Fast growing pines?

[Qweaver]

I need to plant a long row (200 yards) of pines to act as a view and road noise blocker.  I'd like to plant trees that are 2 to 3' tall and that will grow quickly.  The area is central W.Va.  I am clearing most of the tall trees from around them but the will be partly shaded during the morning but will have full sun from noon on.
Suggestions appreciated.
Quinton

[Tom]

You may have trouble transplanting pines of that size because of the taproot.  Seedlings from you state nursery will grow almost as fast.

I would also intersperce Southern Red Cedar or Eastern Red Cedar.  They also grow fairly fast but will be denser than the pines.

[Riles]

Leyland cypress seems to be the green screen of choice in the southeast. On the other hand, I've seen some clonal loblolly pines that were 6 feet tall after one year in the field. Your mileage may vary, based on climate.

[maplewoman]

Bamboo is the fastest growing monocotyledon, planted closely together they create a great wind break, fence, trellis etc.
The timber is usable in structual building with enormous success let alone flooring, furniture, fibre, wood pulp, food etc.
Bamboo will not blow over in a cyclone unlike pine and it will not acidify your soil like pine.....
It can also be used as a fodder crop for cattle, a trellis for passionfruit and a pioneer for larger taprooted trees.  This way you can make your fence work for you.
There are so many different varieties so you would have to do some more research and they are also easy to propagate. My choice would be bamboo over pine anyday. Lou
 

[PineNut]

That may be true about bamboo but wait until it takes over the whole area and you want to stop it. The only bamboo I want around my place is artificial bamboo.

[maplewoman]

There are bamboos that spread and there are ones that stay clumped I would suggest that you use a clumping variety. Spreading bamboos are almost illegal to buy because of that problem. 

[Phorester]

In your area for a long term screen with the fewest insect and disease problems and fast growing, choose from these:

Eastern red cedar, white pine, arborvitae,(northern white cedar), Norway spruce, Leyland cypress.  Leyland cypress does seem to have a problem with ice breakage, so if you have a lot of that each winter, it might not be a good choice. Plant more than one species, and 2 or 3 rows if you have that much room.  If something wipes out one species 10 or 20 years down the road, you still have the others to maintain the screen.

I'd recomend staying away from bamboo (sorry, Lou, but it just doesn't do well here for a screen  ) and loblolly pine.  Loblollies grow fast, but make a poor screen because they are so openly branched.  Some people don't like red cedar, but it's a native tree, grows fast, and creates an excellent screen.

[SwampDonkey]

Might try red pine also. We grow alot on old abandoned fields here and they are fast growing. I'm not sure if there are disease problems in your area, like shoot rust. Doesn't seem to have disease or insect problems in my area. It's native range is a bit more north around the Great Lakes, St Lawrence, New England and Maritimes.

[Qweaver]

Thanks for all of the info everyone.  I called the state nursery today and they were a lot of help.  I had no idea that they were so cheap from the state.  They don't supply cedar so I'm ordering Norway Spruce, Douglas Fir,  Scotch Pine and White Pine.  All of these are $26 per hundred for 3 year old and $21 for 2 year old.  I may get some black Locust also.  Those prices include shipping.  The forester that I talked with said that I should plan to plant around mid to late Feb. depending on the weather. 
I guess I need to start reading up on the subject.  Any suggestions for reading material?
Quinton

[SwampDonkey]

That is real cheap. Most commercial nurseries charge $160/th for pines and $150/th for spruce here. Hardwood are usually double that or more. Take the deal and run.  If they do as good a job as our government run nursery than you'll be getting a very good planting stock.

[Phorester]

Quinton, do some studying up on the Doug fir and Scotch pine.  See if any are growing in your area and see how they are doing.  Talk to foresters in your area, not only the Nursery forester. I don't think I'm too far from you either geographically or as far as climate, and those species dont' do well here for long term.  They do well for Christmas trees here, but of course these are cut before they hit 15 or so years of age.

Doug. fir and especially Scotch pine get all kinds of insect and disease problems (since they are way out of their natural range), and start crapping out around 20 years old or younger. Planting survival is lower too.  They sorta opengrown, and don't usually make a good screen either.

What elevation are you, and what's your average annual rainfall?

[Pullinchips]

I also would not touch bamboo if it is not already on your place and would spray any i say with chopper, or some double strength round up variate.  I would say plant leyland cypress as a dnse fast growing first choice eastern Red cedar, or white pine as a second, and virginia pine as a last resort if you can stand the nasty looking tree.  If you want some real quich untill your leylands grow up or cedars grow up you could pland some 2nd generation improved lobs for height growth.  True as an older tree they are a poor screen but as a tree under maybe 10 years in an open grown situation they will retain lower limbs and form a fairly dense screen untill those leylands catch up and are tall enough.  They probalbly will be tall enough in 6 or less years but the lob should be 10+ feet easily by the end of the 3rd growing season around there.  Then you can cut down the lobs or leave themn for a diverse look.

-Nate

[Raider Bill]

Howdy gents! Been lurking around for a bit thought I would finally register.
I have 69 acres of old BO-Water land in TN. It was replanted with some kind of pine. I'm told it's Larch? I figure they either planted it for it's fast growing properties or it was cheap at the time. The newest was planted in 94. What's it good for any ideas?

[Ianab]

Hi Bill.

Western Larch (Tamarack) is one of the heavier and harder softwoods. The timber can be used for general construction, trim and even flooring. Similar properties to douglas fir.

If you have some pictures of the trees and some closeups of the leaves then someone will be able to confirm what they are for you.

Oh, and welcome to the forum 

Ian

[SwampDonkey]

Bowater planted a lot of 2 needle pine in that area. Most likely short leaf pine in your area and long leaf pine further south and east. They have been hammered by southern pine beetle. I was visiting with a friend who was working with V-tech and putting in beetle survey plots. The company was trying to harvest the pine ahead of the beetles and most of the pine was younger than 30 years old. I know Bowater had (has) a mill near Knoxville. I think that was the area they had traffic troubles from the smog from the mill that hovered over the highway. They had to raise the stacks. Bowater uses(d) the pine for pulp. I don't think there would be enough rainfall and ground moisture for tamarack in your area. Tamarack grows twice as fast as spruce and does well on wet organic soils also.

[Raider Bill]

I've got a few pix, nothing close up. How do I upload?

[SwampDonkey]

Check out the 'Behind the Forum' Board for optimizing and uploading instructions.

cheers 

[Qweaver]

I put my order in this morning.  200 Norway Spruce, 200 douglas Fir and 100 Japanese Larch all for delivery late Feb.  Would digging shallow holes with the post hole digger on the tractor be a reasonable way to plant them?  That would insure soft soil for the roots to start in.  I'd like to maximize survival rate.
Phorester, thanks for the suggestions.  Our elevation is about 1400'.  I'm not sure of annual rainfall.   We have many mature Norway Spruce on the  property as well as other pines but none where I want the barrier.
Quinton

[Phorester]

Good luck with the trees.  Larch is a decidious conifer, so it will not provide a screen in the winter.  They will need to be planted where a screen is not needed.

We have had a tremendous problem in the northern 1/3 of Virginia with voles in the last few years.  Voles pay no attention to political boundaries like State lines , so they may also be rampant in your locality since you are not too far from me. I have gone to recommending that any tree planting in an established field be preceeded by plowing and disking to break up the grass sod, so the voles will not want to live in the area where the trees are planted.  Using a posthole digger is the least amount of prep.  I'd recommend.   If voles have become a problem in your area (check with extension agents or foresters who do tree planting in open fields) You might be better off to plow and disk a strip 6 to 8 feet wide where you want to plant trees for a screen.

[SwampDonkey]

Both Japanese larch and European larch have been very successful here. I've seen plantations of them and they grow even straighter than our native tamarack. Larch sawflies have been bad here that last 5 years or so. Many tamarack stands have been hard hit. I think the larch bark beetle moves in when the sawflies weaken the trees. Darn sapsuckers seem to hit my Japanese larch lawn tree. I gotta cut it down now, branches dying and sap oozing out.