Layin em down

GATreeGrower · September 11, 2013, 10:49:18 AM

One last look at my pines behind the house. They moved in today to clear cut. You can see where theyve started on the left. Sad to see them go but better to start over than just keep watching em die.

thecfarm · September 11, 2013, 10:53:55 AM

How many acres? What's the plan,replant or?? Going to take some pictures of the equipment? Please ;D

GATreeGrower · September 11, 2013, 11:03:26 AM

50+ acres. Will replant as soon as we can get it sprayed and prepped. May be next winter though. We still have other sites that we have to plant first for the Longleaf Pine Initiative. I'll post some more pics when they all get here, right now its just the cutdown man getting started.

terry f · September 11, 2013, 01:51:39 PM

Nice looking forest, why are they dying.

GATreeGrower · September 11, 2013, 02:14:16 PM

Skidder

GATreeGrower · September 11, 2013, 02:21:07 PM

Terry, they were never thinned properly is my guess. There is still a boatload of canker and pulpwood in there and it's still too thick so it started thinning itself. That is my unprofessional opinion :D Plus is it the old state forestry trees and they were very unpredictable. GFC has really good trees now.

Ianab · September 11, 2013, 04:32:07 PM

Sounds about right. If a pine plantation like that is left with too many stems you start getting a lot of suppressed and sickly sticks in there that are never going to amount to anything. They are just taking up space, light, nutrients and water that should be going to the good crop trees.

You can see in the picture there are a few decent dominant trees that have grown properly, but it lot of skinny poles that are only ever going to make pulp, and would just fall over if they where thinned and released this late in the cycle.

It's often better to just take them all out and get whatever value is in there now, and replant with fresh trees that can be managed properly from the beginning. Sitting and watching them "self thin" for another 10 years probably wont add any value. ;) As you say, you can also plant with better quality seedlings which help as well.

Locally ALL the management is done in about the first 7 or 8 years. By that stage all the pruning and thinning is completed and the trees are at final spacings. Pretty intensive care in those early years. There is pretty much zero management after that, and it's just sit back and watch them grow for another 20 years.

Ian

GATreeGrower · September 11, 2013, 07:19:42 PM

A couple of pics

WDH · September 11, 2013, 10:22:51 PM

Stands that age are prone to annosum root rot if you have a sandy topsoil. The root rot weakens the trees, and the bark beetles are drawn in, and they deliver the final blow. One sign of annosum root rot is thinning of the needles so that the tree looks like half the needles have fallen off.

terry f · September 12, 2013, 04:00:23 AM

Is there any money to be made on them after harvest and trucking?

treefarm · September 12, 2013, 07:24:25 AM

Great pics GATreeGrower!

WDH · September 12, 2013, 07:42:04 AM

Quote from: terry f on September 12, 2013, 04:00:23 AM
Is there any money to be made on them after harvest and trucking?

Oh yes.

GATreeGrower · September 12, 2013, 09:05:59 AM

There has been more big wood and chip n saw come out than I thought, thanks to the loader/grader doing a good job

thecfarm · September 12, 2013, 09:53:39 AM

Questions,probably if I wait for a day or two the pictures will tell me the answers. Is some being chipped,hauled tree lenght,logs? I think you mentioned chips and logs?

GATreeGrower · September 12, 2013, 12:59:27 PM

The chip n saw specs for this mill are a 12" butt and 6" top. Theres also a "big wood" grade that goes to Beasley and I am marking large poles 13" at eye level and they haul those tree length. And of course pulpwood

thecfarm · September 12, 2013, 01:09:31 PM

The chip n saw specs???? Must be a slang? Not heard of that here.

GATreeGrower · September 12, 2013, 01:16:00 PM

Chip n saw down here is medium size pine trees basically. Some of it is chipped and made into pulp and some of it is sawn into small dimension lumber

GATreeGrower · September 12, 2013, 01:17:06 PM

WDH probably has a better definition than me

thecfarm · September 12, 2013, 01:18:07 PM

Sounds good to me. Thank you for all of the answers.

beenthere · September 12, 2013, 02:37:59 PM

Small trees not big enough to go to a regular sawmill as sawlogs but still big enough to take a couple 2x 's are fed through a chip-n-saw (one pass through and done). Priced accordingly, but wood is worth more in solid lumber form than in a chip.

http://www.forest2market.com/blog/How-Big-Should-I-Let-My-Trees-Grow-Sawtimber-vs.-Chip-n-Saw

WDH · September 12, 2013, 04:55:42 PM

BT is right on. A Chip-N-Saw mill when it first came into being had two chipping heads that chipped two sides square, then two band saws (one on each side) that could take a side board off each side of the cant. These are called twin bands. The cant then went into a gang saw to be cut into dimension lumber (2x stock). So, the chip-n-saw mills could process small logs very fast, hence the name for the smaller sawlogs became "chip-n-saw" logs.