Those Trees From Monteray

Doobieous wrote:
--- Tony and Moira Ryan <tomory@xtra.co.nz> wrote:
>>Another local example would be the healthy and
vigorous specimens of both the Monterey cypress
>>(Cupressus Macrocarpa)and Monterey pine (Pinus
>>radiata here, doing it seems much better in NZ than
>>in their native California.

>>One reason for this improvement may well be that
>>they sometimes manage to leave behind most of their
>>pests and diseases as a result of the move.


>Away from the immediate coast where constant sea winds
>blow, they can grow quite tall, much taller and bigger
>than they do in their actual habitat. It's typically
>sea wind and pruning from salt air that seems to keep
>them stunted and small around here (but really i'm far
>more impressed by how beaten they can look than the
>potential size they can grow).

Pinus radiata is our principal plantation tree in NZ, accounting for (at a guess) around 95-98% of our considerable commercial plantings. The reason it has become the favourite is its phenomenal growth rate making it possible to fell for poles and chipping after no more than twenty five years and for quality logs from about ten years later. This contrasts with Scots pine plantings I saw in England while a student which were just reaching millable age at eighty years.

The quick maturity seems to be partly a quality of the climate as comparable plantings in Australia apparently take at least ten years longer to become usable. I would guess this most probably relates mainly to our moister conditions allowing a longer growing season..

The younger trees here have also been very carefully bred for the best and most even results, first by rigorous seed selection and more recently by cloning, often using tissue culture to get a maximum number of superior offspring. This is the only pampering they receive though, they are planted into unimproved soils fed only with the litter from their predecessors and the planting method is casual in the extreme, bare rooted small trees being set in holes made with a single thrust of a spade to open the ground and then firmed with a quick stamp before the planter moves on. Amazingly the establishment rate is little short of 100%. Perhaps we are too kind to the trees we plant in our gardens?!

Their ability to succeed on the poorest of land is phenomenal. Some of the largest plantings in North Island are situated on areas which have a thick coating of pumice from an enormous eruption many centuries earlier and which formerly were just the poorest of scrublands. Of course this ability to survive on infertile soils is actually typical of pines in general, which owe this useful trait to the help of mycorrhizal fungi without which they would never grow properly at all in such situations.

> The other thing about C. macrocarpa is without
> something to prune the excess shoots, they tend to
> grow a very short bole with a medusa's head of
> branches. I don't often find it very attractive.
>
Cupressus macrocarpa (known here just as "macrocarpa") was not originally introduced as a timber tree, but primarily as a good wind shelter in the form of hedges and as shelter belts on farms and also occasionally as a specimen in large gardens and parks. By now these uses have largely died out. For hedging it has been replaced by C.lawsoniana, and extremely violent storms in the last fifty years or so have put paid to most of the shelter belts, which have been replanted now with other species.

What has happened in recent years however is an increasing appreciation of its value as a timber tree as it is one of the few woods naturally highly resistant to weather and soil fungi, so it can be used for outdoor applications without chemical treatment..

At the moment there is only a limited amount of this timber available and much of it comes from those aged monsters with their often awkward growth habit. I gather quite a lot of young trees have now been planted strictly to produce timber and careful training and pruning is being undertaken to encourage more useful and straight growth. I am sure the demand will quickly increase once these trees reach maturity.

And talking of aged monsters, the huge knotty planks which such trees can produce have created a fad among the more way-out furniture makers for incorporating them in weird seats and tables where they certainly can look very striking if not exactly beautiful!

Moira

--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ.     Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
NEW PICTURES ADDED 4/Feb/2004

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