rising and falling sap

[griffonks]

So I have this new girlfriend, and although she now peddles cigars in a shop she used to be a forester with a recreation department. Mostly she ran the chipper but she likes and used chainsaws. She did ask me how many saws I need but when I told her I didn't know she laughed.

Anyway, while I was explaining to her the various merits of local firewood (pillow talk) she told me that while she was on a tour of the Perdomo cigar factory in the Dominican Republic she learned something about cedar she didn't know.

Apparently the cigar company packs their smokes in cedar boxes and they manufacture them from standing Cedar. They told her that they have to cut the Cedar tree in the dark so that the sap falls. They can't even cut on a full moon as there is too much light for the Cedar sap to fall.

I wonder if they were pulling her leg.... does anyone know if tree sap rises in the tree and falls with the sunlight or dark?

Incidentally I don't smoke Perdomos, I smoke Toranos....

 

[stltreedr]

Sounds like they were pulling her leg, or, maybe, that's really what they thought. I would guess the education in the DR consists of what your mother and father told you.

 

[Mac88]

I wonder if they were pulling her leg.... does anyone know if tree sap rises in the tree and falls with the sunlight or dark?

Only in cedars grown in the Dominican Republic.

 

[Uncle John]

I think someone might have been smoking something besides cigars!................:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[TonyK]

I'm thinking that they are rolling something other than cigars there without even being as courteous as to pass it on.

 

[showrguy]

it's true !!
i heard that same thing years ago..
that's why i only cut my firewood at night..
i wear night vision gogles..
the same ones that are featured in the recent geico commercial with the king of the jungle,"carl", the lion !!!!

 

[D&B Mack]

 

[TreeGuyHR]

Sap tends to flow towards where water is evaporating -- such as in the leaves when the stomata are open allowing gas exchange (like water vapor exiting the leaf to the atmosphere, and carbon dioxide coming into the leaf), which happens during the day when photosynthesis is going on. At night, the stomata close, so no photosynthesis, no evaporation, no water flow. But water going in the reverse direction?! That does not make a lot of sense. Where is it coming from?! Put a stalk of celery in a glass with an inch of colored water -- you can watch the sap flow happen (if its daylight or if you have a light on).

Just channeling Bill Nye the Science Guy.

some more on "moon wood"

music - Is wood harvested during a full moon ("moon wood") better for musical instruments? - Skeptics

 

[allstihl]

i hate to steal a line but let me saddle up my unicorn and ill ride with you

 

[stihly dan]

I think they where treating your girl as if she where an idiot.

 

[Morgan in AR]

Sycamore

Aren't cigar boxes made of sycamore?

 

[Gavman]

I remember talking to an architect a couple of years ago who had just come back from south american trip where he was helping build a school for some native village..
He mentioned to same thing about posts that the villagers use during construction, the wood is only harvested at night at a certain time of the month...
By doing so the local insects then left the wood alone and didnt attack it in the future...
I will talk to him again in the AM to get the story again...

He was struck by how much the villagers were in tune with their surroundings:msp_thumbup: