If The Soil Is Not Good Enough To Plant Teak? - Three Alternative Suggestions

Teak: Not all soils are suitable for its cultivation

The physical and aesthetic qualities of teak have given this wood a worldwide reputation as a high quality tropical hardwood. Teak wood has been in high demand for shipbuilding and furniture as well as external wood buildings among many other applications 1.

It is therefore easy to imagine that anyone who is considering to establish a commercial tropical tree plantation, might start venturing to plant this tree specie without knowing the environmental requirements yet. Teak can be a very demanding forest specie with regards to climatic conditions, soil requirements and forestry plantation management, which is why teak does not grow in all areas and climates. Furthermore even if planted, if the soil is not optimal, this means the site will show inferior yields. Therefore it is necessary to identify viable alternatives for sites that do not possess ideal soil conditions to grow teak.

Alternative forest species to the cultivation of teak in Costa Rica

There are actually many species of tropical trees that could be grown instead of teak. However, teak trees have some advantages that make it superior to others, so that any substitution of the tree specie in soils which are not suitable for teak should target to obtain similar kind of benefits.

What are the most meaningful criteria to select alternative tree species than teak?

1) Better land use: The specie must be able to provide better timber volume growth on that soil than if the land would be used to grow teak.

2) Market value: Teak is a tropical hardwood and one of the tropical woods most widely sold to an established market both nationally and internationally. Thus any alternative timber must be close to offer the same kind of opportunities, whether sold to an already established market or sold to a small but growing market.

3) Time for Growth: - Teak requires approximately 20 - 25 years till it can be harvested, thus requiring patience until the return on investment can be captured. Any alternative tree specie serving as replacement should offer shorter harvest cycles.

Above selection criteria were used to produce a shortlist of tropical tree species as possible alternatives in the case of Costa Rica.

Alternative Timbers

Melina: Melina requires deep, moist but well drained soils to allow for unimpeded root development and the pH value should be between 5 and 6 (acid) 2. According to the above features, it can be observed that Melina requires soil conditions and structures very similar to teak. The main difference is the ability of the Melina tree to tolerate lower effective soil depth and the ability to grow in soils with more slopy terrain. As for the chemical conditions, Melina tolerates acid soils with variable nutrient concentrations. Teak is demanding elements such as calcium, phosphorus and magnesium 3, while Melina requires more potash 2.

Another feature of the Melina tree is that it allows to shorten harvest cycles, ranging from 6 to 8 years for pulp production and 8 to 12 years to obtain sawntimber (teak requires between 20 - 25 years until the final harvest). Also Costa Rica offers an established market for Melina, a timber especially used in the production of agricultural packaging such as pallets. Each year nearly 4.9 million pallets are being produced (Barrantes and Salazar 2009), mainly from the Melina tree, and are used to export agricultural products out of Costa Rica.

Acacia: Acacia provides an interesting alternative for soils of different structures and compositions. This tree specie is much more flexible, shows wide adaptability and good development in areas with steep slopes, low fertility and acid soils 5. This does not mean that the species is not suitable and shows a lesser development in places ideal for teak, but if you do not have these kind of sites, Acacia tree species can still show good growth where teak can't. The Acacia tree is a specie widely used in Costa Rica and planted in places where Teak and Melina cannot find good growing conditions. Another advantage of this specie is, that it is also adaptable to sites with difficult topographies and poor soils. This timber grows rapidly offering harvest cycles between 7 to 10 years for sawntimber. Acacia grown for commercial harvesting, allows shorter cycles than teak and and requires a very similar time to reach final harvest stage as Melina (around 10 years). The main difference of these two species are its adaptation and growth characteristics.

The market for Acacia timber is estimated to be smaller than for Teak or Melina in Costa Rica, because it is a specie currently planted in smaller dimensions than the other two types of wood, but its uses are varied and is suitable for carpentry and construction work in general, manufacturing of furniture for firmness, color and jasper for chipboard and "plywood". It is a wood that dries easily and allows for a good finish (CATIE, 1992) 9.

Both Melina and Acacia species are tropical trees that require a sufficient dry period for a fixed period of time to obtain optimal growth. Therefore, lands with extensive humidity are not suitable for those two species, despite possible soil improvement and the installation of better drainage systems.

Bamboo: Bamboo is a specie widely used in countries like Colombia and Asia, used in construction, to build houses, musical instruments, scaffolding, ladders, baskets, box frames, containers, fences and many other applications 6. Bamboo adapts well in beds of moisture or swampy water courses 7. Therefore, this specie is a good choice to plant in areas where the level of water filtration is very low. Bamboo requires very little maintenance and is easy to reproduce in a way that in can be harvested in short time.

Once Bamboo is grown, it can be harvested within 3-5 years (varies according to species). The harvest can be continued uninterrupted as long as adequate care and maintenance is being provided 8.

In Costa Rica Bamboo is used for a variety of activities, starting from house building, furniture, crafts or even growing vegetables by serving as support and protection structure. Currently the market is relatively small because Bamboo has been mostly used for agriculture and fewer applications are known. However, Bamboo also has been used in the tourism sector for the construction of cabanas and other buildings.

Conclusions

There are many options to grow alternative tropical timber species in places where teak does not grow well (see http://www.investingalternatively.com). The alternatives offering better market opportunities are Acacia and Melina, showing optimum growth in many soils where teak doesn't grow well and can offer shorter harvest cycles. Bamboo is a non-timber specie that has been introduced in the market for furniture making, and is a great alternative to plant in moisture soils. All three species, Acacia, Melina and Bamboo show shorter harvest cycles than teak. Alternative timbers are mostly sold to the domestic market in Costa Rica, while in contrast teak is mainly sold into the international market. Also to note, those species promote the soil regeneration in terms of organic biomass, soil aeration, soil depth and other aspects. Therefore having soils which are not optimal for teak, actually can offer new opportunities by looking into the planting of Acacia, Melina and Bamboo.

Sources

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2 Rojas. F et al. 2004. Manual para productores de Melina Gmelina arborea en Costa Rica. Cartago. 314p. Visita en lnea el 12 de febrero 2011.

3Fonseca. W. 2004. Manual para productores de teca, Heredia Costa Rica, 121 p. Visita en lnea el 12 de febrero 2011.

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Barrantes. A. Salazar. G. 2010. Costa Rica Forestal; Usos y aportes de la madera en Costa Rica estadsticas 2009. Visita en lnea el 3 de marzo 2011.

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9 CATIE (Centro Agronmico Tropical de Investigacin y Enseanza, CR). 1992. Mangium, Acacia mangium Will.: especie de rbol de uso mltiple en Amrica Central. Turrialba, CR. CATIE. 62 p.