FAST growing Teak

[Den Socling]

You aren't going to do it in the US but look at this Teak I dried last week. From trees 8 to 11 years old.



The Teak is on top of a Koa pencil box. With the 1/2"+ growth rings! 

And it's pretty stuff to boot.  And easy to dry.



A guy was telling me last week something I already knew. The only way to get people to stop chopping the rain forest is to give them a way to make a living. These Teak plantations are a way.

[Fla._Deadheader]

 YEP, that's what we are lookin to do. 

[Riles]

Maybe not half an inch a year consistently, but I was with my father in law when he removed a live oak from a backyard in Lafayette La last year that had half inch growth rings over most of it's 25 year life. Probably a 20 inch DBH tree or better.

[jrdwyer]

I am curious about fast growing tropical woods like teak or lyptus. I know that teak by its very nature is dimensionally stable, but does the large amount of juvenile wood make larger boards cut from young trees twist and bow? Also, how about the decay resistance of such fast growing wood? Thanks in advance.

[crtreedude]

Jrdwyer,

I can speak to teak - we have several thousand trees of it.  The young wood is quite stable as well. It is due to the fact that it grows where it never really stops growing (no winter).  In some areas (like Guanacaste here) it is dry for 5 months, it would be interesting to see if that has more of an issue.

Recarding decay resistance, usually not until 12+ years will a teak tree have developed enough oil to be weather resistant.

An interesting note on that. The amount of heart wood is dependent on the richness of the soil, not the how slow it grows. In our zone we have a very good percentage of heart wood - and very fast growth. I know places with slow growth and almost no heartwood. (around Los Chiles for example)

I hate to tell you Harold, you can't plant teak up where you are - you are too high. The top of the range is considered to be about 1,000 feet, you are closer to 1,500 feet. Or, you can plant it, but don't expect good results.

You are absolutely right - if you want to save the rainforest, plant trees in plantations (but don't cut down rainforest to do it.)

Since we are a "Contributing Member Shameless Commercial Link" (home page) perhaps it is appropriate for me to comment that we do sell trees and grow them for people (Pete with Logrite is an owner) and I will make an executive decision and say that I will donate 5% of all purchases that mention Forestry Forum to the forum.

We are getting growth rings of 3/4" on our fincas. I know that stays that way because we harvest teak from fincas near us and they have been like that.  We are finding trees that are nearly 3 years old are averaging between 4 to 5" in diameter as well (and between 30 to 40 feet tall).

Den, where did you see this teak? How long did it take to dry in your vacum kiln?

Unfortunately, I am running away for a couple of days, but I will be back Saturday, but if you reply really quickly I might still be here. If I don't respond, I will in a couple of days - if the big boa doesn't get me. 

Fred

[Ron Wenrich]

I remember some brain dead politicians that mandated that no rain forest wood would be used for any municipal purposes.  I figured that they would cut them down just to make fields in slash and burn agriculture.  Why not give them some income from the trees that they are going to burn?  Might even turn a few away from agriculture to some other endeavor. 

[Den Socling]

Fred,

We have been getting 3 or 4 serious inquiries per week from central and south America. These samples came from Ecuador but a similar inquiry this week was from CR.

I took it easy in the vac kiln. It was 8% to 10% on day 3 and 6% to 8% on day 3.5.

Den

[Den Socling]

These pictures came from a company in CR.



That's 8 years old.



That's 11 year old.



And that's stuff from a first trimming.

[Den Socling]

The piece in the top picture (first post) I estimated to be 8 to 12 years old. It's 8" wide and added about 1" in diameter per year. It dried flat with tangential shrinkage around 3% or less!  And it's pretty stuff to boot.

[crtreedude]

Good percentage of heart, bad percentage of knots from what I can see here.

Teak is REALLY stabil - here, we actually will nail up beams sometimes not even close to dry. Works just fine.