Eucalyptus Revisited

[Issangeorge]

Eucalyptus for a time was the tree of choice when people were planting trees in Isaan. For a while Im guessing there was some money to be made from them and everybody planted them, of course this caused an oversupply and the price went down to the point where you almost had to give them away. Consequently, everybody has now dug up the stumps and are planting rubber trees, sugar cane or some other crop. There seem to be very few eucalyptus plantations left. However, there are still the big pulp plants that need feed stock; I would think that perhaps now is the time to plant eucalyptus.

I have a couple of questions, if when the trees reach the size the pulp mills like and the price was low, would it not be better to leave them in the ground and let them grow and then sell them for lumber. This leads to my second and third questions. What kind of lumber is eucalyptus lumber is it good as structural lumber (framing) or as siding, or for furniture making, and two how long in the Thai climate does it have to grow to be of any use as lumber?

[Sandman77]

I don't know much about this we have the plant in our garden, I use it for inhalation when I get cold, and the kuala bear eat for breakfast!

On different place in Thailand I travel, the intentensy and stringless was not same!

[jamescollister]

Better uses for land then Euca, takes time to grow and returns are low. It was just an easy return for Thais. No work and get money later, if you had spare land.Jim

[cooked]

Still seeing new plantations around here (Buriram) and plants for sale. I think I saw oil palm being planted yesterday.

[Sandman77]

My gf says about this trees need around 6 year for grow up and can win only little bit

[JDGRUEN]

You might try the Brazilian Fire Tree.... (sorry for the Facebook link but it is the best link)...

http://www.facebook.com/BrazilianFireTreeForest...

[Sandman77]

Cannot Open The link?

[jamescollister]

You have to think, Euca comes from Australia, scrub land is dirt cheap compared to Thailand. If there was any money in it, Australians and others would be planting 1,000 of hectares, where Thais are planting 10 or 20 rai.

Not worth the effort, have some land, grow some thing you can sell, not tie up good land for years to get some beer money at the end. Jim

[xen]

Most eucalyptus grown in Thailand is used for paper pulp or cheap, temporary building uses. If you were interested in timber (or lumber as you call it ) then you would use another spp of eucalyptus and then you would be waiting up to 30years plus for a decent return and then plantation timber trees such as teak or mahogany would be a better proposition.

To answer your question as to what euc timber is good for is dependent on what species you grow . Off the top of my head there are about 600- 1000 spp with more being classified all the time. Some like Tallowood (Euc micrororys) are very good timbers for decking and flooring

I have very mixed feelings about the use of eucalyptus regarding the effect it has on its environment around it. I think you will find that it is because of this that it is not being grown as much around the world as a plantation tree as it was years ago.

Wikipedia on Eucalyptus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus#Eucalyptus_as_an_invasive_species

Edited February 22, 2013 by xen

[JDGRUEN]

Cannot Open The link?

You just have to be a Facebook member. In Facebook just search for Brazilian Fire Tree. Or Google Brazilian Fire Tree Facebook.

[Khutan]

Eucalyptus plantations always worry me, particularly if it catches on fire

[chris1dna]

Wify and I planted euc on about 8 Rai four years ago. Total cost about 1k US. We live in the US and needed something we could basically set and forget. On our yearly visit to village we hire a guy or two to do some general brush cutting for a day and that's been about it. Total invested over last three years is about $1,200. Still have about 5,000 trees still growing strong. All about 10-12 inches in diameter at base. Not sure what return will be in a coupl a years. What do you guys think? Its the variety that grows back after harvest. Stumps stay and re-grow. Stumps are the shallow variety I believe. Any thoughts?

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[Issangeorge]

I have lived in my village for 9 years now and have seen many eucc tree plantations, almost all of them have produced two crops and one seems to have produced three or four, the trees grew so fast I couldn't keep count of how often they were harvesting. These seemed to be a very good crop, but this year they cut them and removed the stumps and planted sugarcane. Of course the trees I financed for my brother-in-law have been growing for 3 years now and seem to still have a couple or more before they will be ready. I guess my point of the original post is that fortuitously very few people seem to be planting eucc now and yet the big paper companies still need feedstock so hopefully when my brother-in-laws trees are ready the price will be high. I feel sorry for all the rubber planters, everywhere I look there are new rubber plantations going in. The demand for rubber is going to have to increase about ten to twenty fold to accommodate these new plantations.

[chris1dna]

That's what I'm kind if hoping as well. A few more years an we will have quite a large stock of trees.

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Edited February 23, 2013 by chris1dna

[jamescollister]

I have lived in my village for 9 years now and have seen many eucc tree plantations, almost all of them have produced two crops and one seems to have produced three or four, the trees grew so fast I couldn't keep count of how often they were harvesting. These seemed to be a very good crop, but this year they cut them and removed the stumps and planted sugarcane. Of course the trees I financed for my brother-in-law have been growing for 3 years now and seem to still have a couple or more before they will be ready. I guess my point of the original post is that fortuitously very few people seem to be planting eucc now and yet the big paper companies still need feedstock so hopefully when my brother-in-laws trees are ready the price will be high. I feel sorry for all the rubber planters, everywhere I look there are new rubber plantations going in. The demand for rubber is going to have to increase about ten to twenty fold to accommodate these new plantations.

Don't worry about long term rubber prices, it's been around for 200 years and demand keeps rising.

The only viable replacement is oil, while the world drives cars they will need rubber. jim

[xen]

Slightly off topic but an interesting eucalyptus native to SE Asia is Eucalyptus deglupta or rainbow eucalyptus. I have seen a few in a temple in Nong Khai .

[Rohana]

I have overseas Customer who want to buy Eucalyptus from Thailand.,

Please find below the Specifications :

The buyer would like to get the supply of 100% ACACIA or EUCALYPTUS GRAN DIS or EUCALYPTUS GLOBULAR logs. Acacia Log or Eucalyptus logs (not Eucalyptus Camelopardalis)

Diameter : 50 mm to 200 mm

Length : 1.95 m to 2.2 m

Debarked

Color : Pale yellow

All the logs upon harvesting need to be debarked and left in the open air for 20 days

Packing : loose in container without using any metal wire or PP strap.,

Please contact me on Mobile 085-767 9605 ( English or Thai )

[xen]

I have not seen euc grandis (or flooded gum) grown in Thailand or Eucalyptus globulus (blue gums) as most eucalyptus grown in Thailand are camaldulensis or a bastard variety derived from camaldulensis. I have also seen some eucalypyus citrodora planted around Chiang Mai as road plantings.

I also wonder why anybody want to export eucalyptus timber from Thailand when it is a useless timber at those dimensions . And what would you use Accacia for and what species of Accacia ? Sorry but i am curious.

[Rohana]

I have not seen euc grandis (or flooded gum) grown in Thailand or Eucalyptus globulus (blue gums) as most eucalyptus grown in Thailand are camaldulensis or a bastard variety derived from camaldulensis. I have also seen some eucalypyus citrodora planted around Chiang Mai as road plantings.

I also wonder why anybody want to export eucalyptus timber from Thailand when it is a useless timber at those dimensions . And what would you use Accacia for and what species of Accacia ? Sorry but i am curious.

Sorry I do not know ABCD about Eucalyptus., I just received a inquiry from Indian company and ( Owners) will be here by next week.

But when this forum mentioned about selling price around 1,000 Baht per ton., I thought .,gonna be workable compared to the target price they indicate.,

This is for paper industry.,Let me get Acacia specs,

[jamescollister]

I have not seen euc grandis (or flooded gum) grown in Thailand or Eucalyptus globulus (blue gums) as most eucalyptus grown in Thailand are camaldulensis or a bastard variety derived from camaldulensis. I have also seen some eucalypyus citrodora planted around Chiang Mai as road plantings.

I also wonder why anybody want to export eucalyptus timber from Thailand when it is a useless timber at those dimensions . And what would you use Accacia for and what species of Accacia ? Sorry but i am curious.

Sorry I do not know ABCD about Eucalyptus., I just received a inquiry from Indian company and ( Owners) will be here by next week.

But when this forum mentioned about selling price around 1,000 Baht per ton., I thought .,gonna be workable compared to the target price they indicate.,

This is for paper industry.,Let me get Acacia specs,

Don't know anything about euca myself, but have had dealings with South Koreans and Chinese about rubber nuts. They seem to be under the impression that Thais work for less than a Dollar a day.

Willing to bet your buyers want lumber cut, cleaned and delivered to a shipping point.

Costs for labor and trucking would be more than 1.000 Baht a ton.

Plus you need machines to load [ big fork lifts ] etc.

On top of that most of SEA have laws forbidding unprocessed lumber being exported.

You may want to have a look at that before getting involved. Jim

[Gary A]

A friend of mine has some trees. He invited a buyer to come and have a look at them. They are still in the ground. The buyer offered 350 baht per ton.

[jamescollister]

A friend of mine has some trees. He invited a buyer to come and have a look at them. They are still in the ground. The buyer offered 350 baht per ton.

That would be a buyer cutting and trucking himself, lots of investment in equipment to start. 20 ton truck and dog does not come cheap.

Someone else may know how many tons per rai you get, but GA has posted a number, you can work from there, years and tons. Beer money if you don't drink much. Jim

[Gary A]

That's true. The buyer cuts and hauls with a pickup truck to a storage area where the logs are loaded on large trucks. That buyer hires several locals and they cut several pickup loads a day. After paying the locals and hauling the logs, I doubt he makes much money but he has been cutting in the area for several months. I do admire his capacity for beer and his well maintained Stihl chain saws. I seldom saw any logs bigger than about ten inch diameter. He won't buy large trees.

[cycloneJ]

burn off, re-apply fertiliser, and left to re-sprout

[chris1dna]

Wow. Ours are already that big after four years! Can they be too big to harvest after that?

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[patongphil]

A friend of mine has some trees. He invited a buyer to come and have a look at them. They are still in the ground. The buyer offered 350 baht per ton.

400 baht per ton here in Sarakham

[Quindalup]

I grow eucalyptus Globulous in south Western Australia and have been trying to harvest 125 rai for a couple of years but have not been able to because of a couple of factors. 1st there has been a lot of managed schemes that have collapsed in aus that had contracts locked in with the chipping mills, there is a lot of completion coming from South America and china, our chips go to Japan and the paper plant was destroyed during the tsunami. The price has dropped because of this, where we used to get a stump price to the grower of about $35 aud per ton and now we look like getting between 15 and 20 dollars per ton. The growth rates we get on the first rotation is 100 ton per 2.5 rai after ten years. After the first harvest we let the coppice come through and leave all the stems on and can get average of 3 stems per stump at the next harvest at ten years giving about 300 ton per 2.5 rai

I am planting another 250 rai this year as feeling confident about future markets coming from India and china in the next ten years and all the schemes would of been cleaned up and not replanted. The land costs about $6000 per 2.5 rai

One of our biggest costs is transport and if more than 100 km from chipping plant would not be viable. This probably dose not relate to Thailand as labour and truck sizes are different, but when I drive around southern Thailand it seems to take twice as long to do the same amount of kms

I would like to come have a look at some plantations, where a bouts are people growing them and I would love to see those rainbow eucalypts

[Quindalup]

I have experimentally milled about 100 ton of 22 year old Globulous that was about 600mm diameter logs. Being plantation timber that is fast growing there is a lot of stress in the tree and this is released when cut. The boards mainly quarter sawn have a lot of spring in them and once dry are hard to work with or have to be cut into short lengths. I built a hydraulic press to straighten packs of boards straight of the saw and then strip stacked and put weight on top and left for one year. I got about 70 % recovery of boards over 3.6 metres long. With other experiments I have found that the boards are really only good for flooring inside where there is a chance of making money.

[MrWorldwide]

I know nothing of the commercial value of the 'gum tree', but I've had every Eucalyptus torn out in every ornamental garden I've ever owned - they explode like cannons in a fire and routinely drop large branches from on high. Great in the Aussie bush (the snow gum is particularly beautiful) but a nightmare on a 700sq m suburban block. They also have an unfortunate history as an invasive pest in certain parts of the Pacific. One of the few Aussie species I don't favor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus#Eucalyptus_as_an_invasive_species