Advice needed for planting trees

[Tondidi]

Good morning,

after reading quite a number of topics I have noticed that some readers/posters are real tree experts and/or have their own tree plantation - big or small.

For this reason I would like to ask your advice.

We have a small plot of land in Issan, aprox 25 x 150 m, formerly paddy field. We want to change and plant trees instead. So far, we are thinking about:

 

- either teak trees - but we are not sure because of the long waiting time of approx 20 years and more until harvesting, and security reasons (theft), and maybe administrative hurdles when cutting and selling

 

- or eukas - and here our enthousiasm is limited due to "side effects" such as soil dammage ...

 

According to you, are there trees with a shorter period of growth untill maturity/ harvest, i.e. 10 to 12 years? Or even completely different suggestions for using the land and earning some money ?

 

We live 600 km away from the field, go there twice a year, and have some family members to take care and do maintenance work for the trees and field.

 

Thanks for every suggestion and proposal!!!

[Yom]

If you like trees, so why don’t plant some on a smaller part (25m x 25m) of your 2 Rai?
This might be your beautiful garden or plot of land to build a small house in the future.

I love trees. - If you think ‘earning some money’ in the next 20 or 30 years: no chance.
It will only cost you a lot of money and a lot of work. From the beginning.

Why not continue planting rice? – Your family members might take care of this too (!?)
and you will  get rice from your own land.
Perhaps 5 bags for you and 20 bags for the working family…
Don’t know what’s common in Isan.

Good luck.

[ireckonso]

1 hour ago, Tondidi said:

some family members to take care and do maintenance work for the trees and field.

Save your money or go to the casino and spend it, better chance of getting any money back.

[Grumpy John]

Reminds me of the story about the English guy who had a herd of cattle and left the wifes family in charge while he and Wifey went back to England for 12 months....similar ending with rice, fruit trees or goats me thinks! 

[farmerjo]

Euca's,plant and forget for 10 years if your an absentee farmer.

Edited January 22, 2020 by farmerjo

[Tondidi]

20 hours ago, Yom said:

If you like trees, so why don’t plant some on a smaller part (25m x 25m) of your 2 Rai?
This might be your beautiful garden or plot of land to build a small house in the future.

 

I love trees. - If you think ‘earning some money’ in the next 20 or 30 years: no chance.
It will only cost you a lot of money and a lot of work. From the beginning.

 

Why not continue planting rice? – Your family members might take care of this too (!?)
and you will  get rice from your own land.
Perhaps 5 bags for you and 20 bags for the working family…
Don’t know what’s common in Isan.

 

Good luck.

Good morning, Yom,

your idea is nice, really. But my wife already has a small house on her main rice field, with a little pond, some coco nut trees, mangos, and also the pagoda with the ashes from Mama and Papa on it.

This plot of land is just 2 km away, heritage from the parents, but a little bit remote. For this reason we want to do something easy and with low maintenance.

[Tondidi]

20 hours ago, ireckonso said:

Save your money or go to the casino and spend it, better chance of getting any money back.

funny point!!! I love the casino, and my favorite casino - in fact the only one where I go to - is Big C

[Tondidi]

13 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

Reminds me of the story about the English guy who had a herd of cattle and left the wifes family in charge while he and Wifey went back to England for 12 months....similar ending with rice, fruit trees or goats me thinks! 

Yeah that is the risk if you stay away for 12 months or more. But we go there twice a year, and so far they have not yet eaten our chicken or ducks   ????

[Tondidi]

13 hours ago, farmerjo said:

Euca's,plant and forget for 10 years if your an absentee farmer.

it might be a possibility.

In a topic from 2008, I read about planting tagu (tagoo) trees - Antocephalus Kadama. Do you have any experience or information on this?

[farmerjo]

18 minutes ago, Tondidi said:

it might be a possibility.

In a topic from 2008, I read about planting tagu (tagoo) trees - Antocephalus Kadama. Do you have any experience or information on this?

Only read same thread as you.You might able to try and PM some of those members if still around.

Sometimes keeping it simple works,that's why i suggested Euca.

Low maintenance,easy to sell,cut after 8-10 years then let regrow for the same.Bit of pocket money.

 

[Grumpy John]

Just thinking about planting trees myself.  There is a strip of land that runs parallel to our #2 orchard on the South and a rough track on the North.  It's M-in-L land but we can use it.   On the the side of the hill with 30 degree incline for all 4rai.  We can't......don't want to plant fruit trees there.  I was thinking Paulownia Shan Dong # 27 or Neem trees.  

[morphem]

On 1/23/2020 at 10:16 AM, farmerjo said:

Only read same thread as you.You might able to try and PM some of those members if still around.

Sometimes keeping it simple works,that's why i suggested Euca.

Low maintenance,easy to sell,cut after 8-10 years then let regrow for the same.Bit of pocket money.

 

This, in your situation. Farmerjo is right.
Taking care here near Nakhon Sawan of about 3000 trees: teaks, mangoes, jackfruits, santols, coconuts, etc.. & eucas.

 

A few details about thai eucalyptus:

- Very cheap saplings to buy, about 15 bahts each

- Harvest every 6 years (here in central thailand), they regrow naturally

- Very easy and fast too sell, the buyer do all the cutting/clearing job

- Once they start to mature, their dead leaves prevent the growth of unwanted grass

- After the first couple of years you'll never need to water them in the dry season

- They can be planted in a tight density (2-3 meters apart)

- Do they poison the soil eventually ? no idea

 

Not a big fan of these trees but in your case, i'd say they're very ok 

 

 

 

[OOTAI]

Tondidi

In the post above morphem summed it up very well and I agree with him that Eucalyptus trees would be the way to go.

As for "tagoo" we have/had some here and I don't like them, they have a large canopy so can't be planted closely spaced. They also have a tendency to have their branches fall off in a strong wind, I have cut down most of ours for this reason as they are in an area close to where we spend our time and one branch could do a lot of damage to a person. The timber I found to be almost useless as it was very soft. Also found that the white ants love building their nests up the trunks.

 

As for the main argument against Eucalyptus trees that they damage the soil that is a load of <deleted>. They have a large and long tap root which they needed in the dry country they come from i.e. Australia so they do tend to lower the water table in areas that they are planted. If their leaves are left on the ground then not much will grow there as the leaves contain, believe it or not, eucalyptus oil which stops other things from growing. They, the leaves, also burn very well so be careful of out of control fires if they are left for a long time to build up.

 

If you harvest the trees after 6 or so years and let them regrow you would need to cut most of the regrown suckers of or you will get many skinny little trees second time around.

 

Once you have finished with them the hardest job is removing the stumps because of the long tap root. We have use of 8 rai that previously had them growing on it and it cost us TB14,000 to hire a large Excavator to dig them out.

We have now successfully grown cassava on the land for the past 10 years so the Eucalyptus trees do not do any long term damage to the soil.

 

I hate the trees but believe they would be the best choice for what you want, good luck and let us know what you eventually do.