This time I want to plant some poplar trees ...... but how?

[woodbowl]

Every year I say I am going to plant some poplar trees, but something always seems to happen and then the planting season is gone. How would you go about getting seedlings and where? I hacked up some 1" poplar sprouts into 18" sections one year and had one 1 of 50 to make it. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I sure don't want to do it again for such a small  survival rate. I'm now wondering if the diameter was big enough. I found this thread by whitepine, but would like some more tips if I chose to bury cuttings.

http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=16295.msg233231#msg233231

[customsawyer]

Good morning woodbowl. I don't know about down there in Fl. but us good ole boys in Ga. just call the Ga forestry commission and order from them I can't remember how much they are but you have to order early before they run out. There should be some of these smaller nurseries that carry them as well.

[Pullinchips]

"rooting" poplar cutting is possible,  I let a more experienced person tell what to do to ensure better survival though.

-Nate

[SwampDonkey]

I've done it by burrying last years growth tips in the mud as soon as spring thaw. You'll be more successful burrying multiple buds. I cut mine a couple feet long. I've only done it with balsam poplar. Aspen are difficult to start without hormone.

[woodbowl]

I've done it by burrying last years growth tips in the mud as soon as spring thaw. ............  You'll be more successful burrying multiple buds............  I cut mine a couple feet long.

Just the tips or any section? What about limbs?

Are you looking for a visible bud before planting or just any time after the thaw? 

If cut 2 feet long, do you cover it over or leave some sticking out? How much?

[UNCLEBUCK]

My county extension office has #2 hybrid poplar -10" for .15 cents a piece and discounts for over 500 ordered . My neighbor planted 280 acres of these and another type of poplar called nm-6 and it was 15 years ago coming up and they are looking ripe and ready for harvest . After 3 years it looked like a full woods . When he planted them his whole farm looked like a field full of dead brown sticks and by the end of the first summer it was about 8 foot high and big green leaves everywhere .

[SwampDonkey]

Just the tips or any section? What about limbs?

Are you looking for a visible bud before planting or just any time after the thaw? 

If cut 2 feet long, do you cover it over or leave some sticking out? How much?

The most current growth is best, balsam will drop branch tipped in the fall like leaves and if there is flooding along a river bottom that covers the sticks they will sprout new trees. I've also seen large tooth do this limb pruning, but I have my doughts they sprout.

Burry the stick before bud break, I always burried it all in the mud. You'll get 3 or 4 feet growth (maybe more) once it's rooted good. This spring I'll sprout some and show the process. Gotta mark my calender.

[woodbowl]

Burry the stick before bud break, I always burried it all in the mud.

That may have been the problem. I was told to leave about 6" sticking out of the ground. It seems to me that it would dry out.

[whitepine]

Just curious Us old timers up here  always called aspen= poplar Is that what this  post is about or is poplar a different tree? than what is balsam poplar Aspen seedlings cost about 20 cents but sucker naturally up here from stump

[woodbowl]

Just curious Us old timers up here  always called aspen= poplar Is that what this  post is about or is poplar a different tree? than what is balsam poplar Aspen seedlings cost about 20 cents but sucker naturally up here from stump

I don't know WP. I know we don't have Aspen or Balsam down here. Our Poplar is probably Tulip Poplar. It saws out a very pretty green and when it sits in the sun for a day it turns med. brown.

[SwampDonkey]

So called tulip poplar isn't even poplar, it's in the magnolia family. Balsam poplar is mostly found in Canada and midwestern to NE states handy to the Canadian border. Some isolated pockets in higher elevations elsewhere in the US. More common in the US is eastern cottonwood (eastern poplar).

[woodbowl]

Balsam poplar is mostly found in Canada and midwestern to NE states ....

When I went to Canada to take a log home building course at Pat Wolfe's, they brought in some Balsam, so they said. To me it looked like a slick bark pine tree. It had a pine/evergreen smell and was a little sappy. Does this sound like the Balsam your talking about?

[SwampDonkey]

When I went to Canada to take a log home building course at Pat Wolfe's, they brought in some Balsam, so they said. To me it looked like a slick bark pine tree. It had a pine/evergreen smell and was a little sappy. Does this sound like the Balsam your talking about?

Yup, have a look at the the 'Overwintering Tree ID' section in the Tree ID board. Buds are sticky with a resin. You can always smell the balm in the summer after a warm rain. Everyone around here calls balsam poplar, balm-of-gilead. Black Cottonwood of the West is pretty much the same.

[woodbowl]

Yup, .......... Buds are sticky with a resin. You can always smell the balm in the summer after a warm rain. ..........

That is nothing like our Poplar. In light of this, concerning my original question, I guess I will be planting .............

So called tulip poplar isn't even poplar, it's in the magnolia family .....

.............. something else, apparantly in the Magnolia family. Do the same type tips still apply?

[SwampDonkey]

I haven't any experience with tulip tree, don't have any up this way.

[SwampDonkey]

When I went to Canada to take a log home building course at Pat Wolfe's, they brought in some Balsam, so they said. To me it looked like a slick bark pine tree. It had a pine/evergreen smell and was a little sappy. Does this sound like the Balsam your talking about?

You sure that wasn't balsam fir tips they brought in? It's an evergreen used for Christmas* trees and wreaths. Check out the thread on 'Balsam' in the Tree ID Board

[beenthere]

Just curious Us old timers up here  always called aspen= poplar Is that what this  post is about or is poplar a different tree? than what is balsam poplar Aspen seedlings cost about 20 cents but sucker naturally up here from stump

Probably from people referring to aspen as "popple" and others translating that further to "poplar" and then the confusion takes off from there. Local slang and our 'hearing' get all kinds of knicknames started.   

[Radar67]

WB,
    I just got some poplar logs and I think you may be looking for yellow-poplar (Magnoliaceae Liriodendron tulipifera L.) Check this link and see if its the tree you want.



Yellow Poplar

Stew

[SwampDonkey]

WB,
    I just got some poplar logs and I think you may be looking for yellow-poplar (Magnoliaceae Liriodendron tulipifera L.) Check this link and see if its the tree you want.



Yellow Poplar

Stew

In no way am I suggesting anyone is wrong with what they are using as common names. There's no way anyone is gonna change the status quo. But, you can sure confuse a guy with all the common names out there. Yellow poplar, tulip poplar and tulip tree......all the same tree.   There's no word in the latin name that even suggests poplar or the color yellow. tulipifera translates to tulip-like to me. Now when people say poplar, at the very least, the genus is Populus , meaning poplar.  I don't know where the name aspen comes from.   

But you guys know what they say, when in Rome do as the Romans do.

Now when ya read that, just refer back to Ron W's signature message in his posts.

[Radar67]

SD,
     If it sounded like I thought you were steering in the wrong direction, I apologize. My post was not directed to anyone in particular, except WB. It seemed like there was some confusion over what type tree WB was wanting to plant. If WB can pin down the tree with a picture, it might help him get the information he is asking for. I agree, the common names do get confusing at times.

Stew

[SwampDonkey]

All is well Stew.

[Pullinchips]

Here in the south the tree referred to as poplar is the Magnoliacea Liriodendron tuliperfera (sp?).  Like any tree it has many names vich can vary by region, and which ones you were tought while being raised.  It is commonly reffered to as yellow poplar, tulip poplar, poplar, and sometimes tulip tree (but i think there is also an ornamental with this name).  Yes this tree is in the magnolia family and has a three lobbed leaf.  Wood is similar to M. gransiflora, as it is soft and has a very high moisture content.  Is used for pulp and also saw logs, and grows rapidly as an intollerant tree.  The heart dries to a brown color and is greenish when live, the sapwood when green is yellowish giving the common name.  The bark appears bradded lik a hickory when older and youner trees sometimes look similar to sweet gum bark. If any one is still curious, take my butcherd spelling or stew's spelling (pobably correct) and read up on it.  As far as the original qustion, yel. pop. is a prolific stup sprouter and i still beleive that it should sprout the way it is being described.  Although, i have no personal experience trying to root it, i would try cutting a terminal branch and covering it in rooting hormone and trying to grow it in a sandy loam or potting soil type mix in a pot, maybe on a small scale before masive a labor investment is made.  Just my thoughts and hopes of clearing up this tree for others who are or may be comfused with the common names.

Oh if you are still currious where the tulip comes from it is from the seed pod like things that break open in the fall and drop winged seeds similar to a southern yellow pine seed.  These pods look like a tulip if viewed from side/above, just in a brown color.

-Nate

[SwampDonkey]

Oh if you are still currious where the tulip comes from it is from the seed pod like things that break open in the fall and drop winged seeds similar to a southern yellow pine seed.  These pods look like a tulip if viewed from side/above, just in a brown color.

-Nate

Although, that could be possible, the flower also looks like tulip. Apparently pollination is poor, leading to poor germination, empty seeds. But, good seed can remain dormant in the ground for opertune moments to germinate. With populus, they have a short time to germinate until the embryo dies.

[Pullinchips]

In a clearcut in the piedmont if the sweetgum or virginia pine is not to fierce a competitior i've seen this stuff germinate with thousands of stems an acre.

Nate

[Ron Wenrich]

I have never heard of anyone trying to get tulip poplar to sprout.  Its too easy to grow from seedling to fool around with any other procedure.

Tulip poplar seeds will stay viable in the soil for up to 8 years.  Pollination isn't much of a problem, since it is a favorite of honey bees.  As long as there are bees, you're OK.  They even have a tulip poplar honey.

In our area, if there is a seed source present, you will have tulip poplar germinate on the open soil areas of a stand.  Stump sprouts make poor stems.

[SwampDonkey]

I wouldn't mind trying 3 or 4 tulip trees if the source was from northern NY state. I suspect they would be tough to get. It almost overlaps the range of silver maple, which is a touch further north and west. I'm not 100 % sure, but I think there is one on the UNB campus in Fredericton.

[Ron Wenrich]

Maybe a protected area with a good southern exposure.  The biggest thing is that it needs pretty good soil.  We only see it on the better sites.  Go up the mountain, and when the soils get thinner, tulip poplar has a harder go of it.

We often see tulip and ash growing on similar sites. 

[SwampDonkey]

The site I have planned is as good as it gets in New Brunswick and calcarious, and no shortage of water. Soil is sandy clay loam and gravelly, small stones, soil PH around 6.5. Lots of white ash (1000's), some basswood, scattered sugar maple. And I'm only at 360 ft ASL. I'm sheltered from the west winds by a mountain that rises above my woodlot. All my ground slopes southward. I do have some wet ground, but I'm looking at putting them on little knowles with 30" + soil depth.

[jon12345]

I can't remember ever seeing any of these trees, I was told that they like a little warmer weather than here.  However up at Paul Smith's there is a Catalpa growing so anything is possible I guess. 

[woodbowl]

That is a good link Stew. Yellow Poplar is what the old timers around here called them. The map at the bottem shows north Georga as being as far south as they range. Not sure why.

Well ............. it just so happens that I sawed Poplar today! I guess we'll call it Southern Yellow Poplar untill we find out what it is for sure. Here's a few pics. Maybe this will help with the I.D.

Planning to cut the crotch on this Southern Yellow Poplar.




Canted out ..... green wood inside





These boards were sawed a few days earlier. They turn brown in one day. Fresh green cant in the background.




Smaller Poplar logs ramped up.




Crotch cut, Southern Yellow Poplar

[Radar67]

That's some good looking wood WB, hope mine turns out as good. I've got a bunch of those small logs myself. 

Stew

[SwampDonkey]

I can't remember ever seeing any of these trees, I was told that they like a little warmer weather than here.  However up at Paul Smith's there is a Catalpa growing so anything is possible I guess. 

That's why I think it will be difficult to get seedlings from up there. They would be like trying to get silver maple as far up the river as I am. It's native range is here, but I've only seen about half a dozen on a river island in Florenceville. Other than that I see them on people's lawns, but they aren't natural trees, they're transplants.  According to USDA the average winter temperature of the northern range is 19 F. We get near that average here on rare occassions but normally it's around 10 F. It's been an acceptional winter here, but has not broke the old record of 19 F (18.6 this year) yet. But that is in Caribou, Me which is usually 3 or more degrees cooler than here. For instance it was 19 F there yesterday, while it reached 25 F by 11 am here.

[Pullinchips]

woodbowl,

Yes that is yellow poplar M. Liriodendron tuliperfera.  I am positive of it. i cut lots of it for firewood from around my white oaks which i am keeping to feed my deer and squirrels.

-nate

[SwampDonkey]

The map at the bottem shows north Georga as being as far south as they range. Not sure why.

The Dendro bible shows the tulip tree in northern Florida on their map.

[SwampDonkey]

I sent off an email today to a good sized nursery in NB about Tulip Tree. Got a receipt, but no response yet. Maybe it will take awhile to formulate a response. Be cool to try.

I know they are selling magnolia shrubs here in NB, they are coming from Asia. I think one variety is star magnolia. I don't know of anyone successfully growing them. Anything I found online about growing them where folks from SC, Georgia and Florida.