Poplar Timber?

[MattyF]

Thanks … I may have a go on some. 

[Ty Korrigan]

On 03/12/2023 at 15:17, Mick Dempsey said:

Poplar is planted and used extensively here, big pallet making mills and paper manufacturing plants.

See lorry loads of it moving round the place.

You would have no trouble moving it on over here.

 

 

Poplar is used almost exclusively for veg boxes in Brittany. 3 factories making them.

I helped a Brit with a valuation (which he didn't like) for his poplar plantation.

Convinced it was big money, he was angry, actually angry with me because the forestry experts report said the trees were undersized, too tall for their girth, planted too close and too early to be harvested.

Plus...

Zero access unless his gates could be demolished.

 

Edited June 13 by Ty Korrigan

[Mick Dempsey]

8 hours ago, Ty Korrigan said:

 

Poplar is used almost exclusively for veg boxes in Brittany. 3 factories making them.

I helped a Brit with a valuation (which he didn't like) for his poplar plantation.

Convinced it was big money, he was angry, actually angry with me because the forestry experts report said the trees were undersized, too tall for their girth, planted too close and too early to be harvested.

Plus...

Zero access unless his gates could be demolished.

 

The mess they leave wouldn’t have pleased him either.

[Ty Korrigan]

I know nothing about forestry so my experience with the forestry expert was particularly fascinating.

The poplars need to be above 50cm with a certain branch free height of stem.

Sadly this plantation was only 50cm in a few trees around the perimeter and no-one had ever pruned the stems so too many branches, too many knots, not good for turning on the lathe that shaves the wood thin for boxes.

Even if left to grow on for another 5 years to obtain more girth the yield would be low due to the short useable part of the stem due to a lack of pruning.

Apparently plantation's regenerate from the stumps from which the best stem is selected.

The whole plantations value was less that the cost of demolishing the and rebuilding the gates for access and pruning other trees and hedges.

Besides, he had nowhere to stack roadside and the farmer who owned the land around the property was not amenable to allowing access for machines or roadside storage.

The client exposed himself as no more than a rabid thug with his threats to get it sorted or else he'd pay me a visit wft...

 

 

 

[peds]

Probably an interaction you didn't massively enjoy at the time, but can laugh at now that it's in the past?

[Stubby]

On 04/12/2023 at 13:42, kiwi mike said:

Makes good kindling

When it use to be planted and harvested for matches ( Swan Vesta ) it was used because it burned slowly . They even coated the end with wax to keep it going so , not so sure about good kindling . 

[openspaceman]

4 hours ago, Ty Korrigan said:

 

The poplars need to be above 50cm with a certain branch free height of stem.

Sadly this plantation was only 50cm in a few trees around the perimeter and no-one had ever pruned the stems so too many branches, too many knots, not good for turning on the lathe that shaves the wood thin for boxes.

Even if left to grow on for another 5 years to obtain more girth the yield would be low due to the short useable part of the stem due to a lack of pruning.

 

That's right, one of the frst jobs I had in forestry was pruning the first lift  to 8ft on poplars and removing spiral guards planted under the Briant and May match scheme, new planting had stopped by then but as the cost of this first pruning was sort of 98% tax relieved EFG  pursued it. No further work was done and I saw many of the ones visible from the road buldozed and burned about 20 years after.

4 hours ago, Ty Korrigan said:

 

Apparently plantation's regenerate from the stumps from which the best stem is selected.

The whole plantations value was less that the cost of demolishing the and rebuilding the gates for access and pruning other trees and hedges.

Yes knotty poplar is pretty worthless because the whole point was that poplar could be sliced green with no wastage. A local market garden where my mother worked in the war years planted poplars for punnet making to package their vegetables. Unfortunately we went down the route of plastic packaging, which was more attractive to large scale capital investment, so they never got used as intended and were felled when a racing car manufacturer took over the site, the coppice regrowth is still to be seen.

2 hours ago, Stubby said:

When it use to be planted and harvested for matches ( Swan Vesta ) it was used because it burned slowly . They even coated the end with wax to keep it going so , not so sure about good kindling . 

Yes it is the wax that keeps the flame going but the reason for using poplar for this was as above but also that it doesn't splinter.Similarly for its use as wagon flooring.

 

The one and only wood drying kiln we built was used for drying 2" boards of poplar that had failed to reach the grade, these were then cross cut, split and packaged in cardboard boxes, covered with polythene and sold in Sainsburys.

[nepia]

8 hours ago, Stubby said:

When it use to be planted and harvested for matches ( Swan Vesta ) it was used because it burned slowly . They even coated the end with wax to keep it going so , not so sure about good kindling . 

There is a member (that doesn't seem to post any more) who was interested in large pop stems for just that purpose!  He is Southampton way I seem to remember

 

Have just seen another thread with the guy's moniker - gensetsteve

Edited June 14 by nepia
addition

[Ty Korrigan]

4 hours ago, peds said:

Probably an interaction you didn't massively enjoy at the time, but can laugh at now that it's in the past?

 

Yes, I was very perturbed by the clients reaction and when I looked him up on FB his profile convinced me it was better to cut further communication.