"echinosum" wrote in message
...

Michael Bell;878779 Wrote:
Yes, a lot of work is needed. We have plenty of tree FRUIT crops,
apples, coconuts, etc, but we have no tree GRAIN crops, by which I
mean a hard dry thing with good keeping qualities. Tree fix many times
more carbon than herbs; they put more green between the sun and the
ground than herbs, the ground beneath wheat can be quite brightly lit
whereas the ground under trees can be deep shade, and trees can put
out their leaves as soon as it's warm enough to be worthwhile, which
herbs, especially annuals, cannot do. (Some people are trying to
develop a perennial wheat)

My understanding is that the most productive biomass crops in temperate
latitudes are grasses not trees. So I don't think your argument about
the sun collecting efficiency of a taller crop stacks up. It can't
collect more sunlight than there is, and a low-growing crop can do that
just as well.

snip
Must agree - consider the percentage of a modern grain plant that is yield
and it is pretty high.
The straw is useful as well as the grain so very little of the plant is
wasted.
Quick to grow, high yielding, relatively low maintenance and also conducive
to crop rotation.
Allegedly in East Anglia some places can produce as many as four crops a
year (although I haven't seen this myself).

Trees take a relatively long time to come into production and the percentage
of the plant that is suitable for harvest is relatively small.

With regard to "trees can put out their leaves as soon as it's warm enough
to be worthwhile, which herbs, especially annuals, cannot do" the OP has
obviously not noticed winter wheat, which often requires grazing back over
winter to prevent it developing too soon in the spring.
The fields are green here in Suffolk but the trees have yet to put on any
leaf.

On mature consideration, apart from the concept of condoms for trees there
is appears to be little of interest in the proposal.

Oh, I've just noticed that coconuts don't class as hard dry things with good
keeping qualities.
Whatever.

Dave R