can you force a flush on timber????

[whitepine]

Has anyone heard of a way to force an additional flush on trees in a timberland setting?

[Frank_Pender]

Increase the water in the holding tank? :D

[beenthere]

Whitepine
Would you venture an explanation by what you mean by additional 'flush', as well as what you define a 'timberland setting' ? 
I like Franks 'frank' answer ;)

[whitepine]

I dont like Franks comment hehe. By flush I mean a new growth like trees get one every year, some plants can be tricked into more than one growth per year by putting them in a drougt situation than giving them water they will have a second growth. I am interested if it could be done to trees in a woodlot ( it is a bit of a trick question as some claim to be able to do it if you buy their secret formula they can get up to 7 years growth in one growing season). I just want to see if anyone has any ideas or heard of it. Thanks Tom

[Tom]

I don't know of anybody forcing a flush but Mother Nature.  We get them on SYP and don't always know why.   Keep the sun up, the rain pouring, the competition down and they'll grow.  Some of the pulp companys fertilize with questionable results.  It sure makes the leaves green though.  I think the best way to produce fiber is to be a good gardener and let the man that controls the weather do the rest.  Sometimes we humans don't have all of the answers.

[crtreedude]

I have had people try to get me to use "Sonic Bloom" and other stuff. When you have a crop that takes decades to mature, it is hard to run good experiments. I would think you would need 3 generations to make sure you weren't doing something unexpected to the quality of the trees.

A growing thing is so complicated, messing with it besides making sure it has the nutrients it needs seems to be a little crazy. You might put on a lot of growth - and it might make the resultant wood worthless for anything besides concrete frames.

An example, if Teak and Guanacaste get too much water, they have serious issues. You get unbelievable growth if you have no dry season - but you get inferior wood. There is a balance, messing with it can destroy your quality.

I tend to agree with Tom on this.

[Ianab]

I dont thinks it's practical to force multiple growth cycles on to trees, but you can possibly maximise the natural ones. Whats holding back growth? Lack of water - maybe irrigation will help. Poor soil ? Fertiliser can make a difference. Get soil tests done and see if something is lacking.



This picture shows pine logs from a poor fertility site with and without a dose of superphosphate.

Failing that move to Costa Rica where they have a 12 month growing season  ;)
NZ is only about 10 months  :

Ian

[Texas Ranger]

Looks like cookies from a released southern yellowpine plantation.  Thinning is what we do here to increase the growth.

[crtreedude]

I wonder what dumping all that super-phosphate on the land does to the streams? Got weeds?

Now, we have a dry season where the growth slows down some....

[Ron Wenrich]

I really don't see any advantage to a second flush.  I've seen second flushes after serious defoliation.  Its also a roll of the dice.  If the second flush comes too late, then the new buds won't get to set and you have dead trees the following year.

I suppose the idea is to get an additional growth burst, but you have to put the tree under some type of stress to get the flush.  Your increased growth probably wouldn't be as much as having a good year to begin with.

[beenthere]

Is it possible the extra flush(s) is (are)  of interest to Christmas tree growers, to keep the growth spurts to a minimum, and make shaping a tree 'controllable' to an extent?  I guess I can envision a white pine being a 'more preferred' Christmas tree if there were more whorls of branches along the stem and the lateral branches.   eh?

As mentioned, I too doubt extra wood volume would happen as a result of extra 'flushs'.

Then again, maybe 'extra water' is the answer.  :D

[Frank_Pender]

Out here some of the big boys have been doing some airial ferting with choppers, at at 5 to 7 years before a clearcut harvest. What they are using is to be a slow release over a couple three years.

[whitepine]

Looked up Sonic Bloom (crtreedude's post) on google has anyone tried it or know of someone who has.????

[crtreedude]

How to force a flush on timber - plant in another part of the world?  :D

Okay, so I am not any help...

[Phorester]

BEENTHERE, as a long time christmas tree grower, a second flush on white pine just means you have to shear twice in a season.  My experience with white pine second flushes are that they are rarely uniform over a tree.  A branch here and there spurts up again, or one side of the tree, or the terminal pops up.  And the second flush is weaker, smaller branches with shorter, thinner needles, and sets weak buds that sometimes don't open the next season. The second flushes make the tree look unsheared, and are just more work and don't contribute anything to a white pine grown for a Christmas tree.

In the deep South, Virginia pine is a Christmas tree species, and they usually have a second flush every year.  But this extra flush is uniform over the entire tree.  Even though you have to shear them twice in a season, you still have a nice looking tree.

I agree with other posters.  I think a forced second flush on a white pine in a forest situation would be a detriment to tree health and would not contribute anything. 

[beenthere]

Yup Phorester. I was just askin if possible. You sound like you got the answer there.