Folks,

Has anyone had any experience with these salt-tolerant hybrids of
Eucalypts(http://www.saltgrow.com.au/)?

We are interested in planting them on artesian bore water, and they look
like they might be ideal to re-establish trees in a few paddocks that are
tree-challenged. Funnily enough, the paddocks were originally bare(Open
Micthell Grass Downs Country), but we have enjoyed some tree cover from
declared woody weeds (Parkinsonia). When we nobbled all the woody weeds a
few years ago, we are suddenly faced with very treeless paddocks! There are
Coolibahs growing along the gully\creek running across one corner, but they
only grow down in the creek naturally. These hybrid eucalypts might be an
option to plant a few groves at other points in the paddocks.

The hybrids look to be crosses of River Red Gums, Flooded Gum, and Tasmanian
Blue Gum. The 4 year old trees look very nice; useable hardwood timber if
you want to use them, but big, straight trees that seem to grow quickly.

I'm not really interested in using them to lower rising water\salt
tables(havent got that problem), but more that the most available water
(Artesian Bore water)has high soda\salt content, and most trees wont grow on
it. Our local soil is also high clay content black soil, which the website
suggests is ideal for the growing of these trees.

Any thoughts\info welcomed.

Cheers,

Rod.......Out Back

G'day Rod Out back,
I've no experience with the gums, but
maybe you could experiment with some of the species that thrive in low lying
coastal areas. It would be interesting to see how sheoaks, paperbarks or
even figs might go. I've seen gums in brackish spots, but I don't know what
type they were. Maybe National Parks or Forestry dept. would be a good place
to ask. The large growing paperbark (melaluca qinequinervia - (( don't trust
the spelling, and there may have been a name change)) is a beauytiful
spreading tree, and casurina glauca is quick and handsome. If seen them both
growing very well in high tide inundated swamps, right down to the
mangroves. I've also noticed tomatoes naturalised at the edge of such
swamps, free from their usual pests. Any way, it would be interesting try
different things, so good luck.

China
Wingham
NSW

g'day rod,

almost sounds to good to be true hey, i'd say go for it maybe plant
along contours and plant for wind break capacity. trees will improve
the quality of pasture, saw mentioned that a 34% planting in a pasture
does wonders that sort of planting isn't a lot me i reckon hi 40's to
50's % will be great. our lushest grasses are around our eucalypt
trees the grass that doesn't get the shelter etc.,. provided by the
trees just isn't the same quality. we did our planting 6 or 7 meters
between trees and around 8 to 10 meters between rows.

i must say though i'm not a hybrid supporter would rather see indemic
native species, when they come to seeding age are the seeds viable?
and if so what sort of tree will they produce? maybe a couple of
questions to ask.

but outside of that mate you gotta do what you gotta do hey? and no
matter how one looks at it we need trees.

keep us updated

len

snipped
--
happy gardening
'it works for me it could work for you,'

"in the end ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do" but consider others and the environment
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gardenlen1/

my e/mail addies have spam filters you should know what to delete before you send.

"len gardener" wrote in message
...
g'day rod,

almost sounds to good to be true hey, i'd say go for it maybe plant
along contours and plant for wind break capacity. trees will improve
the quality of pasture, saw mentioned that a 34% planting in a pasture
does wonders that sort of planting isn't a lot me i reckon hi 40's to
50's % will be great. our lushest grasses are around our eucalypt
trees the grass that doesn't get the shelter etc.,. provided by the
trees just isn't the same quality. we did our planting 6 or 7 meters
between trees and around 8 to 10 meters between rows.

i must say though i'm not a hybrid supporter would rather see indemic
native species, when they come to seeding age are the seeds viable?
and if so what sort of tree will they produce? maybe a couple of
questions to ask.

but outside of that mate you gotta do what you gotta do hey? and no
matter how one looks at it we need trees.

keep us updated

len

snipped
--
happy gardening
'it works for me it could work for you,'

"in the end ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do" but consider others and the
environment
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gardenlen1/

my e/mail addies have spam filters you should know what to delete before
you send.

Len,

It's a bit of an odd situation. The paddocks we would be putting them into
has always been treeless(has never been cleared - think open savannah), but
bloody Parkinsonias got a go on many years ago(used to be a boredrain run
though the paddock). As part of our woody weed eradictaion program, we
nobbled all the Parkinsonias. Now, we are noticing the livestock dont find
life all that good; they cannot find anywhere to get out of the sun!

We would be planting these trees not to provide any salt reduction (There
isnt any in the area) or asture improvement , but to provide shade cover for
the sheep & cattle. We will most likely be planting small groves of the
trees at strategic points, but wouldnt be planting in numbers to affect
pasture quality. Main reason for using the Hybrids is solely about the
water we can supply them. We simply dont have water of a quality on that
part of the property that we can grow local species. We would be mainting
water supply to these trees, which would be one method of controlling
propagation.

It will be an interesting experiment. We arent looking to grow millions of
them, but a few test plots of a few hundred trees all up might be worth
evaluating. I do intend finding out more about how they propagate(viability
of seeds) before taking the risk of introducing them. Mind you, some of
that country wouldnt be so bad if it did end up with lots of gum trees, but
I dont think the availability of water(or lack of) will allow them to
spread.

On the tree numbers thing, our property lost the most trees around 1900 or
so; feeding steam engines. I understand your average steam engine required
around 3 cords of wood a day, and most artesian bores took 2-3 months of
drilling to put down. That would seem to be a lot of wood! Most of the
timber cut was Gidyea and Boree, and many of the stumps are still standing
today. However, we have about 80 or so years of new trees having been
establishing, so I feel we are pretty much out in front...None of this
property has been actually cleared, but you can see some areas along the
creeks where they obviously took nearly every tree they could find...

Cheers,

Rod.......Out Back