Teak

This is part of my growing list of candidates, to be used in reforestation, in the Philippines.

Teak is a hard and durable wood, prized for its resistance to rot and insect attack. It is also a relatively fast grower. Indonesian plantations on the same latitude as me, typically Harvest 12 to 13 in diameter trees after 20 years.

When planted densely, they need to be thinned at around five years and then thin whenever overcrowding occurs. Even the initial thinning produces useful poles that are pretty durable. Successive thinnings produce valuable house poles and small saw logs.

Teak is not a good neighbour to most other plants, so I will grow it in narrow band monoculture planted on contour. Something maybe 10 trees wide by however long I choose.

I don't expect to go chasing the international market for teak. There are giant plantations that put out many tons of teak each year. Instead, we will make furniture, flooring and other finished products.

By the time we are ready to build boardwalks, railings and other things for tourist visitors, we should be dealing with 6 or 8 inch poles. Eventually, a bandsaw mill will be needed.

I expect to grow legume trees, immediately up slope. Leaf drop from the legumes will help replace nutrient that the teak sucks up.

Turmeric
I've managed to find one useful plant that does really well in combination with teak. Turmeric does not suffer ill effects from teak trees. One manual said to spread teak leaf mulch at the rate of 15 tons per hectare, when growing turmeric. I'm not sure how much leaf drop we will get, but good to know that it won't harm the turmeric.

I won't cut down every tree after 20 years, but instead thin them further and let it continue indefinitely.