Thread: camphor laurel

Check out details regarding nature of the tree prior to planting. Look up "camphor laurel" on Google for some interesting facts.

Queensland Government Publication

New South Wales Government Publication

Hope this helps in some way. :eek:

Tom - Camphor may be a good wood for woodies, but it's not good for our country. It's a major weed over this side of the island - better check with your EPA folks before you plant any, to make sure it's not a prohibited species. You would do us a favour by getting a few thousand tonnes back-loaded on the trucks shipping Jarrah over here! Despite its popularity with woodies, it's still spreading faster than an STD around S.E. Qld.
Cheers,

thanks for the heads up guys.
i see its become quite a pest over there but i wonder if it will grow a bit slower over here in he southwest.
i like the idea of a tree that can kill birds we've got a little vinyard and the birds are a major pest.
how much does it sell for over there?

thanks a heap
tom

Although it is declared a noxious species it is still as expensive as other timbers and although it grows profusly on the far north coast of NSW most of the trees are scrappy and spindley and not much good as timber.

They tend to grow in clumps like weeds and the decent timber trees are isolated ones that fill out and get some girth on them.

The farmers on the north coast recon if you end up with camphor laurel on you land your land becomes worthless. The only trouble is that I havent found one that is prepared to sell it to you as worthless.

hmm mabe with a whole lot of roundup and a chainsaw i could grow some nice tall straight ones. im only 17 so theres heaps of time for them to grow, how fast do they grow?

Well I suppose by the time you reach my age they will be ready to mill but the problem will probaly be that your local council will have a tree presevation order in place and you wont be able to cut them down.

well i just checked the ag department site they say it can be invasive in gardens but it doesnt seem to be a quarantined weed so i dont think they will care to much. The property is 450 acres and its 50km from town so i dont think the council will mind if they do ill just say its plantation timber.
so if anyone knows where i should start on my hunt for seeds or seedlings, especaly the really poisionous type i would be very grateful.
ohh yeah i just realised if these things kill birds what happens when a cow eats the leaves?

thanks
tom

Tom,
If you plant Camphor Laurel, you'll probably make yourself as popular as the bloke who imported rabbits, the family that released European Carp, Baron von Meuller who spread blackberries all over Victoria, and for all I know, the bloke who gelded Phar Lap.

I don't know about them killing birds - I understand that they are spread by birds eating the seeds.

Tom, it's your land and your call, but I think there are several reasons why C. camphora is probably not a good choice for what you want.
AlexS beat me to the analogy but I was going to say that before you encourage the botanical equivalent of the rabbit on your place, you should consider if it will even do what you want it to.
In fact, it may not grow worth a damn for you. Camphor laurel likes well-watered, rich soils and a subtropical climate. True, it's drought-tolerant and frost-hardy when established, but it does struggle in poorer soils, and doesn't like dry summers - that's probably why it isn't considered a problem in Vic., where it doesn't make much in the way of saw logs, and struggles even to produce fruit, most years. Incidentally, down there the locals don't think much of it as a wood source, either!
It has a very strong tendency to produce heaps of stems from ground level if grown in anything but dense groups, and while it's supposed to be insect repellent, termites seem not to have read the warning labels. I've also had plenty of borer in cut wood, particularly sapwwod, but the little bludgers will hop into the heartwood, too.
It tends to distort moderately to severely on drying, because of the growth-habit of the trees, though good, straight pieces are moderately stable once dry. It can be a real ***** to work because of its rowed grain - i.e. alternate 'rows' of grain run in opposite directions, making it a ***** to plane. It mostly looks good once you tiger it into submision, and some bits are really spectacular but a lot of it is just woolly and blah, and hard to put a decent finish on. I admit I'm a bit jaded because for a while, Camphor wood seemed to be the only thing that grew round here. I notice, thankfully, that lots of other woods seem to have ben 'rediscovered' this last year or two.
I bet there are several (many?) alternative species that would produce more useful wood, quicker, safer, and more profitably under your conditions than Camphor .............
Cheers,

Redmond,
I highly recommend you check with your local Dept of Ag or Forestry etc. If you can tell them the type of climate and soil on your property they will point you in the right direction to the specis of trees that will do best in those conditions. They may even help you to acquire the seedlings etc with rebates and the like.
Please also check with them before you plant anything that would be deemed 'plantation timber', there are bound to be rules governing the use of land and plantations may have to be registered or may be regulated in some way. I remember a few years ago in NSW a bloke who planted acres and acres of pine trees before he had permission to plant a pine forest. Things went really well for a good few years and he was expecting to start harvesting within the next 2-3 years (if I remember correctly) and then the local govt got stuck into him because he didn't have the correct boxes ticked before he planted. I think he ended up having to pay the considerable law bills for an unsuccessful Supreme Court appeal before they bulldozed the lot. It cost him millions in costs and potential income.

Rather than being a hinderance, I think you'll find the Dept of Ag or Forestry etc will be really helpful to you in your quest. They'll also be able to offer advice on the best methods for planting and caring for them in the early stages.

Best of luck and please keep us posted on your progress

Pat

Camphor grows easily from cuttings if you can find a tree. I have never heard of it killing birds either. There are certainly better things to grow hichory for one. We import it from the US for handles and import scraps for smoking fish, so you could even sell the branches as well as timber.

ok i fear of getting shot at next time the neighbours are out killing rabbits and geting beat up over the internet by you guys, i think im going to have to give up my camphor dreams.
thanks for all the responses and information guys and i think im going to have to hunt around for other trees to plant. if anyone has any ideas i would be realy greatful. ive had a look at hicory glen but it says it like deep dich soils and at our place there is a 30cm thick layer of ironstone thats only 30-60 cms below the surfaceunder the rock is good clay though but i dont think its worth geting a doser in to rip up the rock just so i can plant some trees.
what sort of australian or suitable exotics would be good for woodworking ?
fast growing would be nice

ohh yeah and there were some reports on the internet about birds dieing after ewating camphor berrys in Lismore.

thanks again everone
tom

Tom - I'm sure nobody meant to be tough on you, but when you live with some of the weed trees that are fouling the place over here, you get a bit tetchy!

Yeah, I read about the bird-kill business, but it's rather doubtful. Judging by the relish with which a lot of birds consume the fruits and how well they spread the seeds, it can't be a common occurrence. (One alleged incident that was properly investigated turned out to be pesticide poisoning).
The best bet is to ask your local forestry folks about suitable species. Here in Qld they have quite an interest in farm forestry. One of my farming brothers got keen on the idea a few years back, and they gave him heaps of advice and help - he got something like 300 seedlings for free to help kick off. They recommended a range of things from local species plus native species from other areas, to a few exotics like African Mahogany (Khaya SP). Some of the projections about potential earnings were a bit optimistic, in my view. There just aren't that many places in this country where you can cash-crop trees, imho.
Everyone would like to be able to harvest millable timber a year or two after planting, but good wood takes time. If you act now, you could probably expect to have some good stuff to play with in your retirement.
Good on you for doing this - as a friend of mine once observed, young blokes usually don't plant trees, they just chop them down, while old blokes seem to get the bug to plant them...
avagooday,

Hi Redmond

Why not go the way of your other post on "Paulownia". It is a good timber for furniture grows fast if it is irrigated and fed nutrients and millable in about seven years straight and fine grained.

Your other post. http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ead.php?t=8022