have planted , would do much better than the Tassie blue gum's , I have a lot of dense black soil's more suited to growing crop's . Cheer's MM

 

[WRW]

My bad math. Still, that's a respectable figure. I've got asparagus that grows about that rate.

 

[duffontap]

That's really neat. I need to look up Karri. I've got a friend who grows hybrid poplar trees for finish lumber. He says the only factor limiting their growth is the amount of water you can afford to put on them. At 5 years they're 100' tall and at 7 years they're 2' in diameter. Apparently he can afford a lot of water.

J. D.

 

[BobL]

That's actually about 6 1/2' a year and some of them are about 1' thick , I expect in anther 10 year's I will have some 2' thick , no idea how high , if I had sandy country they would have done much better , all the Tassie blue gum's around here are planted in sandy soil , but I reckon the Western Australian Karri's I have planted , would do much better than the Tassie blue gum's , I have a lot of dense black soil's more suited to growing crop's . Cheer's MM

The reason yours look like they have grown tall quickly is that they are quite close together and karri is a tree that tries desperately to get above everything else in the canopy. To get more than 150' you will need a lot of water and they only get to above 200' where there is at least 4' of rainfall per year. Still, from 100' tree you get a lot of trunk.

Karri is very strong and more of a construction grade timber but unfortunately the white ants just love it. It also looks nice in furniture but it very hard to work and most cabinet makers avoid it like the plague.

 

[Matildasmate]

The reason yours look like they have grown tall quickly is that they are quite close together and karri is a tree that tries desperately to get above everything else in the canopy. To get more than 150' you will need a lot of water and they only get to above 200' where there is at least 4' of rainfall per year. Still, from 100' tree you get a lot of trunk.

Karri is very strong and more of a construction grade timber but unfortunately the white ants just love it. It also looks nice in furniture but it very hard to work and most cabinet makers avoid it like the plague.

Hi Bob your right about the growth , that's why I planted them close together , that's the same reason they grow Blue gum's and pine's close together so they go for the sky and get the height , also to promote straight tree's , as for water , that wont be a problem around here , the water table is only about 7' below , around here they have actually dug hundred's of km's of drain's to get rid of some of the water and drain the land , a lot of the country around here used to be under water along time ago . I originally planted them for firewood and building timber , how thing's change eh , then we get sucked into milling . Cheer's MM

 

[Matildasmate]

That's really neat. I need to look up Karri. I've got a friend who grows hybrid poplar trees for finish lumber. He says the only factor limiting their growth is the amount of water you can afford to put on them. At 5 years they're 100' tall and at 7 years they're 2' in diameter. Apparently he can afford a lot of water.

J. D.

Hell that's some growth , what do they use poplar for beside's pulp . Cheer's MM

 

[Matildasmate]

The reason yours look like they have grown tall quickly is that they are quite close together and karri is a tree that tries desperately to get above everything else in the canopy. To get more than 150' you will need a lot of water and they only get to above 200' where there is at least 4' of rainfall per year. Still, from 100' tree you get a lot of trunk.

Karri is very strong and more of a construction grade timber but unfortunately the white ants just love it. It also looks nice in furniture but it very hard to work and most cabinet makers avoid it like the plague.

I stand corrected on the height Bob , I did another search and 61mtr's or around 200 feet is a lot closer . That's Wikipedea for you . Cheer's MM

 

[BobL]

I stand corrected on the height Bob , I did another search and 61mtr's or around 200 feet is a lot closer . That's Wikipedea for you . Cheer's MM

That's funny because that article says 90 metres which is right as far as I know. Karris this high are now gone or very well hidden but there are still some around 80 metres high around Pemberton and Manjimup in the south west of Western Australia. My father used be a karri faller (with axes and cross cuts) and often use to measure how high the taller ones were before he cut them down. He always reckoned the tallest one he ever cut was 300 ft high or 91 metres. When I was 8 year old I saw him cut one 280 footer with a chainsaw - I still get the goosebumps when I think about it. It was over 200 ft to the first major branch. I remember they bucked it into 8 lengths and laying on the ground the stump end towered over me.

 

[stonykill]

thong!? whats next, the full monty?

looks good. It does remind me of grey birch, at least the bark does.

I have to say, when you said there was a picture of your thong.....I'm like.....DUDE!!!!!!! I don't want to see your thong! Now I see a thong down under is a sandal, here, ....skimpy undergarment. Nice on females, not so much on guys

 

[woodshop]

Interesting... I understand they plant them close together to get nice strait growth. They do the same for plantations here also (mostly in the south US where they have 20 yr rotations for pines). However, if they are looking for sawtimbers, they do some thinning when the trees get to about where they are in your pics. They still continue to grow strait, but with less competition they grow larger rings and put on more wood quicker than if they had not thinned at all. Do you plan on doing any thinning there in your crop MM?

 

[big daddio]

excellent forest you got goin' there MM. does my heart good to see a millin' man growing his own stuff. ya'll all know we're probably better stewarts of the land than a lot of the do-gooders and finger pointers. is that species a hardwood or softwood and how's it saw?

 

[duffontap]

Hell that's some growth , what do they use poplar for beside's pulp . Cheer's MM

Poplar makes a fabulous trim wood under paint. Some of the nicest painted finish work in high-end custom homes I've ever seen was Poplar. The pulp market tanked around here a couple years ago, so I'm told that even the poplar pulp farms are going to use their trees for finish lumber.

J. D.

 

[BobL]

excellent forest you got goin' there MM. does my heart good to see a millin' man growing his own stuff. ya'll all know we're probably better stewarts of the land than a lot of the do-gooders and finger pointers. is that species a hardwood or softwood and how's it saw?

Some good info on Karri here:
http://www.fpc.wa.gov.au/content/species/native_forests/karri.asp
Moderate hardness for an aussie timber - pretty hard for northern hemisphere timber
Weight for weight is strong as steel or maybe stronger.
Makes nice furniture but is a real pig to work.

 

[Matildasmate]

That's funny because that article says 90 metres which is right as far as I know. Karris this high are now gone or very well hidden but there are still some around 80 metres high around Pemberton and Manjimup in the south west of Western Australia. My father used be a karri faller (with axes and cross cuts) and often use to measure how high the taller ones were before he cut them down. He always reckoned the tallest one he ever cut was 300 ft high or 91 metres. When I was 8 year old I saw him cut one 280 footer with a chainsaw - I still get the goosebumps when I think about it. It was over 200 ft to the first major branch. I remember they bucked it into 8 lengths and laying on the ground the stump end towered over me.

From some of the article's I have read Bob , I would have to agree with you , but sadly Wikipedia need to get there act together , here is the same tree with info from Wikipedia , but different height . Not a bad story though . Cheer's MM

 

[Matildasmate]

looks good. It does remind me of grey birch, at least the bark does.

I have to say, when you said there was a picture of your thong.....I'm like.....DUDE!!!!!!! I don't want to see your thong! Now I see a thong down under is a sandal, here, ....skimpy undergarment. Nice on females, not so much on guys

Yeah your right Stony a thong is also a skimpy undergarment over here to :hmm3grin2orange: Cheer's MM

 

[Matildasmate]

Interesting... I understand they plant them close together to get nice strait growth. They do the same for plantations here also (mostly in the south US where they have 20 yr rotations for pines). However, if they are looking for sawtimbers, they do some thinning when the trees get to about where they are in your pics. They still continue to grow strait, but with less competition they grow larger rings and put on more wood quicker than if they had not thinned at all. Do you plan on doing any thinning there in your crop MM?

Funny you ask that , me and a mate were just talking about that the other day when I took these photo's , I planted about 8 row's or 2000 tree's in a sort of ring around some of my place , I think I will just let them compete and drop the one's that die . While I remember you asked me about the green shed on another thread , I did not build it , I just designed it and got someone else to put it up . The shed was actually built for another purpose , but my plan's changed , I had my sawmill in my big shed a while back , but it was creating to many problem's with dust , so I chose to move it into the green shed . Cheer's MM

 

[Matildasmate]

excellent forest you got goin' there MM. does my heart good to see a millin' man growing his own stuff. ya'll all know we're probably better stewarts of the land than a lot of the do-gooders and finger pointers. is that species a hardwood or softwood and how's it saw?

It's a hardwood , this link may be more useful to you . I only have a small sample of it to show you , I have never used it , the only thing I have seen it used for so far is outdoor furniture . Cheer's MM http://www.fpc.wa.gov.au/content/species/native_forests/karri.asp