Austrian Pine?

[Mark M]

Anyone know anything about Austrian Pine? Walmart has some nice little trees for a pretty good price but I don't know nothing about them. I'm looking for something in my yard in full sun.

Thanks
Mark

[Ianab]

Austrian Pine, a variey of European Black Pine, Pinus Nigra.
I guess it's the subspecies that grows in Austria. :P
"Tree is tolerant of smoke and air pollution, is valuable for it's hardiness and is used for shelter belts"
"Timber is strong, though knotty"
"reaches 40m in height".. thats like 120ft?

Would make a good speciman tree if you got the space?
I'd say it wont stay small for very long, but if you got the space for a real tree it looks interesting.

Ian

[DonE911]

I'm no pro, but people plant those down here in south FL they plant them as a wind break for young citrus trees... they get very tall and seem to grow a very dense hammock.... many of the trees that sprout in the interior of the planting fall over after reaching 15-20 ft tall....  

I've not cut any...  although I've burned alot ... a single tree would be fine in a yard but I would not want to plant to many or to close together.  

Just my 2 cents worth

[Tom]

Australian pine is a different animal than Austrian Pine, Don.
http://www.bonsai-bci.com/species/australian%20pine.html

Australian pine is Casuarina equisetifolia (outlawed as a weed tree in Florida),

while Austrian pine is Pinus Nigra.

This michigan site says that it should not be used in landscapes because it is susceptible to diplodia tip blight.
http://www.msue.msu.edu/imp/modzz/00001114.html

It is native to Western Europe
http://www.kansasforests.org/CTPFAQ/austrian_pine.htm

..And is sometimes confused with Red Pine.
http://www.oplin.lib.oh.us/products/tree/fact%20pages/pine_austrian/pine_austrian.html

Hardy, distinct in form and color.
http://www.lovetoknow.com/Flowers/austrian-pine.htm

It is salt tolerant and withstands plantings beside roads.
http://www-saps.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/trees/pinus.htm#nigra

[Bro. Noble]

They are used here in Mo. quite a lot and seem to do well.  I think they are very attractive ,   but personally prefer to plant native species.

[Mark M]

Yeah but I'm in North Dakota Noble and there are no native trees. :D

[Bro. Noble]

Mark,

If I lived in ND,  I'd probably plant me some of those.  We got one of those foreign Mimosa trees in our front yard .  It's covered almost solid with blooms now and just alive with humming birds.

On that other deal you asked about,  check out page 20 on the chainsaw forum ;)

[Ron Scott]

Austrian pine may be ok if you can't find anything else. Not a good timber tree and often infected with diplodia here. Check what does best or is native to your local area.

Do you have much red pine there?

[rebocardo]

If I bought a plant from WalMart to plant in my yard, I would always ask the question "With what could it be infected and how will it effect my other trees".  In an other words, I would not trust any plant bought at WalMart.

[beenthere]

Rebo
Just because it is Walmart? or is there more to this story 'bout diseases from Walmart?   :

For Mark M, there may be no other trees to infect, this may be the first tree for the new 'lone' pine state.  

[Mark M]

I don't think we have many red pines here but there are Ponderosa and Scotts pine. I think I'm going to plant some ash or cottonwood as they seem to do well.

[Bro. Noble]

Mark,

One of our carpenters asked me if I would like some cypress seedlings to plant around the new house.  I said "sure,  I love those trees"  Well they are native to a little part of Mo.

He gave me 15 of them and they have been installed ;D

[Tom]

You are now a wetlands.  Don't cut anything.  Don't mow the grass.  Don't dig a hole.  Don't eat a squirrel,  Don't walk on bare ground.  Don't crank an engine.  Don't drain a puddle.  Don't add water. Don't let trash litter the wetlands. Don't damage the trees under penalty of litigation and fines.  No silviculture allowed.

Be prepared to remove your driveway.  Your house has probably been built too close to the trees and will have to come down. Don't let a fire get out of hand (no cooking outside).  Security lights will artificially lengthen the growing season. Take them down.

If you need to mow the grass, it may require a permit.  Be sure to observe "better mangagement practices (BMP's) They are voluntary but if you miss the 'Rule de Jour" you are susceptible to a fine.  Your good neighbor now reports any possible violations to the "Authorities", so, look over your shoulder all of the time.

Enjoy your property.  It is a priviledge to pay property taxes.  Someone must volunteer the funds to protect the world from all of these horrible human beings.

Next time plant a cactus. ;D

Oh!  Is Saguaro protected too?  .......never mind. :-/        :D

[RMay]

Tom have you had a wetland incliner with your hill land ???

[Tom]

I don't understand, RMay.

I was making a joke about the situations that would happen around here.   The Bureaucrat Environmental Gestapo would come down so heavy on the landowners that the landowners quit being public about what they were doing.  Anything that looked like a wetland tree on a farm started disappearing.  They got used for firewood, fencing etc.  Many just died for some unforeseen reason. The Government's heavy-handed effort to control private land, disregard ownership and intimidate the farmers, backfired on them.

With the advent of different technologies, the bureaucrats are escalating the "war".   In defense, the farmers are inventing new ways of fighting them.  One day, the farmers will just leave and let the place be a sub-division.

It's the same scenario as Automobile Radar went through.  The government created a war/game.

The cop hides in the woods by a bridge.  Drivers slow down next to bridges.

The cop moves to the overpass.  The drivers start using CB's.

The cops create a speed trap on 5 miles of hi-way.  The warning is broadcast on the local AM radio.

They developed Radar.  The drivers used detectors.
They created different Radar channels.  The drivers detected more channels.
They used different shooting techniques.  The drivers detectors got more sensitive.

No wonder everybody has a "good guy/bad guy" mentality.

After a while, you begin to wonder what the goal was in the beginning.  Was it really to slow down the drivers or to catch and fine speeders?  Is the determination of wetlands to protect wetland species, control land use or is there another agenda?

Yes, I've seen the "gotcha" try to be played out on my place too.

Two hundred acres of highland next to me was permitted by the developer through the State to create a wetlands.  It's purpose is to replace the destruction of wetlands by developers elsewhere.  If someone wants to cover up a wetlands for a shopping center, they have to buy wetlands certificates from the State, showing that wetlands were created somewhere else to counter-balance it.

To make the 200 acres fit the rules, all the trees were cut and sold. The mitigation developer had to scrape two feet of dirt from the land and get rid of it. Then, he had to plant wetland species on the land. (These species had already existed but were intermixed with a pine plantation.)  The dirt was donated to a police firing range for a backstop and was hauled 3 miles down the road. (You should have seen the constant line of National Guard dumptrucks for months. All the dirt still isn't all gone)

Now the 200 acres has been totally sold through the State's mitigation bank and will never be used for anything in the future.  It will be left, unmanaged, through perpetuity.

The people that want to "protect" wetlands are happy.  The developer turned $2 thousand an acre into $40 thousand an acre.  Until someone comes with enough money to change the rules, the land will not be used.

Here, again, I wonder about the Goals.  No one has been the slightest bit concerned with the destruction of the 200 acres of Highland habitat.

Why?  Because the people who sit behind the desks and make the rules see all land that is devoid of buildings, mowed grass and English Gardens as wasteland.  If it is "wasteland" to begin with, then they are within their rights to make it be whatever kind of "wasteland" fits their goal.

I wonder what their goal for my wasteland will be?  What will be the goal for your wasteland when they need it?  Does it matter that you own the land and it is important to you or only that it is important to them?

Dang!   I didn't mean to do this again.

[Steve]

That was Great Tom!!  I'm afraid there are so many examples like that, it would make a well man sick.

[Bro. Noble]

It's scary what harm can be done by ignorant people with good intentions and by greedy people who use conservation/environment to mislead those well meaning knuckleheads into screwing the farmers and taxpayers.

[Bruce_A]

Tom, you may not be totally correct, but you are close enough to get me howling on my end.  Keep up the  good work so I can take a break and use you for a reference.  People here think I am nuts also.

[Bro. Noble]

Tom,

I'm happy to report that all of our cypress seedlings are dead------boy that was a close call :D  

The carpenter delivered them to me in a bucket of water.  They were just brown twigs with bare roots.  He said the ones he planted didn't make it either,  but one of the ones that the guy he got them from did survive.  Turns out that bucket of seedlings has been passed all over the countryside for the past month :