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Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#21

Post by TeMPOraL »

dx87 wrote: post #14
rebuilder wrote: post #4

My wife and I have a property with a good bit of forest. It's mostly fir trees and birch. Every now and then I wonder if there's some way to increase the co2 uptake of the forest, but the question appears surprisingly complicated, and so far my conclusion has been to just leave it be. Has anyone looked into this?

There was an article posted recently that said the best way to increase the co2 uptake is by cutting down the fully grown trees and planting new trees. Full grown trees don't absord as much co2 as a tree that is still growing, and the needles that some trees drop make the ground acidic, preventing new trees from growing. The problem is that you have to find something to do with all the wood so the captured co2 doesn'…

I had a stupid thought yesterday that I need to run numbers on, but I wonder if following would be possible:

Allocate some large area of ground for planting fast-growing trees. Dig a large and deep hole in the middle; something like 20 meters in diameter x 500 meters in depth. Let the trees grow; when they're mature, cut them down, throw into the hole, and throw a bunch of dirt (from the mound you made by digging the hole) behind them. Plant new trees, rinse and repeat until the hole is full, then dig another one somewhere near. Would that even make sense as a carbon sequestration facility?

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#22

Post by jerkstate »

dleslie wrote: post #19
maxencecornet wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> an average person from a high carbon output country needs about 600-1000 trees to offset their carbon output. This seems really doable for the average person!

It's far less than what a professional tree planter will manage in a single day in Canada. It's definitely possible for any healthy adult.

Keep in mind that the 600-1000 number is for "tree age 0" which is a sapling about 6 feet (two meters) tall - the germination/survival rate for planting smaller saplings or seeds is much lower.

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#23

Post by hanniabu »

gantkimthis wrote: post #12
crispsquirrel wrote: post #8

I really want to start planting trees because this planet needs more trees, it's not a joke or some hippy movement, the consequences are real. I just feel like doing so in the UK is a bureaucratic nightmare. Plus buying trees to plant isn't cheap. I might just start saving up for land and planting trees there if I can.

Save up money to buy a farm and grow trees and other plants that you can farm and sell their produce.

Or create a nursery so that others can buy trees from you and you help speed up the growing process and success rate.

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#24

Post by guelo »

pmontra wrote: post #17
jerkstate wrote: post #7

I did a rough spreadsheet some time back based on this 1998 EPA carbon sequestration worksheet [1] and found that an average person from a high carbon output country needs about 600-1000 trees to offset their carbon output. There are about 3 trillion trees for a population of 7 billion people for an average of 428 trees per person, so that means you have to make up the delta of about 172 to 572 trees over the course…

There is one thing that I don't understand. I plant 1000 trees, I sequester the CO2 I create by driving, heating my home and all the activities done by third parties to keep me alive (food, hospitals, etc). But that CO2 is still under the sky and most of it will be released when the trees die. It's not like we're pumping it back into oil fields or coal mines and never see it again. So this 1T trees initiative is a st…

If the tree is harvested for lumber or buried then the CO2 is not released back into the atmosphere

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#25

Post by guelo »

maxencecornet wrote: post #11
jerkstate wrote: post #7

I did a rough spreadsheet some time back based on this 1998 EPA carbon sequestration worksheet [1] and found that an average person from a high carbon output country needs about 600-1000 trees to offset their carbon output. There are about 3 trillion trees for a population of 7 billion people for an average of 428 trees per person, so that means you have to make up the delta of about 172 to 572 trees over the course…

> an average person from a high carbon output country needs about 600-1000 trees to offset their carbon output. This seems really doable for the average person!

Most people don't have acres of land to plant trees in.

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#27

Post by uberman »

jerkstate wrote: post #7

I did a rough spreadsheet some time back based on this 1998 EPA carbon sequestration worksheet [1] and found that an average person from a high carbon output country needs about 600-1000 trees to offset their carbon output. There are about 3 trillion trees for a population of 7 billion people for an average of 428 trees per person, so that means you have to make up the delta of about 172 to 572 trees over the course…

To echo this:

According to: The University of Michigan and NC state:

The average American's footprint is 21 metric tons a year while the average tree absorbs 21 kg a year.

That makes it a ball park of 1000 trees.

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#28

Post by pardavis »

hangonhn wrote: post #6

Slightly tangentially related, for those of us who are into gardening and coding, there is a plant monitor made by Xiaomi called Xiaomi Flower Care that will monitor moisture, light, temperature, and soil fertility. It works over Bluetooth and can be purchased on Amazon for as low as $8 per probe but the vendors will often charge around $25. You see a lot of rebranded ones but they're all the same from Xiaomi. It wor…

Woah. This is awesome! I travel for work and keeping my plants happy has been vicious trial and error with passive auto watering stakes. I've been looking for a convenient sensor package so I don't have to muck around with wires. Jackpot!

There are many raspberry pi projects on reddit for the "microgrowery" community... I recommend having a search. I plan to set up an indoor tomato and herb garden using these methods.

For solenoids, I advise some methods like [1] so that you can connect a cheap and daisy-chainable relay board like [2] via SPI. Then you can control anything.

If you don't want to get down into the 5v to 3.3v mumbo jumbo, it may be easiest to connect an arduino or clone via USB to the raspberry pi. There are bazillions of documented ways to drive relays with an arduino.

[1]: https://www.tansi.org/rp/interfacing5v.html

[2]: https://www.ebay.com/itm/SPI-breakout-board-with-6-relays-fo...

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#29

Post by ptah »

crispsquirrel wrote: post #8

I really want to start planting trees because this planet needs more trees, it's not a joke or some hippy movement, the consequences are real. I just feel like doing so in the UK is a bureaucratic nightmare. Plus buying trees to plant isn't cheap. I might just start saving up for land and planting trees there if I can.

a lot of plants can be propagated from twigs, you don't need to buy more

Re: Tree planting: Where can I do it and which type is best?

#30

Post by SolaceQuantum »

hangonhn wrote: post #6

Slightly tangentially related, for those of us who are into gardening and coding, there is a plant monitor made by Xiaomi called Xiaomi Flower Care that will monitor moisture, light, temperature, and soil fertility. It works over Bluetooth and can be purchased on Amazon for as low as $8 per probe but the vendors will often charge around $25. You see a lot of rebranded ones but they're all the same from Xiaomi. It wor…

With some caution: This works for specific plants only. I'm getting into cacti and other succulents as a hobby and I'm learning that minimal water and minimal soil fertility is actually the desired environment... which means such a monitor wouldn't help me. (This possibly also applies to bonsai- there is several overlapping growing mediums which makes me suspect this is the case.)
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