Sweetgums are beautiful trees. They grow very slowly and back in the 70s had no
way to be "sexed" and were, in general, considered trash trees. By trash tree I
mean they spewed a lot of debris in the form of those wonderful balls that
pierced my foot many times!




On Thu, 28 Nov 2002 02:10:24 GMT, "gary" wrote:

There are many sycamores in the older parts of Austin where houses were
built around the 1950's but very few seem to have been planted after that.
In northwest Austin, where houses were built in the 1970's and on, there are
very few. Think this relates to different soil or just the tree falling out
of fashion? (There are a few young adult sweetgums in my Angus Valley
neighborhood.)
gary



"John T. Jarrett" wrote in message
...
I think the fast-growers the site is advertising are going to require A
LOT
of supplemental water in our normally almost desert-like summers. Willows,
Poplars, Sweetgums, Sycamores...if you get out of town and drive around,
you
will find Black Willows and a few Sycamores growing naturally along wet
creeks and wet ponds. That is it, tho...not in fields.

You could just use locally available Black Willows for that matter. They
will grow 8' tall and 3" around in a single year, too...under the right
conditions...which for a willow is a creekbank. Weeping Willows are
prettier, less tough in our environment, and aren't as interested in
growing
in a tall habit as it sounds like you want.

That said, the houses around me drain to the back of my yard and I just
planted a Black Willow (that I yanked out of a creekbed down the road)
where
it stays wet about nine months out of the year. It will need watering in
the
summer - but so does all the St Augustine around it. Hopefully, it will
dry
the spot out the rest of the time.

And if you plant a Willow - any willow - keep it 30-60 feet from your
home's
sewer lines...those roots will really spread out searching for water when
it
gets dry and they will clog up your sewer lines with feeder roots. We used
to have to use the salt water in the bathtub trick to clean out our lines
every single month.