[Image description: an image from the movie Dazed and Confused with text that reads “‘This summer is too hot’. Me: ‘Have you ever planted trees?’ ‘No.’ Me: ‘Be a lot cooler if you did’”
On a related note I planted several chestnut trees yesterday.
I think most of us have a hard time finding anywhere to plant.
If you’re not a landowner, you’ll have to volunteer somewhere, but I’ve looked it up before and there aren’t that many opportunities in my country. The organization in charge of national forests has their own staff for it.
Ironically the best way to get into it here is to join a specific local fuel station chain’s “donate a cent per liter and we match, every 25 cents is a tree” community, which occasionally reaches out to members to help plant all the trees they’ve received donations for. So the easiest way to get to plant trees is to… buy fossil fuels???
That’s a very valid point, and I’ll freely acknowledge that I am privileged enough to have the space to grow and plant trees.
Keep looking for those opportunities, though! I won’t pretend to know the governance of your country, but if there are public spaces in your area there must be people who administer them, and they may be open to planting more trees if the public is behind it.
To be fair, public spaces in my country already have loads of trees in most places. In my city, there’s a park that doesn’t get mowed because they’re letting it grow into a grove. The trees are also very tall and healthy. It’s goddamn beautiful. Incidentally it’s also part of my commute whenever I walk (which depends on how early I manage to wake up, really)
Because of the shadow maybe. But it’s practically impossible to offset the human carbon footprint with trees.
But they really help with microclimates. Shade and evaporation from their leaves make the air a lot cooler under the trees.
They also, through their roots, help water runoff to enter the ground and feed the groundwater table instead of creating erosion or floods.
They help significantly to combat the heat island effect in cities and provide shade and cooler microclimates for people to shelter in when it’s hot.
Just try going to a shady tree-lined path vs. a paved treeless path on a sunny day and you’ll be pretty clear on the meaning of this meme.
So yes we can’t stop global warming with trees alone but we can mitigate the local effects of it all while providing habitat for birds and shade for people and lots of other benefits besides.
This article has a pretty good review if you want to take a look at some of the benefits! https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/12/4371
And here’s a more plain-language website about urban trees: https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/the-power-of-urban-trees-2023
I have two potential routes for one specific part of my journey home from work. One is shaded, the other is not.
The difference in temperature I perceive is MASSIVE. Maybe the difference in air temperature isn’t, but a couple of degrees difference in ambient temp + not having the sun actively microwave me adds up.
All that heat reflecting from the ground isn’t getting you when it’s shaded!
Don’t discount specific area cooling from transpiration, some papers suggest anywhere from .5°C - 4°C differences in temperature when adjusted for shade
That’s what I love about these sapling trees, man. I get older, they stay the same age.
all Ribes all Ribes all Ribes
Tried to plant a hickory. Nursery unfortunately shipped it right at the beginning of the heatwave. Needless to say it did not survive. Gonna try to plant from seed this time, so fingers crossed! Did get a couple of japanese maples in the ground, but they won’t get very big, unfortunatley.
Yeah early-mid summer is about the worst time to plant. I’ve put plants in the ground during the summer but I’m out there watering them nearly every day when it’s this hot, at least for the first few weeks.
I agree that it’s a really difficult time for larger plants to establish and begin supporting themselves. One thing I’ve found helpful, and that I tell everyone receiving one of our plants during the season, is to water more deeply and less frequently to promote the kind of root growth that will provide better resilience during dry and/or hot periods
That’s unfortunate timing =/
Locally collected seed should give you a leg up getting them growing, especially if you’re overwintering and starting them with rodent protection. I don’t have a positive ID on the hickories I’ll be transplanting this fall but would be happy to send some if you’re stateside and interested
Thanks for the offer! I was actually able to collect quite a few nuts locally last year. Was eating them but still have a number left over to try and plant.
Keep 'em moist and cool - the back of the refrigerator is better than the freezer. The books I have don’t have figures for cold stratification beyond 3 months but doing that can increase germination by up to 80 percent.
Don’t want to gush technical stuff at you if you don’t want or need it, especially in a meme thread, but I will gladly geek out and answer whatever I can for you
Aye aye cap’n! 🫡
Just one question: any experience with growing very taprooty trees in pots? I’m trying to figure out how long I’d be able to get away with growing in a pot before I would have to plant (deepest grow bag I can find is 15" deep) so I can time things correctly, but I can only find info on trunk growth rates.
The deepest ones I’ve got experience with are about 14" deep, with a top of 2" square tapering to a 1.5" square at the bottom - theoretically, you could get away with growing in those for up to a full season but you’ll have to worry about encircling roots and the trees may experience difficulty during transplanting if something isn’t done to free them from that shape. Wider grow bags would definitely give you a buffer in that they’ll have more room for the lateral roots, but many of the ones I’ve tried wick moisture from the substrate so you may need to devote additional time to watering.
Something we’ve had good success with is the use of air prune boxes (apologies for the self plug but it’s something to which I have quick access), which do limit the length of the taproots during the time in the box but substantially increase the amount of fibrous roots the trees will grow. Once transplanted, the taproots will resume normal growth behavior. Here’s an introductory article about them from someone other than me writing for Mother Earth News. We grow a number of woody plants in air prune boxes for a full growing season, at which point we remove them and either plant or ship them during the fall and early winter. I can’t recommend them enough, but it’s important that you choose the method that will work best for your circumstances, time, and means.
“But they drop leaves in the yard and that’s messy!”
Ok?
“And then I have to rake the leaves up!!”
Why?
“Because that’s what you’re supposed to do!”
Why?
Brain has BSOD
You gotta mulch the he’ll outta that free sweet sweet leaf fertilizer.
Oh, god damn. Took me far too long to get it, then I laughed my arse off.
a single person planting trees would be cool but it wouldn’t be cooler, you need a lot of trees
In terms of reducing CO2 levels, yeah, but trees do also help cool down locally by simply providing shade and also because they evaporate water, which is an endothermic process.
Welp the tree I planted in my yard last year is dying from the heat now … Got on that too late I guess. I might try a cactus next.
That stinks …
Are you able to give it long soaking waterings, or possibly even shade it for part of the day? We’ve done this for some of our trees that were really affected by drought conditions two years ago with good results.
