[Rhodes22-list] alternative energy - poplars

[Robert Skinner]

Saroj Gilbert wrote:
> Interesting Robert... I've been interested in growing hybrid poplars for
> years... and you're actually doing it!  I've heard that they can be cloned
> quite easily from twigs... have you experienced that?

Yes.  that's how I propagate my variant.  In the 
fall, I cut twigs at the point where they measure 
about 3/8", trim them to about 2' long, and put 
them in a bucket of water over the winter, near a 
window.  

When they start to bud out in the spring, 
the rootlets are also forming, and I carefully 
plant them in an 8" pot of good potting soil.  I 
keep them wet while the roots fill out, then in 
late May (last frost up here) I move them outside.  

I actually plant them in the early summer, and 
make sure they get enough water while they get 
their feet down.  I wind up giving some of them 
away.  

Up here, they need to be planted behind
a windbreak or in a grove so that a hard winter
doesn't get them.  I planted two in an open field
before a really cold winter without much snow 
cover, and they died.  Others came through well.

I'm about as far north as this clone will work.
Trees planted in 2003 are now about 15' tall.

I have also cloned contorta willow the same way.
I have a hedge of 10 willows interspersed with
Norway spruce along the back edge of the yard.
the willows came to Maine in 2002 as cuttings,
wrapped in wet paper towel, in a plastic bag,
in a shoebox.  They are now 10' tall, and I've 
been cutting them back every year to make sure 
their trunks were strong.

> Is your friend's truck a diesel? That's the only engine I've heard of that
> can use fry oil... but wondered.

Yup.  Mixes the fry oil with regular diesel.  He's
going with less and less of the regular petroleum
diesel, but starting is a problem in cold weather.

> I wonder about wood pellets... how much energy does it take to make them as
> opposed to sawing and splitting a tree... it seems a bit too yuppy for me...
> although it does manage the issue of not being around to tend the fire...and
> I suppose easier to transport to areas where there isn't an abundance of
> trees... when my family heated a 5 BR house with wood, we installed
> baseboard electric to (a) satisfy the approval powers-that-be and (b) to
> keep the pipes from freezing if we happened to be away during the winter...
> when properly laid it would hold 12 hours on a low flow of air altho that
> isn't great for the stove pipe... esp in our installation which had two
> stories to go through...

It's not just yuppies that buy pellet stoves up here.
As I happen to be working at an outfit that sells
them, I can tell you that buyers are from a wide 
socio-economic slice.

While wood is still a common choice for heating 
up here, that is much more common in the northern 
counties.

Ultimately, boilers that can use grass or wood 
pellets interchangeably will become more common.  
Wood pellets can be made from the byproducts of 
our timber industry, grass pellets can be made 
from almost anything, and both are easier to ship 
than cordwood or bales.

While I currently heat with oil and a fireplace, 
I am watching for the coming economic crossover 
point where installing a different boiler will 
pay for itself.  

There is a trend line for improving alternative 
fuel boilers, another for price reduction due to 
increasing production, another for availability 
of pelletized fuel, and of course, another for 
the geometric increase of oil prices.  I am 
tracking these curves, looking for the knees and 
sweet spots.

While I'd like to see solar, wind, and tidal energy
come to fruition more rapidly, I think they will 
lag carbon fuels.  As a society, we may not 
get serious about CO2 emissions until Palm Beach is
under water, and the Everglades are a memory.

Unfortunately, about that time, I hear that the Gulf
Stream will weaken and Maine's climate will get
colder.  That dire prophesy could be wrong, too.
We watch.

/Robert Skinner