Big Trees For Shade

[tigerbeer]

Hi!, just done with the construction of our new house. Looking to put in one tree! particularly one that provides a good shade to the house and I really don't mind if this tree end up being 4 feet in diameter somewhere 100 years from now!. not that i would be alive put perhaps some good lumber for someone to harvest in the future?

another question, how legal is it to buy some little teak trees and plant them in the house? i live in chiang mai and have a house on 1 rai of land. can spare a big part of it growing 2-3 teak trees. are they available for sale in the local markets?

really appreciate if anyone could give tree species name, scientific name and name in thai.

[sbk]

I really love the Flame tree or Royal Poinciana (Delonix Regia) in thai: Dton Hang Nok Yoong. You see it growing on the sides of roads all over Thailand covered with spectacular red flowers.

Royal Poinciana or Flame Tree.

It can be a very large tree but very gracefully umbrella shaped. However, the leaves are deciduous --they fall once a year leaving the tree leafless but covered in flowers.

[udon]

I'm a big fan of the tamarind tree. Tamarindus indica

More info: http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/tamarind.html

Good shade and great to eat the fruit/pods.

I like the flame tree too, but cannot eat it

[sbk]

Problem with the tamarind is even if you plant a sweet tamarind, depending on soil type, it still won't come out sweet!

And it sheds, big time.

The Jacaranda is a nice tree too (jacaranda mimisifolia). I am afraid I can't remember the Thai name off the top of my head. Sorry

[tigerbeer]

The jacaranda looks really nice! and so does the flame tree. so many of them around though here in chiang mai. just realized what it was! jacaranda looks like blossom tree.

the tamarind is actually a good idea. but just for eating ... thanks guys.

[lingling]

another question, how legal is it to buy some little teak trees and plant them in the house? i live in chiang mai and have a house on 1 rai of land. can spare a big part of it growing 2-3 teak trees. are they available for sale in the local markets?

Planting teak is no problem, harvesting them can be a problem if you don't register with the forestry department when you plant them. Plants are B2 each for 30-40 cm tall ones in central thailand, not sure if they are cheaper up in your area. But they leave a lot of "garbage" (dried fallen leaves that takes a long time to decompose because many bugs won't eat them). If the conditions are right they will grow very tall in no time at all.

[tigerbeer]

well i went out today at kamtiang market in chiang mai and got myself 4 Royal Poinciana trees. Just about 4 ft or so tall. small really small. oh well, gonna plant them at home somewhere and let em grow grow grow. according to a couple websites, they grow about 4-5ft per year. so thats not too bad. the lady at the market mentioned something about whether i want the local species, or the farang species. i got the farang one. anyone knows the difference?

[tigerbeer]

Check this one out guys,

Royal Poinciana at its best:

edited to get the posting correct for image!

[RamdomChances]

another question, how legal is it to buy some little teak trees and plant them in the house? i live in chiang mai and have a house on 1 rai of land. can spare a big part of it growing 2-3 teak trees. are they available for sale in the local markets?

Planting teak is no problem, harvesting them can be a problem if you don't register with the forestry department when you plant them. Plants are B2 each for 30-40 cm tall ones in central thailand, not sure if they are cheaper up in your area. But they leave a lot of "garbage" (dried fallen leaves that takes a long time to decompose because many bugs won't eat them). If the conditions are right they will grow very tall in no time at all.

Where about exactly was that mate, I'm in central and have been looking for some to plant around the perimiter of our land....your right about having to register them first if you want to sell them later.

[lingling]

Where about exactly was that mate, I'm in central and have been looking for some to plant around the perimiter of our land....your right about having to register them first if you want to sell them later.

I bought mine in a place called Tha Muang about 10 km outside Kanchanaburi. There are several shops (about ten of them) on a small road that leads to a temple called "Wat Tham Seua" (just past the large irrigation dam in the same town). They all specialize in teak and recently they also started selling eucalyptus (which as I understand from other threads is a bad bad thing to grow here).

[tigerbeer]

another question, how legal is it to buy some little teak trees and plant them in the house? i live in chiang mai and have a house on 1 rai of land. can spare a big part of it growing 2-3 teak trees. are they available for sale in the local markets?

Planting teak is no problem, harvesting them can be a problem if you don't register with the forestry department when you plant them. Plants are B2 each for 30-40 cm tall ones in central thailand, not sure if they are cheaper up in your area. But they leave a lot of "garbage" (dried fallen leaves that takes a long time to decompose because many bugs won't eat them). If the conditions are right they will grow very tall in no time at all.

Where about exactly was that mate, I'm in central and have been looking for some to plant around the perimiter of our land....your right about having to register them first if you want to sell them later.

really messy trees teak are but hey if you got like many rais of nothing to grow, why not? get your permission and then harvest it when you want to. if you want to.

[lingling]

Oh, and to not confuse anyone with the topic title, teak trees are not good for shade since they don't branch out very much and are leafless during some parts of the year. But they are the fastest growers we have. The best one was 5-6 meters half a year after planting but later drowned during the rainy season, the second best is now 8-10 meters tall (~2 years after planting). Others are not much taller than when we planted them (those were planted in bad soil that came from 5m below the surface when we dug a pond). Of course, slower growing ones will have a lot more dense timber, so from that perspective it is no good if they grow too fast.

[Nawtilus]

Anyone know how long teak takes to grow before you can harvest for timber, say the absolute earliest to get good amount of timber from.

[KhunMarco]

Check this one out guys,

Royal Poinciana at its best:

edited to get the posting correct for image!

Simply MAGNIFICENT, I always wondered what was its name.

Thanks, great pix too

Edited June 1, 2006 by KhunMarco

[dvk1951]

Check this one out guys,

Royal Poinciana at its best:

edited to get the posting correct for image!

Simply MAGNIFICENT, I always wondered what was its name.

Thanks, great pix too

I second that, what a beautiful plant. I can imagine a row of them lining a long drive way, what a grand entrance it would make.

Thanks for sharing TG

[RamdomChances]

I bought mine in a place called Tha Muang about 10 km outside Kanchanaburi.

Ok thanks.

really messy trees teak are but hey if you got like many rais of nothing to grow, why not? get your permission and then harvest it when you want to. if you want to.

I want to plant them around the perimiter of our land about 65 rai, they then dont take up any space for crops, and if needs be can always be cut later, they will also help as wind breaks.

[sbk]

well i went out today at kamtiang market in chiang mai and got myself 4 Royal Poinciana trees. Just about 4 ft or so tall. small really small. oh well, gonna plant them at home somewhere and let em grow grow grow. according to a couple websites, they grow about 4-5ft per year. so thats not too bad. the lady at the market mentioned something about whether i want the local species, or the farang species. i got the farang one. anyone knows the difference?

Hang Nok Yoong Thai is not a Delonix Regia but rather Caesalpinia pulcherrima, also known as a Mexican Bird of Paradise. it is similar to the Delonix in leaf shape and flower shape but is a bushy shrub that grows to a max of about 10 feet, multibranching with spiny thorns. I have one that is about 15 years old, I don't prune the top, only the sides and it is no more than 10 ft tall. It can also have yellow flowers or pink & orange flowers.

[tigerbeer]

well i went out today at kamtiang market in chiang mai and got myself 4 Royal Poinciana trees. Just about 4 ft or so tall. small really small. oh well, gonna plant them at home somewhere and let em grow grow grow. according to a couple websites, they grow about 4-5ft per year. so thats not too bad. the lady at the market mentioned something about whether i want the local species, or the farang species. i got the farang one. anyone knows the difference?

Hang Nok Yoong Thai is not a Delonix Regia but rather Caesalpinia pulcherrima, also known as a Mexican Bird of Paradise. it is similar to the Delonix in leaf shape and flower shape but is a bushy shrub that grows to a max of about 10 feet, multibranching with spiny thorns. I have one that is about 15 years old, I don't prune the top, only the sides and it is no more than 10 ft tall. It can also have yellow flowers or pink & orange flowers.

hi sbk, thank u so much for sharing your expertise in the subject. learned a whole lot thanks to you. lucky i bought the farang one then. otherwise i would be in for some dissapointment big time in the future. have to really be cautious about the differences when buying plants in thailand. 10-15 years is a long time to wait for finding out that you bought the wrong species !

if you dont mind, do u have a picture of your Hang Nok Yoong Thai for us to see ??

[lingling]

Speaking of big trees, I have been thinking it would be cool to have a brazil nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa). Since they can not get pollinated here and thus can not spread I would think it should be safe to plant them. Does anyone know if seeds/plants are available here, if it is legal to plant them or if there would be any other reason to not have a few of those in the garden?

[sbk]

Here is a rather distant picture of my Caesalpinia, it is right next to the restaurant, with a very old (also about 16 years) frangipani tree in front of it. Sorry I don't have a close up!

[tigerbeer]

Here is a rather distant picture of my Caesalpinia, it is right next to the restaurant, with a very old (also about 16 years) frangipani tree in front of it. Sorry I don't have a close up!

what i would do to live there. what a view! love the sea. doesnt look like much flowers. camera phone i reckon? why not fertilize it a bit? the caesalpinia i mean. bloom bloom bloom!

[Pond Life]

I read somewhere that on Teak plantations they get saleable wood after 10 yrs & they thin out the plantation about 50 % at that time, then they harvest the rest about 15 yrs.

I also seem to remember reading that if you want the tree to bush out for shade or screening you should chop the top out when it reaches about 10m.

[Nawtilus]

I read somewhere that on Teak plantations they get saleable wood after 10 yrs & they thin out the plantation about 50 % at that time, then they harvest the rest about 15 yrs.

I also seem to remember reading that if you want the tree to bush out for shade or screening you should chop the top out when it reaches about 10m.

I had heard/read more like 30 to 50 years. Hmmm, well I have a friend back home who is into the plantation forrestry stuff, might have to send him an email and see how much he knows about it. But its not a tree that is grown there or he is experienced with.

[sbk]

Here is a rather distant picture of my Caesalpinia, it is right next to the restaurant, with a very old (also about 16 years) frangipani tree in front of it. Sorry I don't have a close up!

what i would do to live there. what a view! love the sea. doesnt look like much flowers. camera phone i reckon? why not fertilize it a bit? the caesalpinia i mean. bloom bloom bloom!

Like most trees and shrubs they have a natural cycle. I do not believe in overfertilizing in order to have continuous bloom. That is a good way to wear out your soil and your tree. Most likely this photo was taken in a period of low bloom. It does flower year round but has its high bloom and low bloom cycles.

No, not a camera phone, the photo was cut down for a website and is a few years old, if you are really interested I can get a close up when I get back home.

I only have the orange/red kind. The pink & orange is really lovely but I don't have that one yet.

[phibunmike]

I read somewhere that on Teak plantations they get saleable wood after 10 yrs & they thin out the plantation about 50 % at that time, then they harvest the rest about 15 yrs.

I also seem to remember reading that if you want the tree to bush out for shade or screening you should chop the top out when it reaches about 10m.

I had heard/read more like 30 to 50 years. Hmmm, well I have a friend back home who is into the plantation forrestry stuff, might have to send him an email and see how much he knows about it. But its not a tree that is grown there or he is experienced with.

From:

http://tropicalhardwoods.com/htm/main/ques...answers.htm#a04

4. When will the first harvest be?

For teak, we project that the first commercial thinning harvest will be in the 6th - 9th year after field-planting, followed by additional thinning harvests approximately each 3 or 4 years and continuing until the final harvest in about the 25th year.

(This refers to Costa Rica, not sure if different here).

[SamSipEt]

Speaking of big trees, I have been thinking it would be cool to have a brazil nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa).

Did you know that Brazil was named after the tree not the tree from the country?

[tigerbeer]

Speaking of big trees, I have been thinking it would be cool to have a brazil nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa).

Did you know that Brazil was named after the tree not the tree from the country?

thats quite an interesting fact SSE. come to think of it, i would never have found that out (since no reason to) if you had not mentioned it. thanks for the info !

incidently i picked up a couple of trees yesterday and really wanna know what they are called in english.

1. Sip Soong Pannah - some sort of palm tree

2. U Kachoong - A large tree ideal for shades.

anyone?

[tracker]

some info on the tamarind tree: it small leaves are acid (lower pH) and will stain any fabric if things get wet. I dunno about parking cars under there but I would not recommend. Also almost nothing else will grow under a tamarind tree due to that....

there is even some folkore on this. Google on it.

Mango trees can be big and nice... but certain times of the year they also stain (but not acid), so if there is no parking under there, go ahead.

[teletiger]

Anyone know how long teak takes to grow before you can harvest for timber, say the absolute earliest to get good amount of timber from.

10 year old teak trees fetch $40 per stem (used for veneer) 20 year old trees fetch $80 per stem.

Plant them 2 metres apart in rows 3 meters apart. 260 trees per rai. Harvest half the trees after 10 years, the rest for later. With a 10% loss, it comes to Baht 560,000 per rai at todays prices. This is of course optimum, so figure half this, plus the price in 20 years time.....dyor

regards

[chownah]

About teak for shade near a house. Teak trees are weak. If a really strong wind comes large branches and sometimes the entire top of the tree breaks off. Keep teak trees within striking distance of your house topped and don't grow any branches of any size over your roof. We have two or three dozen teak trees on the property around the house and every year up here in the north we have wind storms and some broken tree parts fall down...I'm glad they didn't fall on the roof as they would surely have shattered it and perhaps have fallen right through the ceiling as well. One year our largest teak tree lost its entire top. The part that fell was about 20 cm at the big end and was very very heavy....it would have damaged anything it hit...collapsed a vehicle roof I think......it fell from about 8 or 10 metres....ouch! Didn't seem to hurt the tree any...it's as healthy and vigorous as ever. Teak also drops alot of very big leaves over a long period of time so they are a bit of a nuisance that way....they're not an ideal shade tree.

Chownah