Radiata Pine Pics

[Ianab]

Been out playing in friends neglected pine plantation. These are some pics of cull tree we dropped for firewood and a couple of logs to play with on the mill.
It may be a bit difficult see the growth rings on the stump as they are not clearly defined, but I think there are 15 or 16. Stump is about 26 inch dia and tree was about 75 ft tall.
Thats what an 11 month growing season can do I guess.


This picture shows it's a double leader and unpruned, hence it's junk

Top end showing growth rings


Another 10 years of growth like this and the good trees may be worth harvesting. Dont go looking for any of that Heart Pine here though.

Ian

[Tom]

Must be kin to our Loblolly down here. I had one chase me off of a river swamp the other day. :-/

Do y'all use that stuff for lumber?

[blue_eyed_devil]

What species do New Zealanders normally use for house logs?I know they build full scribe .Is radiata pine weak?

[Ianab]

Hey Guys
Yes..it's good timber but not durable unless treated, but once treated it's used for almost anything from power poles, house construction to furniture. I guess about 95% of timber used in NZ is Radiata. Whole treated logs are used for landscaping and log construction, although log houses aren't common. Most use flat slabs sawn off a log as cladding over normal timber frame construction.
Strength wise, well it's not Oak. I guess it's pretty strong for it's weight and structures just have to be designed with it's strength in mind. It's commonly made into laminated beams etc to increase it's strength.
It's main advantage is producing good saw logs on a 25-30  year rotation, and a whole timber industry geared to utilising it.

Ian

[Tom]

That's a pretty neat concept, planting a tree and living long enough to use it too.

[Chet]

Them sure are some huge growth rings on that Radiata. I don't think my sweetcorn grows dat fast!  

[Tom]

How's sweet corn saw, Chet?

[Chet]

Saws fine, I just can't find dat nitch market  fur da corn-boards yet.  :-/

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Chet, the key word is"Marketing"

[redpowerd]

sawin corn?
dont laugh, i havent started choppin yet.
the feild is quite the forest this year

[EZ]

Tom, is the growth on the pines down there like about twice the amount that is up north.
EZ

[Tom]

Oops!  I missed this. :-/

Must be at least twice what it is in the cold country.  Pines seem to grow all year here. We are more concerned with crowding than we are with weather.

It would be interesting to get someone who has studied area growth rates to compare, wouldn't it?

[Don P]

What about some pics or ring counts and diameters of stumps or ends of logs, north and south (or north and south in a tree's range). I guess a short description of the trees surroundings that might have influenced its growth should be included. I'm curious about this.

One thing I noticed in Ian's first pics was the width of the dark latewood ring. In my white pines that ring is rather fine indicating a decided slowdown in summer growth (in that species). Our earlywood ring is the wide one and is packed on in about a month spurt around June.

I am also curious about strength and shrinkage values of the Radiata if anyone has them.

[Ianab]

Hi Don
Figures I have on Radiata show shrinkage  (green to 12%) of
Tangentially - 3.9 to 4.7%
Radially    -    2.1 %

Strength wise I think it compares to your Douglas Fir

I think the growth rings on our pine seem to be wide and poorly defined as they grow almost all year round, but mostly in the spring then another growth spurt in the autumn accounting for the wider latewood ring.

BTW the boards from that tree are still drying, but this is what the tree before looks like now - still needs a couple of coats of polyurethane  

[EZ]

I always thought that all trees go in to a dormant stage, know matter what the weather is or does. I guess I was wrong . Does the oak trees in Florida, lose there leaves at any time. Never been down south.
EZ

[Tom]

Yes and No.
Live oaks don't.
Water oaks and laurel oaks do......mostly.
Turkey oak, post oak and chestnut white oak does.
Sweet gums and black gums do.
Bays and Magnolia do in some places and not in others.
Holly does.  (A tree called Florida Holly doesn't)
Palms don't.
citrus doesn't unless it freezes and then it dies.
Bald Cypress does
Pine doesn't but loses a lot of needles in the fall, beginning at a certain age.
Cedar doesn't
River Birch does.
Blue Beech does.
Mulberry does.
Sycamore does.(does it ever)

[Don P]

Wow! That slaps some conventional wisdom upsida da head. If I'm reading that right you have about the shrinkage of our white pine and the strength of some southern pines in a fast rotation, thats quite a tree. And it dries into nice benches, cool tree  .

[Ianab]

Re Growth rates

I've converted the figures I've got on growth rates of radiata to your measurments.
On a good fertile site you can expect about 5,000 b/f per acre per annum growth. Rates up to 9,000 have been achieved on very fertile sites.
Thats 30-50 cubic m / hectare / year if someone would like to check my maths  

[Tom]

Now I understand where all the nutrients in the soil around here have gone.  They have seeped all the way through the middle of the earth and ended up in NZ.  Holy Cow!  You fellows must plant and run. What do you use for protection, Caves?  That's why wallabies jump.  Radiata is probably responsible for the demise of the Moa's and Kakapo too.  Can you imagine their anxiety trying to dodge the seedlings?  There must not be any Radiata on Tiritiri Matangi and Little Barrier Island.  There are being used as refuges.