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A Total Forest Management Plan
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Platanus occidentalis
Dutrow and Saucier (1976) found that short-rotation sycamore production for energy woods, pulp, and reconstituted wood was profitable (with cost controls and marketing, at least compared to agricultural crops, a faulty comparison since the same lands are unlikelt to be used) on good sites, with wide spacing of stems and cutting cycles of 4-5 years. New interest in specialty mulches may suggest alternative uses of the crop.Old sycamores are especially important for riparian protection, generating the fauna feeding stream species, and bird and mammal nesting.
Sycamores grow best in well-aerated soil, silt loam, fertile, mildly acid to mildly alkaline, with some water in the root zone.
Dry weight yields of 7200 pounds per acre (3- year cycle with 2 x 5 foot spacing) may be expected. (Kennedy 1975). Older stems have more solid wood, less bark. Dry weights are 41 to 46% of the total weights probably the higher number).
Future stem qulaity selection should be for diameter and height, not limb characteristics (Ferguson et al. 1977)
Harvest in winter when nutrients are in the roots; spacing of 4 x 4 feet seems best; harvest at 4-5 years. Too frequent harvests causes growth to decline. Fertilize with sewage and mill wastes. Seven coppice cuts seems feasible without major growth loss. In 1976, at $10 per ton, the sycamore compared favorably with the value of grain sorghum in annual net return per acre. Oats and soybeans at the time were 2 time more profitble.
References
Dutrow, G.F. and J.R. Saucier. 1976. Economics of short-rotation sycamore, Southern Forest Experiment Station, USDA Forest Service, Res. Paper SO-114, New Orleans. La 16pp.
Ferguson, R.B., S.B. Land, and D.T. Cooper. 1977. Inheritance of growth and crown character in American sycamore. Silvae Genetica 26(5-6): 180-182.
Kennedy, H.E. Jr. 1975. Influence of cutting cycle and spacing on coppice sycamore yield. USDA For. Serv, Res Note SO-193, South, For. Exp. Sta., New Orleans, 3p.
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Last revision July 13, 2001.