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

[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.