Utilization of Cottonwood Plantations

C. Jeffrey Portwood, James River Timber Corporation, Fitler Managed Forest

INTRODUCTION

Cottonwood plantation management is utilized by James River to secure a continuous supply of fiber to the St. Francisville Mill in Zee, Louisiana.

Fitler Managed forest (FMF) land base consists of 15,000 ha fee and leased lands along the Mississippi River, stretching from just north of Vicksburg at Fitler, Mississippi to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Total cottonwood plantation acreage consists of 8,000 ha.

The majority of this land is located in the flood prone batture areas along the river. Soil types are all of the alluvial classification. They contain high levels of nutrients and are well supplied with moisture. They range from well drained to poorly drained.

Stand establishment

Site preparation begins once all slash, stumps, and other debris have been removed from site. Equipment such as the Caterpillar Challenger 65 tractor (210 kW) are used to pull an Amco disk with 81 cm "Scalloped Pans". This procedure is performed two times. A smaller (68 kW) tractor is used to lay off and mark rows 3.7 m apart, usually running the shortest distance of a field. After marking is complete, subsoiling begins running perpendicular to marking trenches, using a "Straight-Shank", 7.6 cm wide and 53.3 cm long. This trench will fill with siltation into which cuttings will be planted.

FMF currently has 18 operational clones that are all of improved genetic crosses of Deltoids. The cottonwood nursery is located at Fitler, MS and produces 1 million cuttings each year. The nursery is planted on 97 cm row spacings and 20 cm inter-row spacing. At harvest cottonwood shoots reach 3.0 to 4.6 m in height.

Delimbing begins in late November, then harvest, bundling, cutting into 46 cm cuttings for hand planting.

Hand planting begins in December. Hand planting is preferred over machine plantings due to wet soil conditions that exist during winter months. Production per man ranges from 3.2 to 4.0 ha per person per day, or 3,020 cuttings. Cuttings are planted 36 cm deep in the subsoiled trench.

VEGETATIVE CONTROL

A pre-bud break herbicide for residual control of early annual herbaceous vegetation is applied on a1.8 m band during February. This chemical will give 3 months control before breaking-down. Bud break usually occurs in early March.

A post directed herbicide combination is used for contact kill of emerged weeds and residual for germinating weed seed. This application is made when trees reach 0.6 to 0.9 m in height, directed to the lower 15 cm of the tree.

Overhead sprays are used in control of weeds such as Johnson Grass.

MECHANICAL CULTIVATION

Intense mechanical cultivation begins in mid-May after herbicides have dissipated. This is done using 68 kW tractors equipped with front-mounted field cultivators and pulling a 3 m disk in middles. Cultivation aids in weed control, aeration, and building soil around the base of trees. Two to three cross cultivations are usually necessary.

Less intense cultivation is needed in year 2 of growth. One cross cultivation only is used, aiding in nutrient release, aeration and moving root systems deeper into the soil.

GROWTH

After the 2nd year cultivation is complete, no other means of weed control is necessary through harvest. Rotation age is generally 8 to 10 years depending on soil type. Yields range from 148 to 173 green tons per ha. Average DBH is 20 to 25 cm, height 24 to 27 m.

HARVEST

A John Deere 643 D shear is used to fell trees. The Cat 518 Grapple Skidder is used to transport trees to a logging dump, where they are backed through a delimbing gate. A Prentice 210 knuckleboom loads tree lengths onto a pole trailer, which is trucked to Kings Woodyard. Kings functions as a transfer facility. The trees are then slashed to 1.5 m lengths, loaded on railcars, and shipped to the St. Francisville Mill in Zee, Louisiana.

MILL

Each pulpwood stick is run through a drum debarking system and ground in pressurized grinders. The mill end product is communication papers.

CONCLUSION

Much progress has been accomplished in cottonwood plantation management over the past 20 years, although there is much more to be learned about cottonwood culture. Our research needs are many and vital to the continued success in short rotation intense culture plantation management.

File posted on March 5, 1996; Date Modified: February 21, 1999