How fast does a Sitka spruce grow?
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How fast does a Sitka spruce grow?
Sitka is fast-growing, even in poor soils and on exposed ground, making it perfect for the Scottish climate. In fact, it’s so fast-growing – young trees can grow as much as 1.5m in a year – it can be tricky to estimate a sitka tree’s age just by looking at it.
What is special about Sitka spruce?
Sitka spruce is valued for its wood, which is light, soft, and relatively strong and flexible. It is used for general construction, ship building and plywood. The wood has excellent acoustic properties and is used to make sounding boards in pianos and other musical instruments such as violins and guitars.
How tall does Sitka spruce grow?
Sitka spruce is the world’s largest spruce. It can obtain heights of greater than 210 feet (65 m) with a d.b.h. of 16 feet (5 m) on better sites [24].
How long does a Sitka spruce live?
After slowly initially becoming established, Sitka spruce are among the world’s fastest growing trees. They are long-lived – up to 800 years – and, as such, were a “pioneer” of the Pacific Northwest coastline, colonizing glacial moraines centuries ago when glaciers retreated.
How do you plant Sitka spruce?
The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. The plant prefers acid and neutral soils and can grow in very acid soil. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires moist or wet soil.
What is the lifespan of a Sitka spruce?
How old do Sitka spruce live?
Sitka spruce is a large tree that grows to a height of 70 metres and a diameter of two metres when mature with an estimated lifespan of 700 to 800 years. The largest known Sitka spruce in BC is 95 metres tall and five metres across. The bark is very thin, brown or purplish-grey, and breaks up into small scales.
Is Sitka spruce good?
Uses of Sitka spruce Sitka spruce is an important timber species in the UK, accounting for around 50% of commercial plantations. The wood is versatile and has lots of uses: small trees are particularly useful for making paper, while mature trees are used to make boats and ships, pallets and packing boxes.
Does Sitka spruce like full sun?
Sunlight. sitka spruce is shade-tolerant, so it doesn’t need much direct sunlight to grow. From spring through early summer, it’s best to expose the tree to light for a duration of over 6 hours a day, but a lack of light for a short time won’t affect its growth.
Is Sitka spruce a hardwood or softwood?
Softwoods are obtained from conifers, which typically have needles, bear cones, and are generally evergreen. Examples of common softwoods include spruce, pine and fir.
Is Sitka spruce a pine tree?
Names: Sitka Spruce is another one of our giant conifers. Sitka is the name of a Tlingit tribe, and is also the name of a city in southeastern Alaska. The species name sitchensis is derived from Sitka.
How do you care for a Sitka spruce plant?
Sitka Spruce is among the world’s fastest growing trees. It is more tolerant to wind and salt spray than associated tree species….Excellent choice for an exposed site or one with poor soils.
- Grows up to 50-160 ft.
- Performs best in full sun in moist, well-drained soils.
- No pruning required.
Is Sitka spruce expensive?
Pricing/Availability: Construction grade spruce is cheap and easy to find. However, old growth and/or quartersawn clear pieces—free from knots—can be more expensive. Quartersawn billets of instrument-grade Sitka Spruce can easily exceed the cost of most all domestic hardwoods in terms of per board-foot cost.
How long do Sitka spruce live?
800 years
After slowly initially becoming established, Sitka spruce are among the world’s fastest growing trees. They are long-lived – up to 800 years – and, as such, were a “pioneer” of the Pacific Northwest coastline, colonizing glacial moraines centuries ago when glaciers retreated.
How long do Sitka spruce trees live?
What’s the difference between spruce and Sitka spruce?
Specific Gravity is a of measure of density, and The Sitka spruce Wins in this category. Sitka edges out red spruce in hardness, so it won’t scratch as easily. Modulus of rupture is bending strength- Sitka wins this test. Elastic modulus is the wood stiffness with the fiber- Again Sitka is the stiffer.
How much is Sitka spruce worth?
“Sitka Spruce, fully mature, well-stocked and managed, is making over €35,000 and up to €40,000 per hectare. Even poorly performing plantations are producing timber worth €22,000 per hectare.”
How far apart should Sitka spruce be planted?
12 feet apart
Starting with one Western red cedar and one Sitka spruce P+1 seedling per hole, we planted the plantation near Kapowsin in Pierced County in 2014. The holes were spaced 12 feet apart, giving about 600 trees in 300 holes per acre.
