Sissoo Trees Revisited

I was delivering one, 24 inch diameter stick of pipe this morning to what turned out to be a nursery  - a tree nursery at that.  Imagine my delight - I love trees and looking at those 25 foot tall pine trees in boxes, ready to be transported wherever - amazing.  I mean there were a LOT of those trees sitting there.

I was talking with the guy that was receiving the pipe - he basically runs this nursery, doesn't own it but he is responsible for the daily operations.  He said the economic downturn? At one point those trees would have been worth upwards of 4k, now I could snag one for a grand.  That quickly turned that switch to the off position for me, I am not spending $1,000 on a tree plus the cost to have it planted in the ground.

We got on the topic of Sissoo trees and he was all over that.  Amazing, wonderful tree, he exclaimed.  I said I had at least 20 of them growing on my property - probably more like 30 but whatever - and saw that they grow up to 40 feet.  Oh nooooo, he states, they will grow MUCH taller than that.  He stated that about 5 years ago, the Sissoo was imported to this area and became instantly popular.  He also stated that in about 10 years, those trees were going to be mammoths.  No-one has seen any of them around here that big, yet, he continued, because they are new to the Phoenix area.

Ohhhhh.  "Expect those trees in your yard to eventually grow to 80 or 90 feet tall".  What?!!!  "Water them well and often and they will grow enormous". Hmmm, well that got me searching.  One source states they can grow up to 82 feet, but usually don't get that big.  Yes, the pics that I have seen show them around 40 to 50 feet.  Even that is a pretty good sized tree and imagine having 30 of them growing on one, single property!

The wood is apparently valuable as well.  It is prized for, supposedly anyway, making furniture with.

The idea that this property will one day have these huge, giant trees all over - and I do mean all over, I planted them on both side, the front and rear of the property - and I won't own the property yet I did ALL of that work to get them and get them planted?  Doesn't set well with me.  I spent a lot of time, effort and money getting all of this in on my property.  Some of those Sissoos are around the 16/17 foot tall range right now. Others much shorter but growing.

Interesting conversation on a dirt road, out in the boonies in Chandler, AZ today.