I have a 100 acre wood lot covered in Ponderosa Pine, I've milled alot of it, never new that it rots from the inside out. However there seems to be 2 types one with a thinner bark and one with a thicker bark, the thin bark always has nicer wood and less rot is this a sub species ?
Age perhaps? Yes there are a few types of Ponderosa pine. The Black Hill's type, var scopulorum, grows generally east of the continental divide and var ponderosa, generally west of the divide.
They may intergrade in some area of MT (just guessing). I have both types planted on my farm in south Saskatchewan. They are different in branching and needle characters. The var ponderosa ripens and sheds it seed in early September while the var scopulorum shed seed later on in mid October. I have hand pollinated the two types and they do intercross.
There are a couple of other types as well, a far western type and a southern type.
Age.
Thanks for the replys, I'm in the Bull Mt's. in Montana, and these Ponderosa Pine are both large and small, got some over 30"diam. with thin bark and some 5" with the thick bark, I'm guessing subspecies or cross?,I've also seen where fire has gone through and these pine turn like hard wood ! heavy, dense, make great firewood "when all ya got is pine", I havent milled any charred ones yet, but was thinking ...? is there a way to replicate this? ie, char my own tree? So far the thin bark has made the best lumber. I was also reading that if I fell the trees and leave the limbs on that they will have less sap when I go to mill them , any input on this?
Drove through the Bull Mtns many years ago on my honeymoon. Beautiful country. Would love a half pound of Ponderosa pine seed collected in the area!
If you fell and leave lay with limbs and needles on, there will less water in the wood due to evaporation of water from the drying needles.