Brian Rumsey

Fantastic ideas. Thank you!

Melissa Ferrin wrote:You can check here https://www.permacultura.org.mx/es/directorio/

And also https://www.facebook.com/groups/1441168369510743/   Facebook is very widely used in Mexico because the principal cell service provider made a deal with meta so Facebook and Whatsapp use is unlimited in all data plans.

Enjoy your trip!

I'm going to be in Yucatan for a few days in May and came here looking for insights on this question, so I'll reply to bump rather than start a new topic. Any one got recommendations of can't miss sites?

Hi Nathan! I'm thinking about a similar planting and am also in a midwest Zone 5. What did you land on as far as tree species for your coppice planting?

I've got Prok in northern Iowa, at the border between 4b and 5a. It was planted in 2019 and is doing great, looks like first crop of fruit this year (hoping they don't abort).

Thanks John -- the tower is well over 100 ft, so actually reaching that height is highly unlikely in the near term. Line of sight is indeed my priority. I don't actually have a house there -- it's open land about a mile and a half from my house. May perhaps build something eventually but it's not the immediate plan.

Thanks Mark -- that's definitely an idea worth considering.

I'm actually not really familiar with Paulownia. Looks very striking in some of the photos I googled. I see you are in N. Illinois so we should have similar conditions. Is it invasive there? If you grow it, does it do well for you?

I have recently purchased several acres of land (!!) that's mostly going to be for growing things. It has a cell tower near the north edge of the property. I'd like to plant trees that will help obscure the tower as well as possible. Since we're talking about the north side, shade isn't going to be a big issue. My criteria are (1) fast growing, tall final height (so fruit trees are mostly out), but not overly short-lived, (2) ideally productive of food or other useful products, and (3) not going to negatively affect the growth of other plants nearby. I'm in Iowa, where we have hot summers and cold, snowy winters. Below are some of my ideas -- I'm very curious about other suggestions people might have.

1. Cottonwood. These trees are very fast growing and I like their appearance. They don't produce usable crops that I'm aware of. I think they may draw so much water that things nearby might be affected.

2. Silver maple, especially the high sugar varieties. Fast growing but not as fast as cottonwood. I also like their appearance. Should produce sap that could be used for maple syrup. I'm not aware of issues affecting nearby plants.

3. Walnut. Relatively fast growing, nice looking, produce a usable crop, but juglone is going to be an issue.

4. Stone pine (Korean or Siberian). I don't know so much about these trees yet but like the cropping potential.

5. Oak (various varieties). These are some of the natural trees for this ecosystem. Not the fastest growing. May be possible to plant varieties with usable acorns.

6. Shagbark hickory. Another native for this ecosystem. Not sure about its growth speed. Possible usable crop.

7. Sycamore. Native to Iowa but not to this specific land. Fast growing. Nice looking. No known usable crops. No known negative impacts on other plants.

I'm seeking reports from people experienced with Carpathian/English walnuts (Juglans regia), especially in colder areas. I'm in Zone 5. There seem to be many reports of varieties said to be hardy to zone 5. Is this legitimate?

I'm also curious about the time to fruition. I've seen really widely varying reports. Some say you could see nut production in a few years if you purchase a bare root tree that's presumably a few years old. Others say to allow a couple decades for much production. Can anyone provide input on your experiences with time to fruition?

I'm hopefully going to have a few acres to my name in a month or so and this is a tree I'm really interested in planting.

I'm in 5a here. I have had two figs in-ground since 2019, one each Hardy Chicago and Florea. We got a great harvest this year, particularly from the Hardy Chicago which was a larger size when planted. We do a deep cover with straw bales and leaf mold -- would be basically considered 'burial' as Karl mentions, though the plants were not below ground level. Pruned them back to a couple feet for the winter. It really helped them to get a jump on the season to have SOME trunk surviving. Last year they survived but basically no above-ground trunk did. The extra trunk seemed to give them about a month's jump on the season, as we picked our first figs mid-August this year vs. mid-September last year. This was also the first year that I pinched the branches (early July) to force the plants' energy toward ripening fruit and not setting new fruit that would not ripen.

They've gotten bigger each year (to answer the original poster from years ago) and I think they will keep doing so up to a certain point, but they'll be limited by how much they can grow in a single season.